Still in the Calm

The onshore breeze chimes
through broad leafed trees
with sound like a wave
curling to shore;
tender light,
the sound of a bird,
something resting
still in the calm,
ready to awaken
as the deep sea rises.

***

Keeping Faith

The path is long
with steep grades
and sharp angles.
What waits at the top
but more mountains
and the certainty
of climbing.

***

One River

Gathered within
like water in the earth
the underground river
flows in silence;
the current
of all that lives
in the mystery of time.
One river, one life,
ten thousand faces.

photograph by Patrick Orleman

The morning is white
as if nothing were written
on the tattered parchment,
as if sky awaited
new color, new clouds,
new waves on the ocean,
new trees to break open
in shining green,
all of it new
and you
sitting here with me,
what will we write
on the blank tablet
of the world?

This is my time,
before the flood
and rising water,
before the wind
and shaking trees,
alone in the dark
listening to the silence,
gathering what I am
into a soft bundle
of prayer.

Cold and wet
feel like home
in the spring passage;
clouds piling against the mountains,
the quiet mauve of plum leaves,
above the streets a gaudy pink.
Why don’t I color
like the cherry blossom?
Does the earth bear a deeper joy
even when suffering?
The hard task
is to lay open the heart
like the flowering trees,
to dig down into the earth
and lift our faces
to whatever the sky will bring.