Tying Sea to Stone
The stone feet of the island rest in the sea, their grass skins glistening at low tide. The winds have calmed after yesterday’s storm, stillness replacing the rush of air and breaking wave. Supported by earth I sit with the old ones to search for new stories, dreaming of fire and cold water’s brace. I […]
Tracing Mysteries
There’s always more to do, the world wanting your attention, hurry now before the circus leaves town. All that you are not quite enough with the elephants to watch and the ladies in tights. The midway barkers shout try your luck, here’s your chance, yet beyond the fairgrounds in a green slice by the river […]
Walks in Moonlight
Ripe and full the harvest moon rises casting shadows from the trees lifted to the star wheel. No loneliness or garish glare, just silver glow and silence. Orion signals winter coming yet still there is warmth and the sweetness of corn. The winds will pick up bringing early storms, rain again to soak the land […]
Stone Faces
Grey water and light wind, the distant call of a gull. The weight of these times with me as I settle into the silence once more, the presence of the sea deep and unmoving. The old voices are with me, tired of the world, the many broken places, and something else rising from within to […]
Preparing Witness
He turns to rise with the sun at the far edge of the world, no temple or towering buddha, just the lonely sound of garbage trucks and smoke choked skies, preparing witness for what will come.
Eyes to the East
The voice like an airhorn buffets the country with meaningless sounds, the swaggering gait of ignorance futile against mounting crises. Up has long been down in the prison yard of violence, combing the shadows for answers while real light lays beyond, outside their cold encampments where seekers rest in moonlight, sharpening their tools against the […]
Connecting the Thread
Connecting the thread from the dimly lit present back through the darkened past to the ancient forgotten, before the slain, the hardened earth, what comes alight is new to time, unburdened by mortal weight. Pale green and fresh as a leaf, unprecedented as the rising sun, true to life and nothing else the unbidden seeps […]
Holding Her Sorrow
Fire rages down the dry slopes, years of sunlight lift in choking smoke, falling as ash blanketing the valley. The sun dull orange we reach into the burn for the ark within the flames, to find and be the solace while the old earth cleanses, holding her sorrow, her trembling hands as she weeps for […]
Preparation
Thankfulness for the morning sky then silence carving inner space, hollow bone, empty reed, ready for heaven and earth to make their music.
Riverkeepers
Winding through the broad valley the Willamette runs north, the aorta of country life pulsing through the earth. The life most know fuels along the highways, the roar of cars and fast pace. Falling from the mountains the river can be white and rapid but through the vast farmlands the run is leisurely and deliberate, […]
Solace of This World
Out along the line of trees leaves riffle in the morning breeze as the sun slowly rises bringing heat to the valley. Cars flow down the avenue, people intent on their drive to work; more heat off the asphalt, music plays, the white noise of news. In the mix of the city, ingredients added, stirred […]
Time Bound Links
Along a mountain trail beside the Clackamas, buried in wooded beaches rimming the Columbia, lying in high dunes between Sand Lake and the Pacific you left fragments of your soul remaining in time. I find the shards embedded in earth. Picking them up, desiccated and brittle, I recall the days of their making; weightless, I […]
Poverty of the Pilgrim
The ocean lifts its skirts to follow the moon and across the inland sea a great wave of water empties. Running like a river toward the opening void the bays and coves throw themselves into the chase, the vast expanse giving up its wealth for the poverty of the pilgrim. I toss my importance into […]
Finding Some Comfort
I wake up with the world, climbing out of the dream into the freshening wind. The tide is already rushing, seabirds busy on the rocks, a lone seal fishing in the current. The day won’t wait for me which helps defeat gravity once more, light the gas stove with fuel that’s come ten thousand miles, […]
Satellite
Avoiding the mass, afflicted by crowds, isolate and internal I circle the beloved, an orbiting satellite without friction or gravity in the silence of space, surrounded by stars yearning for home.