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 […]
Spring Quartet
Womb of Earth What rests in darkness rises from the womb of earth, the seed of creation alive crown first, arms softly folded, determined to breathe and come forth through the trials of becoming, the promise born again and again. *** By the Gravity of Grief The rituals are small, unnoticed crafted with fallen branches […]
Deeper We Must Go
Deeper we must go through the hard crust of all we remember, below the waves disturbed and roiling, where desire softens, breath steadies, who we are and yet becoming open to the quiet aloneness of life, beyond prayer, beyond belief, following once more the unmarked way. […]
Iron Bound to Gratitude
She speaks about what’s passing and the travail to come, the devouring force come full upon its tail while silent ones iron bound to gratitude let another skin slip, daring to stand still while the wave rises to reclaim the earth in yellow buds, a spring smile on the old firs as raptors circle, green […]
Three Spirits Trilogy
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 […]