Sunday, July 31, 2011

Waiting

Waiting, waiting, waiting....
We all know what will come
It is already here
But you still wait
For permission
Just to meet it
In its public light
Running with fashion
Moving toward light
Or moving toward dark
It is all the same
If you think about it

Choose to be free
From the sticky
Fragrant syrup of life
I felt I could help
But nobody wants it
Sometimes I sat there
Frightened inside life
Waiting for soft death
Hoping to win - Something
I am not sure what was near
But I do know what is here
And I can't know what will be

All I know
Is I am here
Wanting every soul
To be freed, to be free
Again, and again, forever free
To find a place beyond that space
That tries to swallow me
That tree may want to follow
But you should chase its stillness
To the place beyond that space
Where freedom flies at any speed
And in any direction, it chooses

Monday, July 25, 2011

Summer Moment

                                                            Wild Campion -    google photograph
Today is summer, almost august
But no one feels that way
Summer is happening in secret
Beneath human awareness
The garden needs no water this year
It loves to care for itself
Creating surprises of color
Where they are least expected
Hues we have never seen before
This seems to please the bees
Oregano and Lavender flowers
Abuzz with bees’ yellow faces
Side pockets full of pollen
As hummingbirds visit wild Campion
Then flatten the leaves of Red Maple
With their fast fluttering flight

I left the Garden to its own busy world
And walked toward the Rocky Shore
That forever overlooks the ocean
My intention was just to notice it
I really didn’t want anything more

Walking through the forest toward the beach
I was washed by the rich salty smell
Of a glimmering intertidal band
The smell told me the sea was near
Even before I reached it – its the same smell
That tells sailors 'land is ahoy'
The ocean’s rolling breath
Was pushed through the trees
By a summer warm breeze
From a place overlooking the shore
I noticed the infinite beauty of waves
Bringing messages from an eternal source
Across the sea – no matter how far
And never noticing the sunlight
That spilled sparkles all over its back

Everything was moving in the silent breeze
Wildflowers were waving within the world
The longest stems and largest flowers
Swayed the furthest and moved the slowest
Shorter grasses moved much faster and
Seized at any direction that was uncluttered
Cliff stone carried moss and short grass
In the lines and patches across its back
Proving the sun still held the secrets
Of up and of down - deep in its burning wisdom

Some rocks had fallen or pulled away from their cliffs
Places they had embraced since the sea first retreated
I don’t think separation was ever felt between them
It is just happens to rocks – eventually they weather
But the separation spoke clearly of constant change
Inevitable change that happens forever
In every moment change is gradual and rapid
Change may find us in a place we don’t like at first
Or it may indifferently take a place we deeply loved away
The silent, bleached and branch-less wood on the beach
Reminded me that every human was like the drifted wood
A storied past that brought them right to where they stand
A story that is, for sticks or flesh, unique and precious and real


My attention was drawn back to the sea
Boats and boats and boats passed by
Appearing and then disappearing
From and to the high mysteries of rock
That stood protecting the inlet where I sat
Texada Island is always there sleeping slowly
A wide and shadowy-blue but earthy separation
Between the sky and the silver sparkled sea
Seams with sky and sea were different
But perfect and without voids to fill
The bottom of the island seemed to float
Sucked flawless and tight to a curved horizon of sea
The jagged top of the island was easy
For the sky to find through the forest
And it seemed to naturally know
Every smooth and jagged piece of it

Big boats, little boats, fast boats, slow boats
Quiet boats, noisy boats, fishing boats, row boats
Pleasure boats tug boats, ski boats and tow boats
Sailboats under sail and sailboats under power
All of them tried to cut the sea in two
Between the distant island and where I sat
Each boat was unique, each boat was beautiful
But none could cleave the landscape in two
The harbour seal out there never even tried
She bobbed far-off in waves to find her breath
Then spend it on the drama of another fishing dive
Some boats sent the wakes of their effort
All the way to the shore near where I sat
Where their waves broke with empty protest
Falling flat to their bellies exhausted by beach
And so much tripping along the rocky shore
Sailboats were the quietest and the neatest to watch
They held their wakes in - but the sea mended herself
Tight and easy – right under their stern

