Everything Changes

The corner of the garden was a bare tree

sullen empty grape vine stalks

browning lawn

wimpy broken leafed iris

Next time we go there together 

there will be flowers

oak leaves the size of your hand

hollyhocks blushing and blooming 

endless budding spires

What of grief you might ask

does it ever change

or does it too have its seasons

dense and ripe when it drenches you 

sharper than medieval swords it pierces you

never going away it transmutes

it is an alchemy

later than you can possibly think

grief releases its thousand secrets 

as it teaches your spirit to fly

#NaPoWriMo

#griefjourney

Ode to the Oak, the Garden Oak

New oak leaves beginning their stretch 

in the first light of true day

with blushing tips

clusters like ferns

they assert themselves as crowns of the garden

kingly oak

less common in the corridor of cottonwoods 

marking the riparian borders 

imagine its long arms shielding the rhododendron 

mimosa grateful for dappled sunlight

hung with bird houses for traveling finches

light drenched canopy 

coming into mightiness

#NaPoWriMo

#mightyoak

Earth Day 2023

 Because I am here now 

on this sun drenched sphere 

awash in seas

hosting life and consciousness 

recycling every breath

I believe being is eternal

not a flash through select moments 

nor the vanishing sense of hereness

but partaking in forever

time being water 

ever slaking thirst

it is what I feel in the shadow of trees

scent of orchids and wisteria 

expanding leaves of the spring oak

hear my celebration of our planet

roll on the grass with me and my dog

find the beings described by clouds

feel the light winds

one day we will dance into the waves

swim like ocean denizens

breathe water like air 

taking in time itself 

as we and earth and sky are one 

#NaPoWriMo

#EarthDay

Plant Sense

When the garden happens inside the house

euphorbia is a live sculpture 

so sensitive it sighs to feel your breath

trembles slightly when misted 

changes color with shifting light

plants around it grow visibly overnight

flower out of season

I wish I could hear its music

you know it is there

but not for our ears 

#NaPoWriMo

#indoorgarden

Dog Sense

My dog and I survey the day

his radio telescope ears shift with sounds only he can hear

his nostrils taste the air by the spoonful

winds are coming into this stillness 

to shake petals loose 

bend all trees in supplication 

send elm seeds ascatter like snowflakes

There is a chill to the dry air

my dog pushes aside the gate 

it being a mere suggestion 

he will patrol now

collect the daily information 

I wonder 

does he sense the newest leaves

hear the earthworms casting underfoot

what do the pending winds tell him

he sits patiently collecting in all his finely tuned senses

becoming ready

in tune with this place 

#NaPoWriMo

#mydog

#Winds

Transformative Vision

The unattractive back corners of life itself 

are open to redemption 

broken hearts or back pain

abandoned dogs or stacks of rubble

are waiting for a better offer

They said the aspen would die 

that it could not grow

the aspen knew better 

perhaps the companion crimson clover

sweetens the environment 

borage from last summer draws honeybees

this is but the beginning 

Summers to come will show the rest of the experiment

figs will ripen

raspberries and blackberries clambering upon one wall

grapes overhanging another 

tent of poles and peas

within my imagining more aspen 

a veritable grove 

with a hollowed stone bath for the birds 

the ones who nest in the trembling leaves

This is the greening city

urban transformation alley by alley 

dioramas 

oases 

butterfly secrets in the gardens 

of intention

#NaPoWriMo

#urbangarden

#Transformation

A Pause in a Hammock in the Forest

What is camping in the woods

but an adventure in hammocking 

a world apart 

grove of fragrant forest

to lie suspended 

face turned to the sky 

voices of birds 

book of poems in hand to stir the mind

here is what happens

you return to your life between walls

of necessity and time frames

you bring it with you 

peace of the forest

you remember

what your soul said as you gently swung 

replenishing the goblet 

water of life 

#NaPoWriMo

#forestbathing

#feedyoursoul