The Burning (One)

I live here in this land

I was just moving along 

In the same routine as always

Moving, meandering aimlessly along

The sky was darkening

But it was getting brighter all the same

I thought I heard it whisper my name

But then I thought I must have been in the narrow hallways

For far, far too long

Again, again, this time in song

I heard sound call, and call again

A voice of reds and blues and yellows and brights

A view of sky and sheer delights

Was on a bright display

I had a choice to make this day

Keep moving

Or Turn Aside

I wanted to hide from the decision

Not wanting to face any dark derision

But at the same time knowing deep within

There was something more here than fanciful whim

So I turned to see, and I saw

A tree

On Fire

Somewhere, somehow my heart’s Desire

Was burning right here in this place

No time, no logic, no scene, no space

Could match with what I knew here

I was looking at the One

So I stayed here for a while

I heard nothing else

Nothing else but Beauty

Who kept playing the changing lyrics of the song

The day was short, the tones were long

And in the silence I could here the whisper of the call

This invitation to give my all

To simply gaze upon the Beauty

The One who is above all time

The One who is the end of all signs

And the beginning of all the differences

I shed my shame, I then gave all deference

To this One in front of me

I see the city where I wasn’t born

The place where everything seems foreign and strange

I see the palms off in the distance

Calling me to different shores, to rearrange

This insane desire to chase what isn’t seen 

And replace it with what is sure

But I have been down that road before

And it has nothing in its ending

Nothing in its middle, nothing in its beginning

Because all of it falls into the wastelands

The wastelands known as “Meaningless”

I long more for the light’s caress

So therefore I will simply stay here

I listen to the singing

In it I don’t hear the church bells ringing

But rather I hear the dance of happiness

From the ones who live their lives in contentment

From the ones who have found the keys

The keys to all true freedoms

I return my gaze, my attention to the tree

I guess this is where I always will be

I guess this is where I will stand

So I gaze once again on these foreign lands

I thank Wisdom that I have stopped running 

To get here

Because

Because

Because 

Your love brings music to my soul

  Passion to my doldrums 

  Peace to my chaos

  Serenity to my wind tossed seas

  So in gratefulness to my knees 

  I bow

  And ask you to marry me 

   all over again

   Again and again

   And again and again 

   To call you my wife, my lover, my friend

   Is the most beautiful sound that I know

Within these tunes and tones our love does grow 

Into the hum of the mighty mountains

Eternal

Strong

Sentinel 

Beyond

What anyone could ever hope or wish for

That is what this gift means to me

So that is why I give it to you

To hear the sounds of our love travel across the lands

Across the seas

Into our gardens

Amongst our trees

I am forever home with you

Emerge

 Emerge

I have stayed in my place

Rooted into the deep cool earth

Surrounded by design and purpose

Yet my branches were barren and cold

I felt I might be getting too old

And shivered at the thought of the end

But then the daylight grew longer

The chill of the night began to waver

I felt a stirring amongst the stillness of the snows

Despite the dark and the cold, my hope still grows

Then one morning it simply happened

Greenery, life began to appear

Rushing over my former barrenness like delicate waterfalls

An abundance

An overflowing of beauty and elegance and grace

I once again can lift my face

To see the wonders of the coming sun

I have emerged

And won.

2/9/18

Daffodil

Daffodil 

I don’t like it when creativity will not come

I sit here staring at a screen

Having thousands of things to say

That all seem to mean nothing at all

I think too much

I wonder what difference will it all make

Unfortunately it seems the answer is always the same

Nothing

But can that be true?
Can a pebble be thrown into the sea

And not a ripple be made?
Can a butterfly flap it’s wings

And it not be felt far, far away?
Or is that even what I am here for anyway

To make some sort of major upheaval

Maybe I am a daffodil

I come forth quietly on the waves of warm sun

I spring forth for a time

I show forth beauty

I cause someone I don’t even know to smile

I’ve fulfilled my worthwhile

Then I go back into the earth to replenish the next

I have touched

I am a part

Of Eternity

2/7/18

Sighs

Sighs

There are days I want to quit my poetry

Then I have to ask the question “why?”

It seems no one really reads it much

No one really cares

It seems if there’s no wild video attached

Nothing that catches stares

Then it is to be avoided, discarded

We can’t be wasting time with things that don’t waste our time

I must ask the question “Why?” again

But this time for why I write to begin

With

See, I get to play with words

I get to express my joys

Wrestle with concerns

I guess it really doesn’t matter if it’s read or not

Though it would be nice to see who’s in the same lot 

As I 

I sit here and release a sigh

That seems to come from a deeper place

I wonder if my soul, my face

Will ever find what it’s meant to be looking for

A random line, a menial chore

All these things seem to break into the existence

A copied lung, a bleak resistance

I go dwelling in worlds I know nothing about

Places where quiet, not screams or shouts

Tend to draw the most attention

Do you ever sense the power of tension?

I surely do. Every day.

It seems to be the life, the way

Of living life like there is no tomorrow

Empty Train

Empty Train

I was sitting in the park today

Reading a good book

Watching my young children play

I heard the sound of the approaching train

Off in the distance

Beyond the river

The train came by

Crossing the river on the great, high bridge

Making quite the commotion

Stopping the traffic

Turning heads

No longer reading, I felt a notion

Then I noticed something

The engines were pulling nothing

Nothing but empty cars

No goods

No solutions

Nothing, nothing at all

Just empty car after empty car

Disrupting the placidity of the afternoon

At first I thought

“What a waste,

What a waste of time, of resources

What a waste to haul nothing around at all.

All this nothing cacophony disturbing our thrall.”

But then I thought, “What if they are returning the emptiness

To the place where it can be filled again?”

What if wisdom, our eternal friend,

Is trying to teach me to see things in a whole new way?

What if wisdom is trying to say

“Don’t assume all of this emptiness is a waste”?

Sometimes I have to give up the less I’m holding onto

In order to grasp the more

Sometimes I have to carry my emptiness

To a place where I can be filled again, implore

I must cross the rivers, traverse the mountains

Find someone with whom I can be a friend

Make plenty of noise for all to know

My emptiness is there for fulness to flow

Turn Aside (again)

In a year where I am convinced a major theme for me is “Rest and Restoration” I have had some crazy, crazy days. So much so I haven’t written much at all. So the other day I am heading in for another busy day, and….well…I’ll let the poem tell you the rest.

Turn Aside

I was simply marching this morning

Marching as I always do

Day after day

An obedient servant to the power of the clock

Time marches on, so must I

So must I in this eye for an eye world

But then

I looked to the right

It was the sunlight

I hadn’t seen it for days

The yellow-orange clouds and haze

Diffused the light into my very soul

I felt it enter in

And beckon me to turn aside

I paused, just for a moment

The green, wet grass was the forbidden path

The concrete pointed my appointed way

But I decided to do something very different this day

I turned aside

I walked a short way

The closer I came to the mountains distant

The brighter the sunlight became

I came to the place where I could no longer go

Knowing now the day would no longer be the same

I just stood there

Sunlight peaking over Mount Lassen

Mists spreading through the valley

There was such a beauty there it could not be denied

there was a magic released when I turned aside

As I stood there I felt I must take a photo

I took it

But it did not do the scene justice

One could not feel the invigorating air

One could not hear the birds song rising

One could not sense the peace of compromising

All that I knew to be right for this beauty

I finally had to go my way

I wished in this moment I could longer stay

But the sun was rising

The light hurting my eyes

I was glad to observe the colors of skies

That I would never have noticed 

Without turning aside