Veins of Joy
Standing like a tree in autumn, rain in my face with light fading, I search down into my roots, wondering if the veins of joy will gift me again. Those lonely people in their thatched roof cottages, the rail thin boy walking the roads with a stream of dumb cattle, sleeping in the rain, hungry […]
Behind the Gate
Fog settles on the valley as autumn fades, leaves turn and fall in the time of letting go. I sit warm by the fire, at peace in the change like an old monk, preferring the calm, the descent into root. The world calls this empty, the slow slip into darkness, yet here in the quiet […]
Deep Rock Island
The night is a mystery with tides swelling past in dark shadow, Mars a red pearl shining, the dew so heavy each blade of grass beads luminescent. The trees awake with sun gone down, sharing knowledge with the stars. I could drop into the sea, wrap myself in darkness or journey with the trees to […]
Search for Joy
I searched for joy, I did, sometimes in the wrong places and some that held a measure. I searched in the sorrow of what passed and painful births of what was to come. The trees gave to me in their unheard voices, as did the streams and rock strewn hills. I thought I’d find it […]
Woven Together
The weight shifts, the stone of grief lifts for breath. Stories of sorrow press the earth as lights come on across the city and dawn tints the sky. We are many yet in our pain we are one, one family of the poor and wretched, the rich and famous, woven like cloth by our joy […]
Like a River
Grief runs like a river beneath thin layers of sand and stone, carrying stories of pain and failed hope to an ocean of silence. The great heart of the world includes this ocean and river pulsing with rhythms of sorrow and new life born again in the garden of the gods. […]
Drink the Rain
Breathing more easily the rain soaked ground sheds the dull brown of summer for a pale hint of green. Arising like Lazarus mosses come alive with fir and madrone; the slow patter on our roof peaceful as a lullaby. There is no altar but the earth, no religion that returns us like a cloud filled […]
Under the Miller’s Wheel
Who am I fooling, the earth broke me, ground me like winter wheat for the coarsest bread. “Grind some more” I said with bravado and the earth was glad to oblige, to pass me under the miller’s wheel until fine-sifted flour. “Now make me food for all that lives,” and again the earth was glad […]
Candles
Certain only of uncertainty I browse the rooftops with black feathered crows, seeking sustenance among the ignored and forgotten. The ancient temple in ruins, the one to be a dim-lit dream, yet within on the altar of the forever now shine a thousand candles, lit by untold prayers of thankfulness. […]
Bearing Point
Amidst the passing cars and rush of doing there is silence, a bearing point to comfort and guide. Look up from your footsteps, beyond the troubled horizon. That soft light in the distance, it is for you.
Born in the Eyes
No tears this morning, no wonderings like fallen leaves, only a delicate sense whole and alive in the cool air as smoke clears and fires dampen. We ride the tides of pulse and change, yet there is harbor, a peace that rests in silent earth, within each wave, to hold gently what may come and […]
Now Here
Sunlight filters through late summer trees, the dry earth brown as a doe. A bird calls in the distance, the soft buzz of life in the wood where roots descend to moisture. Nootka roses glow in green, seals calf their young and the earth slow breathes as the August moon approaches. There’s haze on the […]
Language of the Night
Trees reach up to the starlit wheel, speaking to distant worlds from the solitude of Earth. Our loneliness, our fears, our faith in new life born upon the open sea, from the parched ground. The stars speak back, brilliant in the night sky, of communion and distance with the intensity of light. Down to the […]
One Life
Here in the presence morning light speaks on a soft breeze through the open window – we are one life, connected as the leaves of the plum tree, thankful to the root.
River of Life
As the sacred seal opens ancient power flows, forms that emerge thin outlines of the rising force. Long furrows of the dead and yet to be born wait for the quickened touch of the here and now to break the chains of time. Vultures carve winged forms in the clouded sky, creatures pause within the […]