Wanting to Give Birth
Loden green moss and gray bark mark the trees, gathering rain and mists of fog as winter settles in with cold comfort. I rise from the dream time to rivers running full, carrying mountain messages to the ocean bar, telling the great sea what lies beneath those peaks, ready to awaken when the gods call. […]
Murder Incorporated
On Seventh Avenue near the crossing with Sandy Boulevard, thousands of crows fill the street trees, line the rooftops, the power lines, every pole and perch in sight. Crows are flocking to Portland, crossing every border. They like our progressive politics, the entrepreneurial business climate for crows are innovators, dressed in mod black, always in […]
Fisher of the Dark
I throw a line into the dark, the only bait hunger and a sense of what waits in the last hours of night. There are tugs on the line, then a bite, a face from the dreamtime, something to satisfy my soul’s craving. I pull you in, remembering how we fought and danced in the […]
Breadcrumbs on a Trail
I walk alone from the dark night leaving behind tormented dreams. Why trouble over details when the house is on fire? The soul needs solitude and silence like a creature food and water. Shouting across barricades, fists high in the air, do you wonder whose world this might be? So convinced of agency that morning […]
Crow Medicine
The black body of crow sits heavy on a leafless branch surveying the street with dark inquisitive eyes. A low winter sun slowly burns off the fog, lighting the gray city with hints of warmth. The colors of autumn have dropped to the earth, the palette of winter here for the season of rain. When […]
Cave of Winter
Cold as fog the soul of the earth descends to wet darkness, taking the color of leaves and smell of grass to the cave of winter for the deep sleep of renewal.
Song Line
Down the river canyon water flows on and on from mountain lake through desert rifts of lava and ponderosa pine. Beside the rapids I hear the music, the sound of water over glistening rock, holding the magic of time unbroken. Out of that cradle the new earth is born down through the ages again and […]
When the Dust Settles
You can’t judge your life from the floor of the coliseum. You deal with what comes through the iron doors. You hear the cheering, the boos, the chants for your elimination. You have the memory of loyalties, love beyond reckoning, dreams gone up in smoke. When the dust settles, the noise of the crowd dissolved […]
Song for the Children
Sunlight angles from the south brightening the last autumn leaves, Earth folding in her beauty, sending trees back to root, laying down winter blankets, freshening every river and stream. We’re children, busy about our games, chalking pavement, skipping rope, the grownup Earth too large, too old. East of the mountains, the land brown and rough […]
Moon Gone Dark
In early morning hours with dawn a blush, moon rises in the east, cloudless skies, a sliver of light. I watch her go dark quarter to eighth to this last slice before departing for days of rest. I feel that time, light slowly receding, draining idle thoughts and difficult dreams. Then the coda of rest, […]
Night Gift
Flooded with moonlight the bay lay rippled with soft northerly wind, the sound of owls echoing in the forest. Her beauty spread upon the lonely shore a gift in the quiet night to any who might awake in these dark hours.
These Gathered Wings
Spirited away in the dark night, I travelled to distant lands, other times of strange expectation. I return tired, the night work taking more than day. Crows circle in the morning wind, the light of the sun a golden streak on the rippling sea. Always the going and return, my heart wants rest, to come […]
B Flat Blues 🎶
Before first light trucks clang on the street, the noise of traffic, a glimmer in the east. Wind stirs the trees, hints of yellow showing in the slow turn toward autumn. I’m ready to let go the burden, the many faces of might have been, and take heart in the morning. The B flat blues […]
Marrow and Bone
The way you travel on the time bound planet, to follow or not the deeply rutted road or find yourself in a dark wooded valley unknown to everyone but yourself. When stripped down to marrow and bone, the only resource what you harvest from within, stay with the river, wear down your boots; remember freedom […]
Path of Gold
I haven’t turned with the trees, holding back against cold air and blanketing clouds. Not wanting winter rest nor root darkness I struggle for light as the sun moves south before the rain and darkened cave. Holding on, yet knowing I will follow the path of gold to the waiting earth. […]