• About

Salt, Smoke, Water and Stone

~ a wild and sacred journey

Salt, Smoke, Water and Stone

Category Archives: song

New

18 Thursday Sep 2025

Posted by feralpoet in ancestors, beauty, devotion, grief, Healing, heart, history, home, liberation, Life, medicine, mystery, new, Opening, poems, poetry, question, shame, song, transformation, unlearning, violence, waking, weaving, welcoming, wonder, work, world

≈ Comments Off on 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.

Walking along

24 Wednesday May 2023

Posted by feralpoet in light, poems, poetry, rain, return, song, sound, spring, walking, water

≈ Comments Off on Walking along

Walking along

a smile comes easily.

The air smells green–

that much rain has fallen.

Crimson buds fill out on prickly pears

as beetles stack in consummation

and the crickets serenade.

Even the light feels pregnant this afternoon.

Talk, talk, talk

26 Wednesday Apr 2023

Posted by feralpoet in listen, Love, poems, poetry, presence, silence, slow, song, sound

≈ Comments Off on Talk, talk, talk

While endless talk,

noise of commercialism, opinion,

celebrity,

fills too many spaces,

when chatter closer to home gets

incessant

remember

that is sound of a disturbed heart.

And we’ve far, far too many of those.

Step silently back

and recall what tender talk,

a creek rolling through, touching

sides, stones, roots

speaks of–

its landscape of blood, tissue and bone–

that which sustains, holds and guides it

along the journey.

When the child enters, or one of the countless

yet to be heard,

please,

listen.

Robins do not sing

for nothing.

And the girl goes ‘Aauchgh!’

09 Wednesday Feb 2022

Posted by feralpoet in poems, poetry, song, the road, water, wind

≈ Comments Off on And the girl goes ‘Aauchgh!’

Sitting there, facing a willowy creek,

alders tipping their heads over the pavement,

the girl goes ‘Aauchgh!’

It may have been because of a masterful song

warbling out my mouth,

‘Ohh the sheep dung’s got strong, oh

oh and it wafts in the wind, oh

sheep dung smooooke…’

That may have been what got up her ire,

she was doing homework in the other front seat

afterall,

but who’s to say.

‘Ohh the sheep dung’s got stroooong today…’

‘Aauchgh! Stop!’ She yurdles,

(not sure that’s a word, but she did it),

while holding back the quivering corners of her mouth,

trying very hard to be

s e r i o u s.

‘Guh, stawwp!’ But I can’t ya see,

because that dung sure’s having its way today.

So, the song keeps going and the girl keeps groaning

and all is well,

sitting and waiting under the waving alder trees.

Shining the dull parts

27 Sunday Jun 2021

Posted by feralpoet in poems, poetry, release, song, water, wind

≈ Comments Off on Shining the dull parts

Last I wrote, a river–the River–spoke of pain

guiding the carving of your banks,

erosion of soils meant to flush and drift,

to migrate and feed downstream, freed up

to do work really intended,

as it exposes rock, the talking stones

holding spirit to place.

It didn’t get much traction.

Today, I can offer that that River isn’t all water,

but Wind

and Song…

Twitterings rise from the bathing towhee

utterly beheld in the flesh reaching waters

from where she sings and wiggles

every noodley wet feather, bone and muscle.

From tub to branch she flits, rubbing (always)

her beak first–this side then that–

and shakes complete giggling pleasure,

full release, refreshed.

That, too, is the River, the Wind, the Song.

Somehow the unrelenting ache brings you there, too,

shining the dull parts

in a reflection of glory.

Emptied streets

04 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by feralpoet in adventure, community, courage, dark, global, light, offering, pain, poems, poetry, song

≈ Comments Off on Emptied streets

A man walks beneath black umbrella,

Calla lilies bloom in the rain;

A woman stands at the kitchen window

staring out with soapy hands and sponge,

singing,

“And you look at yourself,

pacing the cage…”

The playground is taped off in yellow tape,

A child speeds home on scooter with no cars in sight,

“All the spells I could sing, it’s as if the thing is written

in the constitution of the age…”

Grass is greening, lungs ache,

and hearts are breaking,

“Sometimes the best map will not guide you…”

Stay strong and bend, be well

We are in this together together together

We are all pacing the cage–

Not alone not alone

As we walk thin line between birth and death

Now and here

Now and here

Together

Not alone

Hold that thin line dear,

Dear,

Hold it dear.

