On This Quiet Shore
You won’t find me in those old haunts, the cobblestone streets above the river where metal bridges and railroad tracks lead to the iron bound city. I acted the fool, irresponsible and careless, but there was method in my madness, following the stars and dirt roads to be with wild geese and towering trees. In […]
Blessing Way
In first light the clouded skies lift, sun burning through to warm and awaken. Quiet lies upon the land with the sound of birds and echoing calls of nesting geese. Heavens open to the waiting earth, intimate the touch on a rising whale, the throb of hummingbird and this human heart, given as the ancients […]
May You Walk in Beauty
We are an old people, among the first the stories say, who walked the land when fresh with the Creator’s touch. Though scarred with years of trouble yet we sing the blessing songs, greeting the Sun each day with the thankfulness it deserves. And sing for you a song of belonging, child of a distant […]
Our Promise
This time is like all the rest only different. This time we won’t forget kind words. This time we’ll understand how pain can change you. This time we’ll call on heaven to guide us through the chaos and bless the earth with seeds of love. This time we won’t be deceived. This time we will […]
Where Dreams are Crafted
I hadn’t found you though I’d looked in the branches above and roots below the street, in the faces of the serious and the moon behind clouds. Searching high and low I came up empty until I looked in the space where the heart softly beats, where dreams are crafted, and in the silence without […]
In the Hour Before Dawn
Tell you what I’ll do. I’ll scrub the world with steel wool, scrape away the grimy bits of cruelty and war, put soap and water to sorrow and despair. Fresh flowers on all the graves, remembrances for the forgotten. Silence to cleanse the tangle of sound then starlight for speaking. When you awake, you’ll find […]
Gospel of Innocence
Easter 2023 Surrounded by noise it’s difficult to discern how life each day speaks through starlight and the colors of spring. Tiny birds flit about, rivers loosen as ice releases its grip and though your body descends in the arc of age the inner voice remains clear. Why take up the sword the closed hearted […]
Where Bones Grind
The cherry trees soaked in rain, the valley skies wrapped in gray. I watch with faith like a druid of old, talking quietly to the broken earth of my body. Where bones grind the lesson go slow takes form and speaks. Patiently I wait with the cherry trees, roots sunk beneath the pavement, drawing up […]
Building Bridges
Under gray winter skies the heart of the valley pumps through the tap roots of evergreen. Crows sit atop the tall firs, lean and thin with winter hunger. I am not gathering, no, still living off summer fat, quiet as the stones beside the river. There I dream of building bridges to span the chasm […]
Eyes of the Awakened
Thick and gray the clouds of winter break open on the ides of March. The threshold of hope bringing reason for faith, while discontent yet plagues the restless. Roots of the ancient forest stir beneath paved streets, life older than imagination come to resolve our sorrow. Within the hardest hearts there is the sound of […]
Shaped by Snow
I feel the snow falling. I see it under street lights beyond the window glass, but here beside the fire I can feel it. The blanket spreads muffling the city sounds to where the snow might shape us into the silence where all songs begin. […]
Skipping Ahead
for Eilish No translation needed for the language of the heart. Age doesn’t matter, only innocence and desire for the timeless. I thought she was left behind but actually she skipped ahead, speaking the language of the pure in heart, no translation needed. Reading […]
In These Dark Hours
Gnarled bark and twisted branches tangle in the gray sky. I lose touch with the turning, the language of wind in the trees. When we rode in tall grass the earth was all we knew. Now I pray upon a wooden altar that the sun may rise and shine upon the people. My clothes are […]
Her Desire
This is my world, and yours, just as we created it, sentient and wild. Brambly thorns, shifting tides, hard-as-nails streets, beguiling lovers, all of it just as it is. Her only desire that we road-weary pilgrims throw our arms around her, and whisper in her ear yes! […]
Dark Green Solitude
Winter sun lights the valley. Along the coast a flood of rivers, swollen bays, log-choked coves, melting snow and full moon tides. At rest in the quiet without hunger or thirst, the land teaches silence is enough for a rivulet of dark green solitude to nourish the earth. […]