One of Those Days

word's maelstrom dance

through my mind

 music only they hear

 a cyclone of winter's leaves

here   then   there

they ride away

on the back of a bird's song

 i sit quietly

with the waiting of their

homecoming

Words Over Coffee

chaos

uninvited visitor

cross the threshold

of my mind

over coffee

whispers:

we make ourselves miserable

or make ourselves strong

the effort is the same

wise words

my

friend

Enough

fear

hope

no one

without the

other

fear:

 not enough
of the

 who

what

where

hope:

birthing fear

infinite

choosing

hopelessness

i

am

     enough...

* if the thinking of this seems dark...it's not meant to be 

only that i choose not hope and fear but to sit with the

present...embrace what is...

Waning....

                                                                              art by Linda Vachon

 these days of more

i choose

less

possessions

doing of things

space

sit with loud

silence

watch the light

change

     waning... 

Gifted

                                                                              art by Rima Staines

sleeping seed

in the fallow field

awakened

with sun's whispered love

moon's tender pull

begins it's journey

to bless this world

another grandchild

 gifted

 waiting

little one... 

Unknown Visitor

                                                                                                    art by Paula Jones

 smoke 

hawk

owl

water

my lover's words...name

roll off a stranger's tongue

who then calls me

his...

angel

this unknown man

 taking his leave
three taps of his horn

the ritualistic manner

of my lover's farewell

 somehow...

 portent

The Stars of Dawn

sleeplessness

night questioner

breather of stardust

imbiber of moon glow

revenant seer

angel whisperer

traveler

welcomed home

by the stars

of

dawn...

The Power of Inwardness

untruths expand in the night

creating fissures...

vulnerability flows

by whose grace...

mine

 sitting with inwardness

they become...

cathartic

fire

begetting

rebirth 

 

to borrow mary oliver's words:

"by morning

i had vanished at least a dozen times

into something better"

 

and i did... 

 

 

My Mother's Bones

last night

i dreamed of my mother's

bones...

repose

high on her windswept hill

soundlessly...

they drew in 

on themselves...

feet became talons

fierce beak

on her skull

lifting...

with featherless wings

she appeared...

outside my window

and sang the song...

of flying

back into my

soul

i woke...

tears...

coursing

down my face

and the taste of

flight

laying sweet

upon

my

tongue...

The Flying is Lost.....

                                                                                             art by pamela zagarenski
 
where 
are 
you...

peace
?

 my soul feels
 like a butterfly...
pinned
under glass...

"the husk is captured...
but the flying is lost" 

it's time
to breathe
the flying
back
into
the
 husk...


  

 

The Gift of Another Day

sunrise...

the gift of

another day

i 

will 

try...

 

again

If....

we are born of stardust

losses in our lives...

sometimes...

return us to stardust...

even as we still walk this earth

our bones shift...

a loose image...

of our old self

we build a funeral pyre...

and sing the mournful dirge...

if...

In the Gloaming...

i sit with the gloaming...

sleeveless...

barefoot...

70°...

january...

the warmth like a heavenly hand...

laid upon me...

 a plane passes over...

 a dove calls...

sounds eliciting an old memory...

another place...

another time...

gypsy blood...

back then...

called to wander

but this day's end...

after 63 revolutions around the sun...

i just want to go home...

then i realize...

i am home...

and somehow...

that makes me...

sad...

Red

red...

 

on a gray day

these woods behind my home

 

i seem to be attracting red...

or red is attracting me...

 

red:

 

fire

burning 

heat

blood

danger

stop

 

red... 

 

my heart...

 

five vowels...

three consonants...

 

i

love

you

 

 

 

 

 

 

Messengers of Love...

my afternoon meditation is usually outdoors...

even when the cold causes me to bundle warmly...

but today my old bone's protest led me here...

to be seated in supplication

upon sitting i noticed seven brilliant red cardinals

in the bush directly out this view...

 more in the curly willow tree...

even more perched on the lady banks...

i have often heard it told that cardinals herald

the visit of a lost loved one...

if so... i had much company today

 

as usual..i spent this time sitting quietly...

open eyed...

drinking in life with all my senses... 

accompanied the entire forty minutes

by these messengers...

 

i was truly blessed to be surrounded this day

with so much love...

and i 

thank

 

YOU...

Unbidden....

...and coffee

 

morning meditation completed...

 waiting now on the sunrise...

with aching muscles...

not the bad kind...

ones earned from honest laboring

digging ...

shovelful...

after shovelful...

after shovelful...

the making of a fire pit

i long to sit...

blanketed in stars... 

 flames hypnotically dancing...

fire...

stars...

 shadows...

 a good kind of

darkness...

not the kind that is...

unbidden...

 

 

....Child of Mine

fog:  Mother Earth's healing breath as

She whispers "good morning child of mine".

wet grass claiming my feet...

the feathered ones chittering...

morning prayers going up...

for this moment...

all is right...

this

Sunday

morn

Sing Me to Healing...

lately i've felt like the ghost of something unknowable....

off kilter....

floundering...

i can't make art...

can't read...

can't listen to music...

i spend as much time outdoors as possible...

physically laboring on my land until i am spent...

arms and legs quivering....

 caked in dirt...

salt powdering my body from exertion...

and when i can do no more...

i just sit with the fruits of my labor...

just...

BE

i keep waiting for that little bubble of my

inner level to tilt back to center...

it will happen...

eventually...

Mother Earth is always willing to wrap

me in her loving arms...

kiss my hurts...
soothe my soul...

sing me to healing with her lullabies...

and i bow my head...

 in gratitude...