Saturday 28 December 2013

Victoria By The Sea

She found herself on her knees

Digging in, she moved about the rich red sand
Her hands and a shell of a large weathered bar clam for tools
Her usual mind-chatter shut off and she was lost in the meditative flow
Of hands and body moving with raw elements of rock and ocean

Cupping a handful of soil, she brought it close to her face
She breathed in the strong smells of salt and unyielding infinity
Her mother and uncles grew up on the high cliffs just above where she now knelt
The hands of time opened and she realized a deep connection in that moment
Their knees may have knelt in play, in this same spot ... before life revealed its complicated nature to them

Without a word she continued to work the sand before her
Willingly becoming a part of the whole
Her breath uniting with the music of the wind, waves, and gulls
Absorbing itself in the sand, seaweed and broken bits of  breathless crustaceans
Broken down matter that still gives, still sings life's song of re-creation

She remembered reading  that we are all breathing the same air that Jesus breathed
That people on the other side of the world have breathed
The good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly
The same molecules are still circulating and we are all literally sharing them
It felt good knowing her mother's breath still lived on the wind

Sitting still within the miracle of that
She took three deep breaths

Breathing in the Past

Breathing in the Present

Breathing herself into the Future

______________________________________________________________________________


"We all breathe the same air that Jesus breathed and Einstein breathed and even an old woman in China has just breathed a couple of weeks ago. The molecules are still in the air circulating and we are all literally sharing them." - Deepak Chopra



  

Thursday 26 December 2013

The Bones of her Winter


Within icy chambers of a cavernous womb
The Goddess January prepares to give birth to another year's bounty

Thirty one children

"Stark and bare bones" is this brooding mare of a month
Each of her births, as unyielding as she, the one who bore them
Each is born ready to pare and taper
Each is cold enough, and grim enough to reap and gather

With never so much as a flinch

Mortals save your tears, pleas, and prayers
These truncatus gatherers hear not

Breathe! 
Fill your nostrils! 
Open your mouth and taste the air!
It is what it is!

This Goddess will come, year after year,  to every home and give birth on every door step.
None will be spared her visit
Not those who have made their sacrifices
Not even those with hyssop branch and blood in basin

So better to face and know

Better to open the door to the bare bones of winter
Better to look Goddess January in the eyes







 


  











Friday 13 December 2013

Sister Love

I bare my soul and yet ... before you 

I know

That I am safe

(photograph by Wendy Morrison Metcalfe)

  Though the winds of winter howl and cut

Though hungry animals within and without prowl and hunt

I know

That I am safe

 

Though my hands, feet, and mind grow cold and numb

Though I willingly placed myself beyond the light of the sun

I know

That I am safe

 

Though thoughts that circle, whisper words unkind

Though winter tears  blind

 

Warm sister love kisses upon them 

Encourage me to see again


And I know

That I am safe

Thank you

Sunday 8 December 2013

Soon You Will Return

Soon you will return

Time make ready my head and hands
To anoint lips and fingers with nectar
Purify word and deed
Re-open and make ready the heart




Soon you will return

I will cup my hands
Dip them in the water
Drink deep 
I will quench your thirst


Soon you will return

I will gather wheat
With fingers break bread
Let my hands be your Holy Grail
They long to feed your hunger once again








Monday 2 December 2013

Like the Tide to the Moon

Fall in love ...

No

I shall rise in love

Like the tide to the moon

 Sweeping up

Facing toward

Releasing all that I am

 Into that sweet gravitational pull

Yes ...

Rising in Love

And high time I dare say

High tide time