Night World
By day the light upon water is brilliant and bright, securing the outlines of what is safe and real. by night, now shimmering the moon invites you deeper; everything trembles in this light, speaking through shadows. If I had the courage I’d live in the night wonder, walking forest paths with slivers of silver breaking […]
Light Quickening
The sound of your voice lifts the autumn wind, a golden light quickening, as the almost dead rise from their obsession into dew-soaked grass, trembling with life.
Third Way
When wind and sea collide a third way will be found, of eddy line beside jagged rock, where water shapes a counter flow to release the conflict. We tell our stories in black and white, yes or no, yet in the way of water there are many paths of current and choice. Learning to yield […]
Challenging the Sun
The stories can be harsh in the pervading gray of concrete and rumbling thrum of traffic. The young dad with a jitterbug son, waving his arms to the sky, while dad pushes sister, the treasury of hope on stroller wheels skittering over the ribbed sidewalk. The manic boy juiced on sugar, proclaiming ecstasy like a […]
At the Heart of the World
At the heart of the world an altar pulsing light, crucibles of fire where the stories of Earth rise with fragrant incense into streams of compassion, nourished by a single life and all its mystery.
Ancient Well
There is a well older than the earth; when I fail this depth is my nourishment. I know the animal in strength, the tooth and claw of many wars, and the way my arms can wrap an innocent heart filled with grief. The way to understand is to travel within, to discover the frightening possibilities […]
Further Shore
Over the unbroken fetch the southerly breeze
raises the channel in wind driven swells
Kathleen
Tribute to Kathleen Cecil, wife and mother, teacher and artist, inspiration to many.
Portion Left Behind
I left part of me on the island, a shard of soul wedded to the immovable, standing against the gray fog crawling up the channel, buried in cool mist. More rock than flesh, more gull cry than voice, I hear it far away, feel it in my wandering feet, reminding me of what must be […]
Full Tide of Her Presence
The sea is a flowing gown diaphanous and filled with light; behind her subtle movements a touch of all that was intended in a moment of extraordinary birth. Beneath the surface, within a seed clothed by the fruit, the eminence of all this life will be when the old hunger dissolves, and the full tide […]
Beyond Certainty
The old ones knew direction, charting their course from an inner map rich with silence. Awake to the night, traveling with the moon, they found distant islands beyond the grasp of certainty. I ask for their guidance as I set out on the morning, feeling their comfort with the unformed unknown.
One Night Soon
One night soon I will follow the moon’s path
across the wide channel and over the islands
threaded like rosary beads
Every Sign and Signal
Let the river wash me, the moss and brown duff soften my footprint, the flicker of bird wings quiet desire. Moonlight paints the land in a silver unseen ‘til I rise and enter the night. Clouds boil through the valley, trees awash with summer rain; every sign and signal given.
Receiving the Pulse
The incoming waves gather in forceful pulse, yet when vision softens to the breadth before shore, long fingers of desire appear beneath oncoming wave. Reaching out from tree and rock with passionate welcome for the incoming flow, drawing color and sound to the roots of the land. The earth filling with ocean as she reaches […]
Rich Vein of Silence
The water lies still between dark and first light, without dawn’s warmth to raise the wind. In that quiet space the movement toward morning a rich vein of silence.