The place where I sat was old black rock
And surrounded by green moss and white lichen
Red arbutus and light green maples stood by
I rested in the waving shade of shore pines
That place is surely full of life and complete
Every day that ever happens - with or without me
Being so open to this place left me feeling sad
It pulled at me when I turned to leave
A longing ember of loss and sadness glowed
Grief washed in like a wave over my heart
The wave came from someplace I know but can’t remember
And something whispered through the grief to me
“On the other side of that pain is light” and
"In the light of that moment is a knowing that will last forever"
A knowing that parts of everything are dieing
A knowing that parts of everything are being born
At the same time and in every single moment that is
As with any visit of grief we can know that we loved deeply
And grief, like the rock, will eventually break away
But Love is always, like the wind and the waves,
Forever seeking us from its eternal place


                                                                 Middle Bay   (flickr.com image)

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Driving

Sun rays on the outside
Draw me to the inside
Where I can find myself

Feeling my smile
Reflecting the sun
Far, far above me

But too close and too high
Are walls that confine me
To this imagined path
Through a neighborless life

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Faith

Let life shower
As dry sand falls
Onto smooth dunes
That dream it

The world is large and
Safely pulled around us

Tell me which ones found
Clear tracks to follow
Across the desert landscape
Wild animals live there

And let the rain fall
Sand upon the dunes that dream it
Every grain a joy to wholeness
Wholeness loves us all
Lost and unafraid

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Walking Dizzy

Walking dizzy through a tunnel
Light at both ends calls to me
But in the face of careful listening
Nothing knowing speaks to me
So elbows guide me along this tunnel
Uncertain at every footstep

The light at the end seems larger
Than the light where I began
I can't even remember why
I chose to walk through here
But there isn't enough room
Between the tracks and the walls
Of this stone cold tunnel
To let a train pass if it comes

I have lost so much time
To planning what I'll do
When or if the train arrives
As promised by these tracks
I hardly ever even noticed
What I passed along my way

The light where I started
And that light where I must go
Have gripped my attention
Too long and too strong
To let me understand
The nature of this tunnel
Or the fears that all complain
As I hurry through this life

Fully Awake

Gentle morning rain
Makes me feel awake
It pulls me into feeling
Excitement or discomfort
It really doesn’t matter
Every feeling is precious
Gold to a miner in darkness
With his roof still intact
Through a rich moment
That lies strictly in faith
Fully outside knowledge
Yet fully inside love
And so very much richer
In the light of death’s knowing

Monday, July 4, 2011

Looking Up

Looking up from a park bench
Into the steady summer breeze
Resting inside the warm shadow
Of cottonwoods as they silently drink
Deeply from water in the ground below me
And filled to fullness with life
They radiate satisfied joy into the world
Greeting all visitors to life’s surprise
Too many things are here
To see or feel and know
So I greet what I see
Three spider strands
Strung tight in the wind
Tiny speckled unseen souls
Still tethered to their tree
Invisible to glazed or tired eyes
No part of their strands
Can find me without teasing
Indigo, silver or ruby from the sun
So there must be even more of them
The strands' taught stillness in the breeze
Proves their length and strength would stretch
My own beliefs far past breaking
Pulling away from borrowed colors
My eyes find cotton-white down
Floating slowly above the strands
Freed from high and secret places
Nourished to seed over deep-rooted dreams
While my dog finds peace on patient flat grass
Dragonflies, hummingbirds, marsh wrens and more
Fly through the sky on their way to somewhere
That is only revealed when it's reached
And they all seem to know the trees
Better than I as their missions unfold
In front of naked never-questioning leaves
While a crow guards its nest
Calling harshly from silent branches
Above me - just to let me know
I am seen in the shade where I sit
As a threat to its young (which I am not)
And planes and clouds and insects
Fly safely through life's air we borrow
From the well of all things real

Contrast

Light and dark
Soft and loud
Sweet and sour
Brushstrokes
From a pallet
Of color
Offers form
To the grainy world
We walk through
Wondering
What is
Really there
And why does
Everything
Get divided
Into smaller
And smaller
Bits
When what we seek
Is to understand
The whole