Steps Like Thunder
Life encircles like a necklace of fire, unwilling that I should escape or hide in isolation, speaking through pain and the mysteries of sleep, each day like another as if someone were dreaming. Then suddenly the Self emerges, ten thousand years assured. Gently He awakes yet His steps are like thunder. The knife in my […]
Holy Dark
Clear sky at dawn with a waxing moon, the stark branches of winter emptying, letting go of the green for descent into the holy dark. Releasing faith and its tribunals for blessed peace, as seeds soften in the wet ground, awaiting the fire of our surrender.
Altar of the World
The altar of the world takes our sacrifice, each generation stacked like kindling on the stone slab, struck by lightning afire and burning. Signal in the silent dark that the struggle will continue, and there is hope.
Impossible Beauty
The color green in morning light, black wings against blue sky, leaves burned gold with the shock of a photograph. Her body rises through concrete, speaks in wind and cloud, her dreams and loss, the impossible beauty of a bird.
When Night Comes
The branches are bare after the scouring wind, just a few strays left against the blue sky in the slant of sunlight after the long storm. Winter is coming, days shorten and long dreams begin their approach. When night comes we find our way close to the fire, the flames speaking of what’s hidden as […]
The Wedding
Ireland, 1874 “We want you to marry us Father.” What cheek the priest thought sitting there with a baby in her lap, asking me to marry them. “I’ll need to hear your confession first.” The man flinched, not raising his head; rough hands kneading his cap, twisting it like rope. “I’m not sorry for anything,” […]
What It is to be Human
This is how it will be – a ripple or wave upon the water, light bending through ochre leaves, the sound of an owl in the night as we understand what is to pass and what may continue laid out before us. The body so hungry it will not eat, wanting how she held us […]
Searching the Deep
The sound of the whale burst from the channel with a powerful AAHH, its water spout blown into the open sky, then a loud gasp, and rounding roll, fluke up and curving back into the cold, solitary hunter searching the deep for what would rise and glory in the day. […]
One Timeless Touch Video
for my sister Regina Video, narration and photography by Don Hynes
One Timeless Touch
for Regina What comes of our being together those few hours then parted into the dark, untethered, floating like birds on a blasting wind. Searching into the unknown for one moment of certainty, one timeless touch on the grounding shore of a wave cast sea.
Dream Bridges Video
Dream Bridges
Then one morning it was done, the cloud cover complete except for a peep hole in the east with a few rays to remind us the sun would still be here when winter had run its course. The sea became a beautiful gray, the forest floor damp and musty with mushrooms growing in near-light as […]
What the Earth Will Write
The tides move slowly in October, sea changes mild and quiet, rolled out and back like a soft cloth draped over calm water. Even the birds go silent as the autumn sun slants with the message of winter, peace turning down and in as we rest from our troubles this one year, letting go to […]
Speak with Desire
With the curiosity of a seal I stand above the emerald water looking down at thousands of tiny fish breaking surface in rippling circles. The tide slowly lifts in the afternoon sun, the last days of warmth before the coming rain, a blanket that will soon cover us through long months of growing dark, and […]
Autumn Fire
Waters turn gray as the skies close and the first breath of autumn enters from the south with light wind and cool air. Gulls speak to the change, crying awake to the stirring sea, tall fir and madrone gathering the signal to descend and let go as the fire begins to light, the rush of […]