Late night treat
If it doesn’t gush out
It’s not blood
Or true
Is it bloody false?
If it doesn’t kill you
It’s not horrible
Or painful
Is it horribly beautiful?
Can we mince words like meat
And get something no one will eat?
Do words get all sweet and sour in your mind
But taste funny on your tongue?
Is figurative dance an aphrodisiac?
Or an act of defiance
By those who don’t dance, thank you very
much.
What does it make me if I’d rather make up
words
Than my face?
Rather play with words than drugstore dreams?
Can we sleep on it or
Do you get in your bed while I seem to float
above mine
Testing deeper shores of metaphor and rhyme
Reason always seems to arrive
Before turning on my coffee pot in the morning
But then again I can be terribly polite
In my
Caffeinated state
Feed me words for breakfast
And watch me soar
Housework
The wind is unrelenting in its
Request
Blowing into each open window
Like it belongs among the
Dust and debris
Of my half packed house
It feels urgent that i
Stand firm
Bending like a tree
Stay on the path
But accept the resistance
That I keep facing
To be present
Experience the swirling chaos
And the calm centre
To start moving forward
Aware of what’s holding me
Together
Not regretting change
Or chance
Feeling momentum building
But keeping daily tasks going
At a steady pace
Load the washer
Clean the dishes
Dust the mirror
Reflect only on what I can
See in front of me
Here
In me
It’s hard to see forever
With your eyes shut
I’m not stuck in a poem
I’m stuck in a life
That tried to
Build a house with
A fence
Leaving the poems
Outside
When I opened the
Windows
And the dust
Cleared
It was the poetry
That came beaming
In with the sun
He asked her on a date
Even the question
Came out foreign
A phrase he rarely spoke
Like a wonderful exotic
Magical expedition
Had been proposed
She had not gone out
In years
Before children had slept in her bed
More surprised that
He wanted to be seen in
Public with
Her again
Than that she saw
This small moment
To say yes
Greet her like a horizon
At the end of a long
Tunnel
Glances echoed off their
Faces
Hands and thumbs played
Lap games
Eager not to disappoint the other
The next morning
After some weak
Peppermint tea
She thinks she’s finally
Ready to
Say
yes
Home
The rhythmic, pounding
Pulse
Pulls out of me
What years of
Pushing
Never could
I have become undone
In another world
Birthed into being
By sound
I see you sleeping
and want more than anything
To colour your dreams happy
To remove the harsh looks and words from our
morning
To wet your cheek one more time with my kisses
To touch your scalp naked against my palm
To remember how precious you are
Awake
When you swallow every gesture of mine with
blind faith
And grow up
In spite of me
Eight haiku: Steps to Freedom
Tight fit for my grief
Words spoken, eyes averted
I got canned today
Foible future fears
Relax, it’s all in right time
Perfect time for pie
Empty space fills quick
Rubble and regret fall down
To keep me human
Light lighter than air
Escapes from my lungs on fire
Words burn on the page
Enough is enough
Leave your umbrella at home
Let the sky fall down
Keep the words coming
Nothing left to lose at all
Gain some peace instead
Provoke poems out
You know you can taste them now
Dripping from your heart
See past the mountain
Follow the stars and the birds
the way is clear now
Ease at the moment
Feels like
Creating a linoblock print
Precise
Narrow cuts
Angular and separate
Each surrounded by just enough space
To form a cohesive image
One slip
In any direction
Can distort the purpose
Destroy clarity
Blur the final product
Ease at the moment
Feels like thick ink
Waiting to be pressed into service
Heavy with anticipation
Anxious about when the fated act will happen
If it will hurt
If losing some of itself to a greater purpose
Makes the mess easier to clean up
Ease at the moment
Feels like the blank page
Radiant with longing
Beaming its intentions out into the studio
Knowing the artist can sense its presence
Aware that soon its purpose will be fulfilled
Grateful at the opportunity to serve
To display and uplift a vision greater than
itself
Ease at the moment
Takes me to the bottom of the page
To the end of this poem
Past the moment of doubt and
insecurity
Into the fulfillment of creation
And back into the calm
Of knowing
I am at
Ease in
This
Moment
Elevate
Alleviate
Elude the dark small talk
enter the light
entrance the one who waits
listening to the words still wet on your tongue
elongate your vision
ease your soul onto the sofa
drink tea and hold hands
envision more for yourself
than dirty dishes in the sink
and what to make for dinner
embrace the possibility that
they expect more from you
than clean clothes
and a full lunch box
you are being watched
for what you bring into the room
their lives
the smiles and tears
staying close to hear their fears
standing by when they want to be alone
keeping the lines open
Love leads
grace dances
life heals
Begin again
In the spiral of nothingness
To gravitate
To grieve
To gratify the immortals
To be guided towards greatness by the
whisper of the wind
To wallow thoroughly in your humanness
To dig your knees deep into the ground
Begin again
At the altar or pew
In dark, the dusk, the candlelight
will do
Begin again
To feel the ground beneath your feet
To smell the sea in the air
To see your breath through the tears
To remember that once again
To begin again
You must sense the timing and the
meaning
We stumble onto our knees
Desperate to be released from our own
stubbornness
Our pride – the last ditch effort to
outdo the universe
Thinking only we can provide control
and collide
The ground is hard and comforting
A railing – perhaps a tree or a bed
– holds us up
Through the night we ache
To be nature – natural again
To feel with our senses the sensual
pattern of nature
The ebb and flow of knowingness –
willingness
To turn with the tide instead of
against it
To breathe in the air instead of
trying to keep it out of our lungs
