Mid-afternoon

Stuffy air,

music turned low,

one of two fans rotating slowly.

The black and white photographs of yesterday,

framed moments of distant, lonesome,

beautiful lands, suddenly gone.

A grumpy, dark-mooded barista does her best

to make no eye contact while handing drinks over

the bar.

Old guys with papers, young women with computers,

the morning still holds close to this room–

a strong, clean autumn wind begs

to clear this place out.

In circles

Time, in circles, rolls and spirals on..

we’ve been bamboozled and blinded by firm

starts and finishes–

Yes, birth to death,

but this existence is no line.

Pluck a stitch and you’re speaking with your grandmother,

dead long thirty years back.

Pick at another and your future babies,

whether this life or another,

giggle in morning thunder.

Our brains have been trained

by unnatural and convenient beliefs

unrecognized as such.

Put on a pair of enormous shoes borrowed

from a stranger and step..one

two three..

backwards to gather a new look

at the vastness of stories dancing about.

Teach your eyes to see the impossibly invisible,

what tires and confuses you now becomes,

in truth, a consequential but very funny

game–

remember your heart

and play it well.

Surrender

When it comes to surrender,

better drink three hot cups of faith

following dawn.

Watch the light grow and, as your belly softens

in warmth, your eyes will braid upward,

adrift with the steam.

This life isn’t up to you,

not really, but the soporific of control sells.

Sit in your pillowed chair, stare out your version of

the sash window

and know, Mystery weaves us.

Our work is to listen for its music

and step into the slipstream,

longing and beauty our tiny rudder

within that flowing power.

Down the line

An acoustic guitar and a train track beat…

we’re chugging rugged countryside,

rounding bends,

wind streaming through open windows.

I think I’ll watch every dry yellow leaf flutter

and fall,

each flock of grass nod, swish and bow to the sun.

Sometimes grief’s a tar sticking in the lungs

and working to let it go means little

but waiting, waiting becomes the story,

waiting until it decides to let go of you.

The strum will fill your warm heart

as the clack-clack rhythm moves you through time–

be with what is,

it’s got its own magic, which you hold

and holds you,

growing in clarity, in beauty

somewhere on down the line.

New

Confusion tumbles out of us,

violence and shame, ever pointing–

over there, over there.

Look in the mirror, friend, we each must

consider our part, the veins of ugliness within,

ignored, denied, pushed away.

Wounds need care,

sunlight and tenderness.

Otherwise, they fester.

None goes unhurt, none walks without darkness

to be held.

Point not that way, and that,

drop the pointer all together.

We are a we, and in it together to reweave

an old, old decaying story into blessing and art,

connection, nourishment and song.

What beauty brings us here now?

What Beauty to be bestowed back to Life?

Ask the ancestors,

they know,

ask the ancestors for help–

healing takes everyone, form and formless alike.

Let the new story begin..

it breaks through already

in the most delightful, unexpected ways.

A little time

Autumn grips with fast approach,

a fear, a sadness, an ineffective hesitation

in the cooling molasses wrapping us up.

Another anniversary rides toward its destination.

No keeping that horse at bay,

no desire to,

but apprehension sinks–

abide and wait, abide and wait..

with a little time,

it will turn itself inside out and

become a celebration…

Water

Searching for words is seeking water

mid-mesa.

Not a tree in sight.

Blessed sage basks in full sun.

Rain falls, drifts away.

Soon tarantulas will promenade,

romancing their coupling dance

to create the next generation.

No, the words are water

and the Maker decides when and how

they drift or drive or well up

through this hollow reed.

Let syllables drip from the tongue unsought,

honey for those hungry

and in need of that particular soul balm.

Sliver moon pink

Sliver moon pink

in morning’s blooming light.

Baby raccoon sleeps, the Mountain presides.

Chipmunks race by, tails high.

Goldfinches feast on the generosity of sunflowers,

dry and nodding.

Soon, summer’s loud pulsing concert,

the countless crickets singing to Spirit,

will go quiet.

For now, warm nights still meet bare skin

and open windows connect neighbors

in their slumbering sighs

as the length of our days shortens..

Lit by fires

While reaching forward, we’ve no knowing

how far goes the reaching back,

our days lit by fires long ago.

The generations that birthed us here,

inside this present day,

the losses they carried and blessings

they bestowed.

What vision is ours, what vision has been given?

The living breath spiraling us ahead,

steam engine of our days,

extends behind us on tracks buried

by histories untold.

Ancestors are quivering the roots,

make no mistake.

We are not here just for ourselves.

Take ears to the stones, stories be talking.