Poem: Feeding

(Egret Feeding at Palo Alto Baylands)

In the graceful, virginal

Heat and water

Breeding life as

The universe itself

Breeds worlds untold

I

stand alone, unknown

To all except myself

And the creatures

I eat

Poem: Fog

(Trees In Fog, San Jose)

With infinite silence

the fog creeps

with tendril fingers

winding softly,

over my eyes

until everything is cured

of lines, corners, bodies.

I am a ship

a ship, moving

with

tenuous,

groping careful sails

through the uncharted

weather

blurred tomorrow endings.

Hello,

where are you ?

I hear the bell ringing

on all sides

large boats turn around and

around

slowly lumbering

caught in eddies

whirled about and then

tossed

like a worthless fish

right back where they

started

wherever that is.

Fog

the unexplored ocean

the ghostly blessing

of water

upon the land.

do you know it?

no.

no one knows

anything

about the fog.

Poem: We came then, to the place

(Angel and Lantern On A Christmas Ornament)

When we came then, to the place
Where our love had laid us down
And covered all the grief
In tenderness and care,
That’s when I knew you for the first time
As you are, a part of mine
That’s when I knew myself, rejoicing
Not alone, but with you, now.

We fill each other’s hollows
Hold close in sweetened night
There is one, there is the other,
and then there is no other.

Here our bodies move together
Ancient movement, primal pleasure
Now the fingers of your mind
Touch so lovingly my soul
We entered the eternal
As I am, entwined in yours
That is when I then accepted,
I gave, and I rejoiced

Our bodies sang, dissolving
We merged with all around
Our glory filled all spaces
And the fire purified.

And it all comes down to this:
I need to have you near me
I will go through anything
So long as we can hold together.
As you are, so there am I
In the spreading sun of morning.
The day stands free before us
Hold my hand inside your soul.

We can climb the mountains
And fly right to the core,
Where God is you and I
And God is everything.

We have come now to this place
Where our bodies have laid down,
Renewed in verdant pastures
Clothed in the robe and crown
That we wore when we were born
Shining infants on a path
Enfolded in fine mist
No one can see its turnings.

The radiance is blinding
But we walk on, so emboldened
Because we’ve entered to the heart
Of every spinning, blazing star.

Image: Sun and Wildflowers, Palo Alto Baylands.

Poem: The Story of the Sea

(Point Lobos)

They say the sea is full of tears

that's why it's called the sea

they're gathered up from everywhere 

just how’s a mystery.

It’s all been building up in there

for a hundred million years

some even say the dinosaurs

contributed their tears.

Some people have cold, black sharks

swimming in their eyes

some have jellyfish or shells

others, drowning flies.

The body is a beach of sand

beyond the forests grow

but nothing living can forget

the sea from which we flow.

Look out across the moving

waters from the land.

Some say it seems to call us

to come back again.

But, we’ve left the sea behind 

like so many things

and dried out in the air

into flesh or bark or wings.

Even so, seawater 

flows through our every vein

and flows back to the ocean

from all our joy and pain.

Tears carry off our bitterness

they carry sadness, too

sometimes I cry from happiness

of the love I have for you.

Out of all the tears that flow

salt-spray and tides that turn

clouds and rain, a freshening

this is our return.

They say the sea is full of tears

that’s how the sea has come to be

it’s ebbed and flowed for centuries

why is still a mystery.

Poem: Lady Dawn

(Dawn In The California Desert)

In her robes

of pale blue and rose

she walks,

touches gray buildings

with promises of warmth.

she does not seek

your wakeful eyes

but, if you turn to her

she gives you pure, gentle moments

she makes your heart swell

like sweet fruit in summer

before she turns, enraptured

and gives herself

to the sun.

He consumes her in fiery glory

they merge--

they glow with

familiar passion,

conceiving a mighty child…

and so is born the clearness

of our everyday.

Poem: The Meditation Bell

(Over Land)

the drone

draws

me

down,

down

into

myself

so I can

open my eyes

to the dance of vibrating

particles smoothly moving

and carrying all before them

in singing surges, waves made

by the churning of the up and down

current swirling into banks of clarity

where lizards can live eternities in sweet

brittlebush horizons, blinking and scurrying before

the smell of clean sand scouring away time that built

a million forevers; to sit chanting to and wonder how great

the picture I’ve been daubed on, leaving the mark of the organism

in the debris trailing behind like a comet’s tail sizzling and burning

brightly—

it is here,

in this moment,

the only moment,

that I can see

the eye of

God,

the dance, so fierce and buoyant, play on, play on

sitting cross-legged, singing Hosannas

in the desert sun.