The Moment

Often at sunset

when the sky is a series of colors indescribable 

But every one of them a hue of violet and rose

It is at that moment I realize

There is a greater world

There is a reality more real than the one I know

It’s not that I don’t like the skies of blue

But it’s that these colors, these phases, these hues

Are stepping stones to a more lovely place

I can almost feel the air

it is alive

These moments are the moments living is all about

These moments are the moments my heart lets out a shout

Because it sees the things that I don’t see

It feels the things that I have never felt

Nor could ever feel

And survive to relive the experience

I simply wish sometimes these moments were eternal

Because I always realize that they are

K, Duane Carter 4/21/12

Sunset Morning

Sunset Morning

I step into another sunset morning

Where my eyes are closed

And I see the dreams

The place where I don’t know what anything means

Yet I know that it means everything

I hear the rhythms of distant stars

They awake the heavens and 

Dance does meet

With the sounds of the baby’s kicking feet

Even as she is hidden in womb

The wonder calls us all from the tomb

To taste, to smell, to dance, to live

To wonder, to know, to love, to give

Then I awake to amber skies and

The sounds of sunrise

I cry out to the top of my lungs

From the very depths

Life bursts from me, and it continues on

It’s time to rise

Time to shine

The light is on my face

And it comes from His

I awake to the amber skies

The sounds of sunrise

I am truly alive

K, Duane Carter 4/8/12  Happy Easter!

Mountain of Smoke

Mountain of Smoke

I stand at the base of the mountain of smoke

No thunder, no fire, no trumpets

Just stillness, quiet, wind

In the distance soft

An ancient flute begins to sing

Just stillness, quiet, and wind

And the sound of God walking in His garden

The opportunity rises again

Once again I am given a choice

Walk in the mists

Or not

I step upward

Gasping for air

But I won’t turn around

For I want the cloud to consume me

Yet it already has

I step onward

Gasping for air

I cannot turn around

I want the cloud to consume me

For it already has

K, Duane Carter 4-7-12

Reclining

Reclining

I could sit here in this chair all day

Pondering the mysteries and wonders before me

And when the day is over and done

I am deeper into the struggle than ever before

Knowing less but feeling more

Closer to You than ever before

Closer to me

I can watch the sweeps dance across the waters

I can see the ducks resting in the rain

As I sit here in this recliner seeing it all

Writing out a simple refrain

I sense I am walking to something deeper

Something beyond the dark and the pain

Though I am more still than I have ever been

The rain keeps on falling and falling

The water keeps on accepting the earth

The sound of its music brings laughter

Its moisture brings clouds in the mirth

Heightening mirth more than ever before

Changing the sounds of the earth

Closer to You than ever before, still even closer to me

The wind has joined in with the laughter

The grasses now see they are green

It reminds me that my heart is a flower

It blooms in the realms that aren’t seen

Changing the sounds of the earth

Closer to You than ever before

Ever closer, even closer to free

I see

K, Duane Carter 3/24/12 

Is. 61

Isaiah 61

I sometimes wonder if there is no greater prison

Than the one I’ve built around myself

I wonder if I have worn a mask for so long

That I cannot even recognize myself

I don’t realize who’s doing the thinking, the talking

Nor the acting

I’ve locked the doors, and never had a key

Or if I did, I’ve long lost it

Back in the dreams of my childhood

Now those are just mists over distant mountains

As I grab another chain and place it on my feet

I hear of a distant Wanderer

One who knows His way

Yet no one else ever knows

I wonder if I lifted my voice one time

Loud enough to shake the earth

I wonder if He would respond to the tremors

Or would He rather smell the scent of angels

Instead of darkened earth

And tattered flesh

I feel a nervous silence in the masking

I feel the chains cringe in the asking

I immediately know

A whisper released will raise the dust

Healing oil comes from the rust

While a fragrance of hope begins to fill the air

I just released a whisper there

For that is the only thing I ever had

The earth does tremor, but

It isn’t my voice that did it

Rather it was a distant roar

And then a rumbling of the running

Something, someone running

While the earth shakes

And the sunlight comes through the cracks of the wall

The shaking is breaking my prison

Suddenly I am quite afraid

What am I supposed to do when I get out of here?

It seems this is the only place I have ever known

Who am I supposed to be when I am released?

It seems this the only way I have ever known

The rumbling is now an earthquake

I can’t even stand on my feet

And the last thing I remember

Is everything I’ve known collapsing all around me…

And the smell of Love…

K, Duane Carter 2-18-12

Walks are good...

I am walking along

a place so quiet

I can hear the wings of the moth beat

I can hear the grass sway in the wind

yet

I cannot hear the river

So I keep walking along

I hear the quail chirping in the blackberries

I hear the duck wings as they fly swiftly by

yet

I cannot hear the river

So I keep walking along

humming a song

that flows from the river within

I lift my eyes

to late winter skies

It is more the beginning of spring

before I realize anyone, anything

I see the river

Rising up before me

yet

before I saw it

I heard it

It was then I knew

K, Duane Carter 2-16-12

Hope

Hope

I am swaying in the wind

Anchored to this earth

Yearning for the mirth

Of flight and fancy and feast

Yet leafless and among the least

I reach for sky, reaching through the why

Longing to breathe the incense

The colors they do speak to me

They speak of freedom and royalty

Which is where I’m told I am

I reach out to grab the wind, the hand

All the while moving in circles

Yet there is promise, yet there is hope

I find beauty in the presence

Life in the smoke

I feel the roots to the earth are strengthening

All while the promise of new green breaks through

The clouds speak of a new tomorrow

And the start of a new today

K, Duane Carter 1-26-12