Dance of Spirits
When I awoke the wind had come about with a bright moon shining, the sea racing south on the wind driven ebb. The fierce flow of energy traced on the waves like a dance of spirits in love with the night and all things living, while the people slept and the earth was free to […]
Wet Embrace
When it rains on the island there is wholeness in the water-soaked air, my body at home in the wet embrace of gray sky and low clouds, rain dripping from the eaves.
Something Like Joy
I slept through most of the big wind, tall trees swaying like grass, rain lashing the cabin dark. In the morning no motion, the ocean’s mood changed in a heartbeat; leaves so still they could be sleeping. Asleep or awake the earth goes on, the tide ebbing once more, yet something has changed. The delicate […]
World Almost New
When the storm passed light awakened the coastline gray and shrouded, sharp with detail. The cabins, the old dock, even the gulls in flight, bathed in a world almost new; as if sorrow were over and we could begin again.
Waiting in the Shadows
Poetry is a private affair born from the dark in the embrace of silence; no one around to watch, just me and a few words waiting in the shadows, loitering in the dark like hungry lovers.
Keeper of the Circle
(for my grandmother) Julia kept the circle, her love against the chaos of the genie from his bottle, released on all their plans except the one in her heart. No innocent fancy, but raw desire burning for a future writ in the ancient tongue, spoken to the gods ruthless and unafraid. Not a gentle lamb […]
Fierce Beauty
As the body dissembles the soul recovers strength from the inner well; the old way of falling down into life, the ageless source that holds the bones, keeps the heartbeat. The flame within each cell alight with the knowing disease will free as it burns away the shell, for the sprouting coil to break surface […]
To Love What is Close
I found this place before winter snows, green and tender with the wet smell of life. Resting here with wounds healing, the impulse to go on quieted by the river, limbs like drooping cedars let go and touch the earth. Though the pass ice is melting, the way across the mountains opening for spring, I […]
Tir Na Nog
Paudraig spoke to me though from afar his voice both close and quiet, reminding me of the green sloping land and north the sea, shining and alive with ancient music. There is a place for him and many gone before who traveled to America where they’d never rest, returned now to Tir Na Nog, forever […]
Counterweight
Like the counterweight beneath stone columned bridges, the mass of years moves slowly, cast from rights and wrongs and the willingness to love until only ashes remain. I am not the daylight crossing or a road filled with important travelers but the mass below that lifts and lowers, put to use when the rivers rise […]
Solitary Prayers
The soft sound of dry snow on the long incline to Devil’s Peak, white curves and outcrops above the tree line, unforgiving, solemn, windswept to the far distance. Solitary prayers like mist blown snow, lifted in arcing curls into the cold air, crystalline blue above the tall mountain.
Play the Ancient Drum
I’ve outlived many beliefs and though they’ve passed I’m still here with more than a few skins shed behind me. Slow of step, creaking to arise, I call to my ancestors to guide me on the old road, play the ancient drum and stomp across the heavens so I will hear and know how to […]
Reluctant to Take
They say the streets are dirty but you could eat off the sidewalks, their names with z and k sounds, the granite steps worn and shining from the corn brooms they leaned on beside the old stick chairs, surveying passersby like invading soldiers. My father used to lean on his rake that way, his arms […]
Like Rivers We Pour
The tiniest parts of us are what appear, stuff you can see like clouds off the ocean and big drop rain. We open like mountains, dive in cold water, yet this spark of light we give a name is but a glimmer, like snow melt and passing leaves. We show our faces then are gone, […]
Still I Need Darkness
I’m huddled in my cave, a stick fire kindled with a flickered flame lighting the cragged walls. Outside the winter sky blue black and full of stars, layers of snow upon the earth, ice covering the sleeping trees. There is much to consider before I cross the river, thought and feeling like sap waiting in […]