Thursday, February 28, 2013

Water Wakes Joyfully

                                                                               Google Image


Pure raindrops given to seas
By streams that carry life
Are precious in their task
And know their beauty well
But surrender to a larger will

Every stream offers beauty
Between rain clouds and seas
To water that it carries
Over the bright surfaces
Of slow yielding rock
Under tall green trees
That love the cool stream
Close beside bright silver fish
Helping the water remember
A moist community of love
The places it came from
The places it will go
As water sings joyfully
The song of its stream

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

River Flow

                                                                                            Google Image


How deep does the river flow
Is it something like my soul
And often hidden from view
Under ruffled surface flow
Or contaminated by ego
A distorted reflection of self
Why seek reflections at all
Every heart knows the truth
Whenever it feels it, nearby

Windows

                                                                                              Windows Wallpaper


Cleaning windows is hard work
Vinegar and old newspapers
They left the windows bright
But my finger nails look black
And my skin smells of vinegar
Cleaned windows draw my eyes
Expectantly, outside toward
Light and color and movement
All occur to let my mind know
What the other world might be like
But every good window opens up
To let sound and air pass through
Along with the light from outside
Helping us to feel the world
The bigger place that holds us
The one that waits for us

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

West Coast Winter

                                                                                                                                                  Google Image

The Canadian West Coast Winter has been mild-grey-dreary and wet this past year. The sun looked at us through a blue-bright dry lens yesterday for the first time since summer. We could feel the sun’s warmth during the afternoon. Everything seemed to know that spring is coming. The lawn and the garden the birds and the animals all seem to sense it. I know it is coming too. I made the first cut of my mossy front lawn and walked across its plush clean green - seen softness. Moisture seems to hold in it and the moss is so alive after the moist mild winter that it seems to emit its own soft greenish light. A push-mower catcher full of its fuzzy clippings is so different from June’s coarse-dry-dark-green-bladed crop that I have learned winter is the moss season while late spring and autumn belong to the grasses. Summer is dry and brown for my lawn but the dog sleeps on it softly all year round.

I weeded the gardens last weekend and they look brand new among the green mossy lawns. The plants and trees all seem healthy and seem full of good expectations even the ones that are leafless. I like this time of year – just in front of an inevitable spring that is coming. This is the season when doors and windows begin to open even if they have just been cleaned. Open windows and doors let the music out and the air inside allowing crisp air and love to mingle everywhere. I will wait without thought to send the sweet alder smell of fall and winter up my chimney but I will send blessings for my family when that day arrives. Winter in the woods can be a quiet time of contemplation while spring can invite color and movement back to our world

Friday, February 15, 2013

Body, Mind and Soul

                                                                                                        Google Image


Some times we need to hold on
Other times we have to let go
The heart is the one that knows
When to hold and when to release
The mind is missing something
To captain the heart and hand

Our still mind is often silent
When our life flows at full bore
Feelings tingle through our body
When our smile finds a generous soul
Mind thinks ~ that seems like love
Feelings know ~ this feels like love

The mind and the body
Must have a lot of courage
Because they both let go
They are the ones that die
After our marriage to life
The mind and the soul
May come to know each other
Before they separate forever

Souls and Minds are so different
Together, they can make music
Or art or poetry or love
Apart, they can become
Ragged enemies to each other
Bound together for a lifetime

Heal your body’s pain
Admire your kind mind
Feed your soul love and wisdom
And fly with your body and mind
Where your soul wants to go
Until death pulls them apart

Monday, February 4, 2013

snow geese arrive

 Google Image
I left late for work today
It was nearly seven AM
The sky beginning to light
 
Carried great calls of geese
High in the sky, approaching
I waited for them, watching
Until their great wave arrived
Thousands of snow geese
Flying and calling in a jagged line
Geometric lace stretched
Right and tight across the sky
From one side to the other
The line of captured calls
With out any stragglers
Passed me by high and quickly
Flying fast and straight
Walkers hid under leafy trees
In case they were bombed from above
But these were snow geese - not seagulls
When the line of geese had passed
And it was quiet again
The people left their shelters
And scurried toward their day
Another wave of geese announced its coming
Thousands more came
In a diamond studded weave
That passed over me
A speckled weave of sound
Flying north into the river’s marsh
That waited for them
I have never seen so many birds
And all of my life I have waited