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 […]
Speaking in Tongues
The old man’s shell cracks thick as a tombstone, hard as walnut, hungry for the green wave. With tears of desire his white arms reach, uncoiling, irresistible, speaking in tongues, searching for God.
They Carried the Weight

Old stones fall from weather and age, the call of the earth drawing them down after long standing. Vines reach up to soften their decline in the healing descent. Don’t judge why they stood or their reasons for going, they carried the weight until they could no more. Look for what rises from the depth […]
Here and Now

Nowhere to go, no time to get there, only here and now and the bright light of morning. Who we are rises like islands in the sea to comb the grasslands and dance with the animals, lightning on our fingertips, kindness in our eyes.