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.
Say the Goodbye
Wind drives up from the south against the ebbing tide, the surface chalked with waves. I look out from the cabin until the hour comes to leave for the dock. Time for another goodbye, constant as the rain and about as welcome. Shaped by the moon I seem to empty again and again and wonder […]
Scraped Bare
Hollow as a reed, empty of the hoard, wealth of silence, rock of faith. Live this life with thirst, scraped bare for the rising.
Stars Beneath the Earth
We should brighten up, move forward, give up what’s dead and past except what’s dead isn’t past, their stories like buried stars within the darkened earth. When we dig that ground up come vampires, saints, martyrs and their killers as we unravel their knots, sort their tangled skeins into smooth threads to weave our coats […]
More than Temperature
Across the channel wind driven waves push against flood tide under dark cloud and threat of rain. Snow covers the highlands holding back the summer, kin to the ice within hardened and unmoving. I feel you across the water, gray wave, darkened depth and the cold a wall between us refusing to be breached. More […]