29 Thursday Jan 2015
The absinthe cloud of memory
forgets the sugar
when heavy footfalls approach in the dark,
a trickery of echoes-
when an unlit train flies along a track
from direction unknown.
Blackness deletes orientation.
False terrain tells lies.
Still.
Breath loops, settles.
Hands tremble.
Fear’s got nothing on me,
I’ll take this ghost for what he’s worth.
At minimum,
I can steal his shadow and pawn it
at the next depot.
16 Friday Jan 2015
I can’t breathe
though I’m breathing..
Diaphragm falling
at last
into place,
true place,
and my brain
spasming,
messaging that a vital function isn’t
functioning.
Question the origins
of a wavering trajectory
and gasps of light
will greet at the gates,
beyond them a polished and golden
curve.
I am here
wholly exploring,
willing to sit
with a death mask upon this face
and a seizure of mind-
a dropping off a cutting loose a sightless learning-
in the brilliance of human adaptation,
minus now
the holding of echoes
of voices never invited.
I am awkward,
a toddler taking first steps,
exhilarated
tippy
walking-
it matters not where, walking!-
and happy to plop backwards
onto a soft diapered bottom
because I’ve done it-
In lacking restriction,
I’m finding the breath to empower both
movement
and
circular song.
20 Monday Oct 2014
The pain life delivers carves us out, making space for an unalterable joy and a shareable wisdom, riches fed by both understanding and gratitude. If we let fear dam that transformative river, we can not embody our own power or light. The photographer not wanting to be seen, the poet feeling unheard, the model believing herself ugly, the lawyer not finding justice in her own life- we learn through what draws us. Within our challenges lie our gifts, and what seems a curse is often our blessing. Can’t walk the line without seeing ourselves and with undeveloped sight we are sleepwalking- lost not only to ourselves but to the world. Without celebrating our own Being the world becomes a little dimmer. By looking into the pain, whatever it may be, and sitting with the fear, we can rise above what diminishes us, and expand into being deeply present, inspired, spirited, instinctual, intuitive and alive. Let that be the enviable courage.
12 Sunday Oct 2014
Dismantling a life.
Kicking off old shoes,
the ones given-
once useful,
always ill-fitting,
finally worn through.
Taking bare to the contours,
sole to soul,
every granite nib and dusty stretch
fed by sky
and the penetrating scratch
of salt air.
Reaching beyond you,
I carry the minimum,
my skin soaking in what surrounds,
untouched by
what has passed or yet to be found.
I’ve wasted myself on an appealing lie.
These bright eyes aren’t for any other
than this splash of sunshine
and that long drink of water.
Sand, trail, roadside-
Terrain changes
in winding tales.
Think I’ll keep walking…
11 Saturday Oct 2014
Upward,
dry currents lift.
Time again for monarchs’ return.
Riding autumnal air, they flirt
between grass heads and needle tips.
Seeking quiet,
I look for you—
Once silencing the effort,
you show your face-
everywhere.
My exhale weaves with yours,
warm braided through cool..
eyes closed,
skin registering breath of wind.
Abandoning the search,
I found you.
Life stripped the longing,
beat out illusion’s yearning-
wool kilim struck until the dust stopped rising,
clean,
lightened of the burden that never belonged..
Close to mind,
an ongoing remembering,
the weightless flight of butterflies
reclaims.
Orange and black paper wings.
Buoyant bodies feeding on flowers.
May we all be so lucky.
And,
in truth, We are.
08 Wednesday Oct 2014
Imagining ourselves to be unlovable,
Knowing not our own expansive brilliance,
We swallow our own light
and hide in shadows of our own making.
Like a foot longing to be a fingertip,
loss.
And, at what cost? As we tumble up the first stair to the coffee joint..
How could the nose yearn
for the gifts of the ear
when perfumed steam from a cup of espresso visits
on its way to meet ether,
or when resting on the hair at the temple of our lover,
or sitting with a new book, cracking it to page one?
Had coyote visited but once before sunrise,
the turning of its rounded, black-tipped furry tail
would not have been paired
with a seated yawn-
a send-off into the riches of day.
Sometimes we like blindness
for its familiarity, yet
settling for impersonations of ourselves
robs this life of the jewel we each are birthed to be.
Let us take the hand offered,
Enjoy coyote’s satisfied yawn, and
Erupt with a giggle at each reminder to stretch
into the Sequoian grandeur
of simply being.
17 Wednesday Sep 2014
There is a dance here
Between getting what we want
And not.
Often, not serves up the wonder-
What’s a life that goes to plan?
Uncreative, controlled, missing the unexplained sparks,
a parched abiding, inviting scant vision, inside an airless cave.
Blasting past the walls
Free falling-
Rather to have an unexpected journey than the tourist package-
Come
Dig in
We’ll get messy together.
16 Tuesday Sep 2014
I am the horse
being broken
back into the wild.
Forced bit
drops wet from mouth,
metal clanking,
rolling in dirt,
Reins under hoof,
Saddle scraped off
at the last tree..
Picking up
speed and spirit,
mane flying with wind and sky-
No destination
Clear vision
Feral reclamation.
14 Sunday Sep 2014
A little lost
in the labyrinth..
Come
I say
Come…
The unpaved road you walk-
soft powder underfoot and
bowl of sky-
was not given.
It belongs to you,,
yours,
forever,
yours,,
Hear what must be
understood-
this separation you identify with,
that cracking glass,
you have let it define you..
Come forth
Come forth,
with each step a prayer
and release.
The beating in your chest
is my rhythm,
No difference
No difference
between
12 Friday Sep 2014
Were her voice
silenced
the medicine of Silence
would stop at the sand on which it breaks,
the drum of night unable to find its way
from heartbeat past her lips..
Our shore is one and the same,
the Ocean
our origin and return…
For the ears attuned
the music will be heard,
again and again
dancing bodies will join,,
The rugged journey along coastline and mountain ridge
not
for naught.
From formless to form
we are instrument.
Standing on peak and cliff,
we are moved.
Salt, Smoke, Water and Stone 