Possibly seen in another time

 The Earth is Plainspoken

Once I knew what the trees know

Connected root by root 

Their underground messaging 

Accepting mysteries

Once I knew what the fish know

Earth shaking water splashing

Deep diving then just swimming

There is deep change upon us 

The world stays the same

Until it does not

This is what volcanoes tell us

This is where we are at home

Where the sky bleeds in beauty

Oceans sigh 

We are simply creatures seeking meaning

Where is the meaning in the stream

What do wildflowers do

Do we speak the language of metamorphosis?

Things They Say

 Live your life as if it is the only life 

Drink the Negroni - drink two

Buy the boots - those red boots with the stitching

Show up for the eclipse 

Drive that convertible

Swim in the ocean every chance you get

Shake the pebbles out of your shoes

Learn the names of trees

Raise your expectations like kites in the breeze

Live in a way that you trust yourself to do right

Find laughter

Stomp in piles of fall leaves

The list goes on forever 

Old style love

 Love in the crumbling years

brings to mind those trees with gnarled trunks

their skin cracked 

branches gone leaving nature hewn resting places

sparrows alight there 

life sap finding its way through old twigs 

feeding new green leafing out

Old trees their roots entwined

having shared their stories

each wind inspires their dance

that dance never grows old

Amid the surface roots poppies grow

mosses appreciate damp dewed mornings

moonlight lost amongst the shared canopy 

tells tales of wandering the sky

there to observe the building of pyramids and canals 

Telling us this

time might well be infinite

as love 

#NaPoWriMo

What to do with secrets

 NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo

A poem a day for the poetry month of April

The sky at first appearance gray as any white car

left out of doors for a dry season

collecting a layer of dust

then as you look longer

the sky becomes more like marble

irregular white above gray

where closer to the light cast by the sun there is brilliance

Today is cold spring without ice here near the river 

while a few miles north a fresh blanket of snow lies over everything 

here overnight grape leaves have opened a full inch

lilac buds though like sleepy eyes trying to stay closed

It is said it will freeze again here this month

if so today is a warning to still tight buds to wait

there is a time for casting aside caution 

a time for revealing what is closely held  

or to hold back a bit longer

As for secrets

your people might think them delicious 

until they swallow them and discover they are thorns

better ground into dust and swept out with detritus 

of all used up things

#NaPoWriMo

Emergent Spring

She comes trailing tresses of catkins

skirts embroidered with johnny jump ups

purple and gold blossoms

leaves greener than promises of riches

bold iris swords 

laughing clumps of daffodils 

lilac buds swollen almost to bursting

Precious white bird

unseen for many days

he thrived throughout the coldest months

I will not think of what might have happened 

I celebrate that he graces my life

brings his aura of peace 

acceptance

blessings of all that is 

grateful for his lingering presence 

beyond the earthly being

Claimed by the wild

as we all are

in our time 

vanished it might be into the mystery 

perhaps to return in some form

or not 

🕊️

Encountering Winter

 I walked out into the morning

deliberate in my intent to encounter

winter in its bleakness

gray light bare branches

dried up brown leaves clinging to vines

this is not the white winter I came for

but the flat season that came for me

then a familiar soft sound 

turned my head in another direction

white bird in the land of enchantment 

appears within seconds 

his hello accompanied by rustle of wings

we exchange greetings across species

he brings the wild 

the uncertain

the mystery 

close

he brings all this like the shroud of cold air 

someone brings inside 

from the facts of winter

Solstice

 Not here and not now

yet some winter road tells a story

of the shortest day

the longest night

This snow a simple driftless dusting

it sits lightly upon the trees

waiting quietly for new leaves 

buds tight and shiny

for now bare branches where crows alight

All who do not flee for warmer places 

light the flames

hands made warm by winter grogs in hefty cups

hearts gladdened by what is here

by what has passed

Here is the solstice 

there will be more light tomorrow