Above the rain wet valley
grey and black clouds swirl,
the sun burning through
to light another day.
The land’s desire
rising along root,
up leaf and branches
into the cool spring air
as flowering trees
blanket the ground
with fallen color.
Hunger for new life
awake from winter sleep
lifts from the dark soil,
climbing evergreen towers
and spread by dark-winged crows.
The urge to freedom
long-held beneath the ground
floating now like fertile pollen
broad across the earth.

photograph by Will Hornyak

Reaching down into the old earth
to loosen the moorings
of the time driven world,
we follow the roots
of what may yet be
into the dark loam of potential.
Not into the battlefield
where many serve,
but into the mystery, to seek
the solace of the long forgotten,
to retrieve a life beyond despair
that waits beneath the kivas
of the silent guardians.
The new Jerusalem,
an image in the distance
not shaped by human hands,
inviting us to release the predictable
and venture into the unknown.

encaustic painting by Eilish Hynes @touchthenexus

Bread and wine,
a crown of thorns,
lies of judgement
and lonely walk.
To carry a cross
and know betrayal
the mortal road
yet the cherry tree
blossoms
and throughout
the earth
a risen life
in green and gold
bathes our longing eyes
with the beauty
once again
of morning.

Wet with spring rain
silence rises
into the quarantine
of isolation.
As outer noise quiets
the sound of songbirds,
a few friendly faces.
We smile as we pass,
the separation
connecting us,
the hardship
common ground.
We may find ourselves
in this silence,
who we are and who
we might yet be;
bridging the distance,
again there will be joy.

photograph by Edward Curtis