Haunted and Searching
Haunted by the unseen I searched for mystery but only found a trackless sky, the changing face of sea. I saw a small hooded bird still on a branch, then gone in an instant, an otter dipping into dark water, a thin brown snake with long gold stripe, crows cawing at a solitary raven, a […]
Speaking Their Thanks
The full moon rose russet as the tide ebbed, moonlight and water speaking their thanks and me in the dark receiving, not in words but in beauty.
Ancient Son
Dense as stone, stubborn as thorn, something within him aligns with the stars, finds solace in the tide. Infinite and weightless, blood dark from suffering, my proud boy looks into the dawn with the fearless gaze of an ancient son.
Filling Our Eyes
The rain came unexpectedly, softening the dry ground and thirst we felt as we shriveled without water, our hearts curled up and hid until the sound of drops released the tension. Then we looked up into the sky, the rain filling our eyes with thankfulness.
Breaking the Entrainment
Look hard enough, long enough and the stitches begin to show, the body wired and painted with life-like color yet skin explodes to the touch like the hollow nest of a wasp. The story of the monster obscure though its bootprints cover the earth, a deviant pied piper leading with the mysterious power of its […]
Into the Depths
To live beside the sea is to be with change, the tidal rise and fall, the night sky dark with clouds, when suddenly the dome opens and the Milky Way arcs from pole to pole with distant suns shining, softening me into forgiveness as the hard edges dissolve into the depths of darkness, released like […]
Limberry Point
This point once had a native name with salmon and rockfish flowing in the currents, clams and oysters and herring uncountable, camas covering the thin soils, ancient cedars in the wetlands, fir and oaks in broad savannas where brush was burned again and again for deer and elk and all sorts of game. The list […]
As You Awaken
You come in the night, your signature unmistakable over the darkened sea and below the earth, calling with your mystery as folly breaks apart, linking us once more in unwavering silence. From within seeds of beauty stir, the waters of life gather and you awaken asking, will you live with me?
Somewhere East
Somewhere east a Navajo man greets the sun and north an Inuit woman chews on a sealskin, both remembering the giver of life. An old immigrant rides the subway alone in his thoughts amidst the crowd, disheveled and isolate yet in touch with the spirits of the underground. Two women return to the farm of […]
With Wings Unfolded
Much has fallen away – the medals, the money, the magical thinking turned by the long slow arc to become like old crow who croaked at the beginning about what doesn’t last. Yet standing before your art I see our lifetimes compressed, the once unformed angel with wings now unfolded, the colors of the eternal […]
Unknown Passage
The current carried us far down stream, the ford of our crossing miles back past cliff walls and rock strewn rapids, an impossible return to the place of original intention. The power of the river greater than our single mindedness, it overwhelmed and carried us with the urgency of mountain, river’s desire for the sea. […]
Rising Then Gone
We travel on wind driven waves, our color the purple camas rising from the earth then gone, as winter green moss dries in the sun. We taste with hummingbird, our bodies aging like trees rough barked and looming, and we, the street lights of eternity lit for a time then gently going dark with all that […]
The Oldest Sound
Long ago words were spoken with the sound of trees, the whoosh of leaves, river water rolling stones and crows with lampblack feathers. We would listen then form our mouths to the ohs, the wahs, the kas, mouths shaped to our relations, to the sounds we heard within the great circle. Proud of our many […]
Tide Pull
The tide is pulling in a broad sweep of deep water, continents slipping toward a sea hungry for the mountain and all that lives on green land, wanting our memory, our love for the shore, to release ourselves like the fathomless ocean racing with abandon into the arms of the night. […]
Companion to the Suffering
Who doesn’t like the story of heroes returned from war with golden plunder yet I’m living in the village left behind, damaged, barely able to continue, the body’s anguish through simple tasks, the faltering step of bone on bone with muscles stuck, healing slower than a winter night. Strange the certainty as time shambles along […]