Sing to the waters

06 Thursday Sep 2018

Posted by feralpoet in abundance, becoming, community, devotion, honoring, Infinite, learning, listen, loving, mystery, nature, poems, poetry, song, stillness, welcoming

≈ Comments Off on Sing to the waters

Where salt meets sweet,

I sing to the waters.

Where sand holds wave, pelicans slap

great wings,

and solitary duck pops up from below

in a stilled bowl

waiting for winter,

I sing

and Wind joins in,

riffling the surface, ripples reaching

in patterns hypnotic and old.

Sing to the waters,

their reply waits for your greeting among reeds,

rushes, fishes and stone.

Where lies

26 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by feralpoet in abundance, beauty, becoming, break out, change, community, courage, crafting, Creating, devotion, dreams, freedom, honoring, listen, movement, nature, poems, poetry, prayer, release, song, stillness, welcoming, wonder, work

≈ Comments Off on Where lies

If a push,

somewhere a pull.

Where taken,

pray it has been given.

The Western sense of community..

in itself a paradox?

We’re part–everyone–of centuries of history

cycling, tumbling, molasses-thick onward

with nanosecond “advances.”

No mystery that you, and you, and I

can not seem to catch our breath.

Faster is not forward,

as bigger not better, nor more money success.

Where lies the soul stuff making life

Life?

The naked Emperor

26 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by feralpoet in becoming, break out, change, Creating, family, learning, movement, poems, poetry, release, song, words

≈ Comments Off on The naked Emperor

To what cost,

this silence?

Protecting normal, the naked Emperor,

who rots your bones of its mineral support,

your heart of its song,

your pelvis of its dancing motion,

your mouth of its natural speech.

Stop pretending.

And, with it, generations of loss.

Open the vault.

You may find yourself alone.

But the outcome

will be possession of your own soul.

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • November 2025
  • October 2025
  • September 2025
  • August 2025
  • July 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • March 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • February 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • December 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • July 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014

Categories

  • About
  • abundance
  • adventure
  • aging
  • ancestors
  • anger
  • approaching
  • Autumn
  • Awareness
  • beauty
  • becoming
  • Body
  • break out
  • change
  • community
  • companion
  • confusion
  • connection
  • continuance
  • courage
  • crafting
  • craving
  • Creating
  • creation
  • dance
  • dark
  • daughter
  • death
  • Deliverance
  • departing
  • devotion
  • digging
  • discomfort
  • dissolution
  • distance
  • dread
  • dreaming
  • dreams
  • Earth
  • Elements
  • emotion
  • endings
  • eternal
  • Expanse
  • family
  • father
  • fear
  • fearlessness
  • fertile
  • Fire
  • flight
  • flood
  • food
  • Found
  • freedom
  • friends
  • generations
  • ghosts
  • giving
  • global
  • grace
  • gratitude
  • grief
  • growing
  • Healing
  • heart
  • history
  • home
  • honoring
  • Hope
  • human
  • Immortal
  • Infinite
  • Inspire
  • instinct
  • joy
  • land
  • language
  • laughter
  • learning
  • leaving
  • liberation
  • Life
  • light
  • listen
  • Loss
  • lost
  • Love
  • lovers
  • loving
  • medicine
  • monsoon
  • mother
  • motion
  • motionless
  • movement
  • mundane
  • Music
  • mystery
  • naked
  • names
  • nature
  • new
  • night
  • of sorts
  • offering
  • Opening
  • pain
  • peace
  • photos
  • play
  • poems
  • poetry
  • Power
  • prayer
  • presence
  • question
  • questions
  • quotations
  • rage
  • rain
  • ramblings
  • rebirth
  • receiving
  • release
  • return
  • ride
  • roughness
  • Run
  • Season
  • seasons
  • shame
  • Sight
  • silence
  • slow
  • snow
  • song
  • sound
  • spring
  • still
  • stillness
  • storm
  • story
  • strength
  • Summer
  • tea
  • thanks
  • the road
  • time
  • transformation
  • transition
  • travel
  • traveling
  • Uncategorized
  • undone
  • unlearning
  • violence
  • vision
  • visit
  • void
  • waking
  • walking
  • water
  • weaving
  • welcoming
  • wind
  • woman
  • wonder
  • words
  • work
  • world
  • young

Meta

  • Create account
  • Log in

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Salt, Smoke, Water and Stone
    • Join 429 other subscribers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Salt, Smoke, Water and Stone
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar