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A Bridge
A Bridge
I stood upon a bridge
staring ‘outward’
Before my eyes I witnessed
the trees swaying above my head
I saw the water swiftly moving
beneath my feet
As I gazed to my left
and then to my right
I saw the beginnings of the bridge’s path
What was the beginning?
Or the ending?
Or where the path began?
I sat now upon the bridge
drawing ‘inward’
Suddenly, I realized the “ONE”
created both distinct ends
and calls us
to the middle
the center
To the depths of where both points
meet and there is no longer division—
instead, perfect union
What if
What if…
What if all the
streaming bodies of water
came from the tears
of those whose lives
fashioned the earth
What if they cried until the
depth reached fathoms
too deep to measure
What if their flow created
the majestic waterfalls
that, to this very day,
spill over
with a power and strength
that truly comprehends grace
What if we ‘plunged’
into these ‘baths’
of hot springs
mindful of their beginnings
cherishing their mystery
honoring the holy drops
and then, perhaps shed a few
of our own and recognize
our ‘Oneness’ in and through the other.
Distractions
Distractions
Distractions…
Then the silent pounding of heart strings
Cares, worries, anxieties
Then a hushed breath in, out, in
A symphony of noises playing in the mind
THE SILENCE~~~sweet, tricky & luring
COME BACK…I know you’re there
The echo of events
Then back to quiet refrain
Is this the ebb & flow of my deepest prayer?
Can this be the calm, the chaos
BONDING
my inner stirrings to ‘see’
in all things your
‘simple,’ ‘uncomplicated,’ intoxicating wonder?
First, the push, and then
The pull…back in, back in~~~it’s safe here
BUT the ‘tent’ no longer holds
The sapling within
Bursting~~~stretching with every ounce of unforeseen ‘newness’
Life happens
It happens while we are in it~~~
See…see with eyes “closed”
The ‘Divine’ breathing in you
Your blossoms ready to
Sprout
and the beauty you
Already bring
Only now truly
Beginning~~~
Transforming
Darkness and Light
Darkness and Light
The crown of darkness enveloped the sky’s canopy…
its face hidden with delight
as if never to be discovered
Ahhhhh…creeping in
like a match to a wick
a light tore the
velvet blanket of black hues
For a moment the two
jostled poking an elbow
here and there
attempting to make room…
Then suddenly they both
grasped the magic almost
instinctively
Their colors blended
casting shadows too brilliant
to erase
Their ‘joining’
rid distinct lines of
separation, boundaries, divisions~~~
While they understood
their own uniqueness
they embraced their oneness
The light shines because
of the darkness
and the darkness gives way
for the light’s truest manifestations
Shadows subtract
the lines drawn
in the sand
No One Sees
No One Sees
No One Sees
and it scarcely matters
During the night
she muses
from deep within her
the loom
‘inside’ yields
the thread
anticipating her masterpiece
Hung between
a frame of branches
she spews ever so
freely
a wave of silk
dangling row by row
transfixed by playful
extensions of herself
She moves
without thinking the
pattern, trusting the
design
She herself does not even
step back to gaze of its
magnificence
Her tangled web
visible
most especially when
caught in its
weightless clutch
Daylight reveals her
hidden revelation
the sun highlights
the inner shadows
while dewdrops
sit hung upon each
fragile yet resilient
shelf
No One Sees
yet it scarcely matters
‘creation’
a gallery alive…free
and so few
dare visit its
splendor
Sanctuary
Sanctuary
In the sanctuary of
my soul
the opening service does
not begin with
the cascading sounds
of bells chiming in unison
No, instead it is
the song of the cicadas
and the symphony of forest
insects all echoing at once
a dance of rhythmic
sounds
The sweet incense is not
the smoke from a candle’s
wick ascending through
every living, breathing cell
No, instead it is the
tender pine draped in
drops of falling rain
filling the air with
aromas never to be duplicated
The first reading
followed by the second
a responsorial psalm
flows yet without words
Each sentence a blade
of grass lifting its head
to the reader who ‘sees’
Each chapter a leaf
especially the one falling to
the ground, dying and yet
rising to a newness beyond
understanding
The Gospel…
mountain peaks,
treacherous terrain
an invitation to
an inward descent
pausing
in mystery
re-framing all
that once seemed
to make sense
Communion…
the lotus flower
floating on a clear
pond
its soft pink petals
