Written Across the Sky
Light in the east carves an opening in the mass of clouds, checking the rain with a sign the storm may soon break. We will yet suffer, have to carry through this dark night, but in the end the sun will rise and we will find ourselves in sight of the green land. Noah will […]
Song of Life
I offer silence on the altar of the earth, preferring assurance to foolish talk. I’ve known confusion and lost the will to live, but found strength from voices beyond time, and in the blessings of the green world. Silence is not absence, rather the presence of a knowing in the flight of hummingbird, and the […]
Bell Without Sound
“We are masters of the universe” the cartoon heroes declare, “fighting for truth and justice.” Rabbits don’t seem impressed as they nibble away on the rain soaked grass. Outside the hall of mirrors I watch with the tide and wait upon the wind. Quietly my friend, let’s pick our way on the stone littered path […]
Prepare for the Mountain
Looking within I find seasoned wood split and ready for the pyre. I throw in with heretics daring immolation, snow monks melting ice with silence. The inner fire grows hot as more of myself turns into flame, heat preparing me for the distant mountain. […]
Prairie Winds
I know the remorse of an aging man, the plague of choices I might have made, worn faces risen as ambition failed and loneliness became my comfort. I hear your voice from another world, your face refreshed by dreams. I reach out but there is no flesh, only the essence of your fair-skinned beauty free […]
From the Deep Well
Closed in under dense clouds I shelter from the rain drumming on the cabin roof, my soul drunk with peace from the deep well of silence. Reading of “From the Deep Well” with music by Norm Smookler
Space for the Forgotten
Chanting terror-filled rants, cries of the insane echo on early morning streets, riffling in the detritus of cans and bottles on their painful hejira through the wastes of chaos. No one answers their incantation, yet within reach silent trees rise from cubicles of hardened dirt to find air and sunlight above the voices of the […]
Feeding on Moonlight
I awoke to the moonrise in morning darkness with amber light on the sea. Something in me longed to awaken, to visit the beauty few would witness. Daylight comes and I share the sun but keep the night glory hidden in my soul. Rabbits and geese tear at spring grass while I feed on moonlight, […]
House of Being
The sound of wind through the trees in a soft rushing wave awakens the forest in the bright light of morning. The tide travels back filling the coves and beaches, refreshing the creatures that cling to the rocks and in burrows below the sand. Do you hear the calling, how silence beckons with the wind […]
Rushing Tide
From caverns beneath the cold ground ancient voices stir and ghost dancers move their tireless feet to the pulse of earth music. Above and below urge us on to cross the waters of time, toward the grail that holds the lost truths of our mysterious birth. Into the rain we stumble clawing on our oilskin […]
Fool for April
The sound of gulls, of raven, crow and nesting geese in their morning cloche… then silence. Silence like gravity holding the earth with the weight of time. Silence the currency of the guardians, opening vision to wind on the water, the hunger for light. Silence in the writing of invisible touch, erased then scored again […]
Mail Boat
Early morning under clear skies, I load our trash and a few tools onto the Mail Boat and ride the channel with the pilot and a passenger to Deer Harbor. The old boat putts along in the slow diesel stroke of an earlier time before the rush of horsepower. The sea softly rolls in light […]
We May Rise
The tree that grew on the hills above Jerusalem was cousin to the juniper growing here on this rock shelf above the Salish Sea. Stately furrows, roots like cable, branches bearing delicate spindles to capture the rain and light of this spring day. We cut and shape these trees as we did that one on […]
Rope of Stillness
I sit quite still becoming like the trees in deep-rooted silence. There is an old song in the hushed music of the earth, of ancient stone, rustling leaves and forest dreaming. I climb the vine covered walls using stillness as a braided rope and drop like a cat into the garden of the eternal. […]
Finding Faith
I count the days under cloud filled skies as the long arms of winter slowly recede. My hope like raindrops falling to the wet ground, finding faith in the dark soil for what surely rises. Reading of “Finding Faith” with music by Carlos […]