To escape into the dark – to find
meaning here in the silence and
Imagery of the soul
Earth longing for herself within the
willing spirit of a mortal
Cosmic Relations
The biggest blessing
The biggest burden
Pour out of his mouth
Simultaneously
Every path leads out of town
Homes float on their foundations
The sky has been liquid turmoil
For days
The weirdest taste of
Relief
I’ve ever had
Fills every cell in my body
The world smells like
Lilacs
Potential unfurling
Each breath caught
In my chest
Releases a longing
Not yet met
Sadness is washed away
In the storm
Of a life lived
Inside a heavy cloud
When Venus kisses
The sun tonight
I can watch
in sync with the
Signs no one can confirm
Two
once in a lifetime events
In a week
Must be something to this thing called
Destiny
cheating time and circumstance
she finds some old poems
still containing Real
Truth
words spilled from her heart
to the page
distilling essence to be shared
she decides in her own favour
makes a request - a veto
and dissolves the pressure
of a deadline
the party starts
everyone knows the right song to sing
the way to feel in this moment
she extends herself
stretches the window open
to let the butterflies escape
birds cheer at her discoveries
light fills the room
she puts on another pot of coffee
and races back to the attic
there must be more where
that came from
before eating lunch
as the end draws near
she feels relief
that finally what she thought
was true, buried beneath
waves and piles of ‘woe is me’
there is a girl
who still has her feet in the ocean
looking up at hidden stars
in broad daylight
arms outstretched
embracing her immortality
amid strangers on a coastline
before eating lunch
one day in late July
she held onto that
connection
the knowing
through years of storms
and currents that pushed and
pulled on the milky threads
trying to untangle her from
all the greatness and guidance
flowing through her spirit
she opens her eyes and sees once again
the great ships waiting in the horizon
the colorful pebbles beneath her feet
birds circling with wisdom
light surrounding her
lifting the sand from her eyes
revealing her Delighted Essence
just in time
{June 2012}
Cleaning House
I feel like
If I keep starting at the front of the house
Over and over
Seeking out cobwebs and weeds
Clearing clutter
Reorganizing found objects
I will never be done
Never see the backyard and all the
Junk
That’s piled up
While I was making my face
Look pretty
Caffeinated states
Arouse strange suspicions
Paranoia at 10 am is a perfectly insane example
The coffee perks up possibilities of sabotage
and missing keys
Of sudden jerky displays of bodily
mismanagement
Caffeinated states
Push through the dull ache of lectures and
afternoon naptime
Rushing our senses through the mushy fog of
dehydration and the need for a chunk of fruit
We flock to the headquarters on each corner
Bruising bumpers and cracking cars open on
occasion
It’s all a blur in our
Caffeinated states
The urgency to refill, remove the void of
clarity and conscious choice from our grey matter
We joke about it at the water cooler
With mugs and takeout cups substituting for the
real thing
Anxious to fit in, say the right things, get
the right combination of cream and sugar for the boss
Caffeinated states start young
Take our agile minds and warp them into a
laboratory rat’s learned response
We filter nothing
Buy the cheapest grinds
Use any water we can find
Take it all for granted
Are offended by the time it takes to brew
another cup
To keep our
Caffeinated states
Brewing through another busy day.
A mind struggling to find logic
The SPIRIT saying
Let It Be
The body caught between
Emoting thought and wholeness
Beneath the appearance of separate
All reflect and are each other
No thought is alone
We are not alone with our thoughts
They come to One from the Many
It is our desire to stand out
Above
Beyond the crowd that
separates us
From ourselves
Denies our true nature
As one uni
verse
a song of ONE for ONE
one song is all there is
is all we are
need
be
you and I are not different
we belong
Yearn for yourself
Sing to the moon
Be warmed by the sun
Ease into the chorus
Embrace the melody
We are one
{May 2012}
Body Break
It’s like gathering the sounds
Away
Tucking your necessities into a
Car and escaping the hum
The buzz and chatter of
Electrically operated machines
And gadgets
Long enough to hear the
Pulse again
To remember and realize
Its humbling
Nurturing -
Effects on your soul
As you breathe in the crisp air
Right off the lake
Sense the elements piling
Themselves into your skin
In microbial bits of dust and ash
As you feel life flow into you
And mingle
With the fresh air and cold beer
You begin to reimagine
Your nature
Your place in nature
The natural place for you
In the vacation paradise
Of earth
Your destination for
Soul searching adventures
A Polite Thank You
In a girlish little voice
The woman still
Surprised
At the response
To her voice
Her vision
Alive in the world
Despite -
In respite -
Of all her silent, unsung
Girlhood dreams
Lost, abandoned
Crushed on the other shore
The woman consents to acknowledge her reality
{after listening to Sarah McLachlan on youtube. . .}
8 years from now
I could be singing in the choir
Of modern angels
Doing real work
On the earth
I could be writing my soul
On cave walls
On dining room tables
On people
I could be crying
Joy
Relief
Alone and with others
my heart wide open
I could be quilting
Fusing fabrics and
Colors and love
In a tizzy of joy
I could be laughing
With friends
My growing children
My life mate
All the way home
I could be me
Fuller
Exposed
Glowing
Radiant
I could be
Dancing
Leaping
Working it all out
my real live Technicolor dreams
I
Could
Inspired by this lovely blog post by Leonie
Dawson
http://www.goddessguidebook.com/how-to-say-yes-even-when-it-scares-the-bejeezus-outta-ya/
{May 31, 2012}
Over and over
Incessantly
The robin reminds me to
Tend my nest
Weave the words
Be ready be joyful
Begin
