Tuesday 26 February 2013

To My Sister Clara

As I walk through fallen and scarcely trodden snow

My heart is heavy as it carries your memory
A memory that keeps company with resilient leaves and broken branches

I miss you and today I feel the steady pull of your love
Just as this winter moon stirs the sleeping bear
It stirs up in me a longing for you



The need for your physical presence 
Rises up within me like the tide
With no place to fall except from my eyes

And even though you'd be the first to hush my grief

I quarrel with mortality and I question the fates
And  I envy 
Yes, I envy the other side of Heaven's gates

For there you are ... for you are there



Thursday 21 February 2013

I Rolled Away The Stone


I rolled away the stone
Only to find you weren't there

And I waited

I waited and chiseled out upon the stone
The stories that numbed my heart
















Monday 18 February 2013

Each Tender Moment, Small and Large

Let us think about the caring we receive
Each tender moment, small and large
From family and friends and even strangers


Kindnesses are no small thing
They touch our days with grace and joy
They refresh our hearts and souls as water does our flesh 

May I always come to the wellspring of your kindness 
Each tender moment, small and large
With head bowed in reverence for the beauty of what you share

Tuesday 12 February 2013

Your Lovely Crown of Righteousness





You say you're moving forward?

But how can that be
When clinging to the past
How can the future be seen?

You frown and glare
And yes, it's your choice



You rant and rave
Well, at least  you've found your voice

Convinced you are entitled

You sit and fume
Wearing your lovely crown of righteousness
In your cold damp tomb

And you seek with zealous fervor
Those who never change their minds

The dependable, the scrupulous and virtuous
Those who never cross the line

Well I'm sorry to say

They simply don't exist
Except for those found on
Imagination's list
       

Sunday 10 February 2013

Absolvi (latin - to absolve)

I will swallow whole: the heads, the tails and guts of all offenses committed upon me and those committed upon others, by me.

I will absorb the energy of these dark offenses; the poison, the pain, the betrayal, the shame, the hurt, the fury, the fear, the indifference.


I will gather heavy chains that I forged in order to carry dark offenses with me and I will free myself and all the others I had shackled to them.

I will allow those offenses, those dark pages of my story, their rightful place in my history.

I will build each offense their own tomb in my bones and marrow. Every last weighty moment lived, will have its own burial site and marker.



I will lay flowers on those graves and walk away ~ head high ~ eyes clear ~ heart open ~

I will allow them to rest in peace and stop dragging what has already been written to clean pages.

I will secure the future's clean and unsoiled pages for new parables and legends.

I will put away the widow's blacks and veil and wholly reconnect with the living, mindful of my many blessings and my need to bless.

I will remind myself daily of the importance of remaining curious and alive to reason and choice with complete focus of head, heart, body and soul.

I will enter into a new and untouched land  ~ My own "State" of grace ~

And I will reign sovereign over my own life with soft step, wise eye, love and reverence.





At Touch


At touch

Backs arch

Atoms flare



Limbs unravel
Eyes reveal



Lips like petals open
Mouths are filled to overflowing


Uneven breathing
Caught in a moment that affects so deeply 


We are moved beyond words

Saturday 9 February 2013

Richard's Road ~ a daughter's song for her father~

Walking Down
Richard’s Road
A salty breeze
Welcomes him home
The lost returns
A child again
A bare footed heart and Soul 



Pretty Roadside flowers

Your tiny heads bent in

Evening Prayer

Kindly remember our names
As your fragrant blessings fill the air


Setting sun’s
Rosy glow
Pouring through
Weathered Birch trees
Rose Coloured light
Flickers through
Warming leaves and his  memories


Pretty Roadside flowers

Your tiny heads bent in

Evening Prayer

Kindly remember our names

As your fragrant blessings fill the air


Evening Falls
Soft and cool
Taking his hand 
They walk once more
Down over cliffs
Red and high
Yes they walk once more
Down to Richard’s Shore


Pretty Roadside flowers

Your tiny heads bent in

Evening Prayer

Kindly remember our names

As your fragrant blessings fill the air



Thursday 7 February 2013

That Something Juicier and Wetter

Can you feel it?   

That something juicier and wetter
That something wilder and fiercer
That something wiser and stronger

Divine and lovely fragment of God
Searching and sifting
Through the soil caking your feet

Your archaeological dig site

Resurrecting from your deep red earthiness
Sorting your finds
Cataloguing your treasures





Can you smell it?

That something juicier and wetter
That something wilder and fiercer
That something wiser and stronger

Turning over and over each exhumed shard
I watch you squatted, frog like
 Remembering ~ Releasing ~ Restoring




Becoming one with Ivory bone and awakening to the harmony of blood's song

Navigating your shadow with courage
I watch you bearing down
Giving birth to truth and beauty

Can you taste it on the wind?

That something juicier and wetter
That something wilder and fiercer
That something wiser and stronger





Tuesday 5 February 2013

My Own Dry Bones




And I will say to my own dry bones...
I will breathe new breath upon you and you will come to life
Embrace love 
And dance wildly by the sea once again

Monday 4 February 2013

The Harbinger

She could not concisely have expressed how it happened
How the vibrant colours of the days 
She found herself living within the walls of 
Had  become strangely gaunt and watered down

But they had

And this man, a man she barely knew 
Could not possibly know how the words he had just spoken from the pulpit
"Here we are, half way through the dark days of Winter."
Would reach inside her and stir up the winds and waters of urgency

But they had

Amid strangers, she pulled a thorn from her self-inflicted  crown
And silently began mending a life she barely recognized
With vision both struggling and skewed, she fumbled with thorny needle and thread 
Upon that which for too long, had been coming apart at the seams