Something Will Change Me
Poems of Soul and Spirit
From the Heart of the Pacific Northwest…
This collection of 100 poems by Don Hynes resonates with the rhythms of crashing waves and towering forests. Hynes explores the rugged beauty of trees, rocks, and rolling waves through an intimately personal lens.
More than nature poetry, these are soul poems – borne of memory, heartache, and dream visions. They reach transcendentally across time and space to connect with the reader’s own experiences of change and self-discovery.
Poems that reach into lifetimes – past, present and those to be imagined, and in the tradition of America’s most enlightened poets such as Mary Oliver and William Stafford, speak in a quiet voice of your place on earth and the place you are preparing.
Global Book Award Gold Medal Winner
“Having followed Don’s poetry for years,it is wonderful to have these selected poems to reinvigorate the heart and open me more fully to the dimensions of my inner world as reflected through the dynamics of nature. These poems will let you sip deeply into the mystery of your life.”
– David Kyle, PhD author and teacher
This collection of deeply imaginative poems will, I am certain, change you. You need only read patiently and with love. They are a gift to us all.
Louis MacKenzie
Professor Emeritus
University of Notre Dame
Don knows what he loves: the night, the Mystery, grace, in-between places, the oldest trees and islands and how to tell a secret—all things I love, too, and I love the way he remembers them back to me in these poems.
– Sandy Brown Jensen, author, photographer, video storyteller
“Don embeds soul inspired meaning and healing spells in and between every word, the harvest of a life deeply lived. Time stands still as I read … I am renewed. Pure magic!”
– Will T Wilkinson, #1 best-selling author, Wall Street Journal
Instead She Flowers (for Mary)
Autumn sweeps the laden trees,
spreading treasure on the ground
we cart off to a distant mill.
The soil aches for return
of what began in spring
and came to summer fullness.
You’d think the earth
would long ago surrender
but instead she flowers,
rising from her meager dirt
to fill the sky with color.
Moon of Our Gravitation
You raise your cup
assured I will receive it.
This gesture says it all,
how we are together
with no need to tear down,
to feed the beast of not belonging.
Some days the tide runs strong,
highs and lows much greater.
They say it is the moon
and I wonder about swirling water
and the desire that pulls it toward the sea.
As the tide runs swift, perhaps
we too can be without restraint,
the moon of our gravitation
the touch of your hand
on a teacup.
Something Will Change Me
Preparing Witness
He turns to rise with the sun
at the far edge of the world,
no temple or towering buddha,
just the lonely sound of garbage trucks
and smoke choked skies,
preparing witness
for what will come.
Bird Nest
In a nest inside my heart
a tiny bird lives,
peeping out to the world,
ready to fly into the unmarked sky.
Who I’ll be when the bird leaves
is the writing of a poem,
words left beside the sea
tasting of salt,
touched by the wind.
After a Night of Rain
After a night of rain
with clouds so dense
the moon barely shown,
a gray morning
of dim light and showers.
Evergreens stretch their limbs,
birds circle in the mist, and quietly
the plum tree flowers.
Dark Green Solitude
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.