‘bread’
it roots filled
with the sweet
essence of
‘wine’
I taste
the goodness
of creation
in this
living sanctuary
No doors
the entry way
an invitation
for all
The table…
endless
alive
the supper
in this sanctuary
always open to
receive
Vantage Point
Vantage Point
From ‘one’ perspective
a single view
upon which all thoughts,
ideas, values, beliefs
are born
Then one day
a stirring
as a single gaze into the stars
reveals a perspective unexplored
If only to touch one single
star
and so I climbed
and climbed
and climbed…
the darkness penetrated by
the Milky Way, Orion, and the Big Dipper
I stumbled a few times
my head down so as
to watch each tempered
step
I stopped to catch my breath
only to realize the stars
began giving way to dawn
An orange sky
segued with red and yellow
the sun still a distance away
from the Earth rotating to welcome her brilliance
As I looked ‘down’ into the valley
Splashed as if immersed
in a Holy Baptism
My perspective,
my one single point
shattered
Amazed at the endless
nothingness
linking together
everything
I discovered in the lost
nowhere that yes
I was now
Here
Opened by wonder
mystery and awe…
Everything I’ve come to
know, believe, trust in
vanished as if
forgotten~~~
yet discovered
The Sun rose its head
I was blinded
and yet for the
first time
I saw a point
and then beyond
Drops
Drops
The mist
a lure
into the secret
world of ‘nothingness’
Captured, Spirit
now hanging from a
lonely branch of pine needles
drops of moisture clinging
to their ‘heads’
Yet…
nothing here is a possession
all drink freely
awaiting the sun which itself
will sip from the dew
drying almost every last drop
until the dawn
Shadows appear—
once again
vapor moves across time & space
in unmeasured speed
kissing softly not only
the slender pines but, too,
my ‘spirit’
after thinking all was lost
dampened by
the unexpected
drenched as if born anew
A Heart in the Woods
A Heart in the Woods
See it?
It is always there
even when darkness
tries to hide its image
See it?
In dawn’s early rising
light seeps into its open
crevices
See it?
A heart
In its center a
towering tree rises from
an earth which holds tenderly
the roots spread like a bed of
laughing dandelions
See it?
Yes, that tree…
It divides one half from another
Oh, but wait
See it?
It does everything BUT divide
See
the bridge?
It is a passage
a journey
looking back at
all the places,
discoveries,
adventures
rolling over
into
a ‘new’ place
where the only thing that
matters is
‘everything’
Everything and yet
nothing
Mind stretched
a self
unraveling from all
it has been told it is
and recognizing
as it slides over this
bridge
who it really ‘is’
for the first time.
Holy Ground
Holy Ground
Was it ‘Holy Ground?’
How could it not be…
every step touching the face of the earth
is ‘Holy.’
Mindful of my footing,
I climbed the mountain
where the peregrines lie.
I looked up momentarily and in front
of me…a cairn nestled
beside a red leafy tree~~~
Could it be a burning bush?
No one said, “Take off your hiking boots—
the ground upon which you stand is Holy.”
Yet,
something within me whispered…
NO WORDS NEEDED.
A presence walked with me
every step of the way~~~
truly holy ground.
The Preacher
The Preacher
Her pulpit
a rock
She perched on a delicate green
blanket of seaweed.
The ocean’s bounty trickles
upon her feet~~~
Her sermon, only
SILENCE
and she prepares for communion.
She waits, and waits, and waits.
Her eyes wide open~~~
her pupils scan for any motion…
Suddenly,
after all the waiting,
waiting,
waiting,
right there ‘bread.’
Her beak pummels through the water
‘broken’
a fish caught in her paired scissors
and blood flows onto her feathers.
Yes, death
A small fish sustains life.
The preacher digests only what is necessary
to ‘fill’ her belly.
As the sun rises,
she seems to bow her head in thanks~~~
In silence she no longer waits, and waits, and waits~~~
She is ‘full’
Poem: One Single Drop
Before any human eye
Beheld or grasped
One single drop
A splash
Cascading circles
Expanding
On going
and then another drop
and another
Nothing contained
Endless transformation
Darkness betwixt
With celestial bodies, galaxies
Explosions of stars
Sprinkling dust
In the grandness of a cosmos
Beyond understanding
Formations of Life abound
Ripples creating endless newness and wonder
Then suddenly breathed into
The soils of time
Uncharted,
The image and likeness
Of the SOURCE itself
Humankind birthed into
A Creation already born
Opening its arms like a mother
Welcoming her child
Into Life…
