un-comfort-able

sometimes you just hate everything
even the cat who really can't be blamed
even the way people try to reach out to you
especially the words that bounce like loose arrowheads
off echoing white-washed walls
sometimes you just hate everything

Inspiration #2

something enters our vision
something tiptoes
into our room
we resist the urge to capture
we pull down the shades and listen

Inspiration

inspiration

something enters our vision
something tiptoes into our room
we remove our shoes and listen

In Truth There Will Be Many Paths

In truth there will be many paths


Some may beckon
paved with quiet mantras,
stolen lines from Shakespeare
or His Holiness
The Dalai Lama.
To find your way
among these warriors
may seem
daunting
like seeking footprints
washed away,
an impossible
Hansel and Gretel task.

And still you slow
discover what to sow
in order (once again)
to find your way:
seeds of compassion,
the quality of mercy,
an opening
to the heated knowing
behind oven doors
long sealed shut
for your own protection.

With courage
fear's steel band softens;
confusing mind sludge
thins and flows.
Where once panic rose
soft silence
now reveals
the beating of your heart.

Trails blazed by others
become a distant call;
the imprint
of your own past journeys
suffuses every joint and muscle,
adventurous flesh
grows over long-neglected bones.

Roots of change
slowly secure each new step,
unfamiliar horizons beckon
bringing hope
to those lost children within,
now freed from being eaten
by the minds of those
who came before.

dissipation

My words fall into the dark well
of your silence
the sense of connection
detaches
descends
finds the vessel
where once we played
hollow
empty

towards not drowning in our sorrows

rooftops tap morse code
raindrops relay ancient grief
moonlight will return

thoughts of you

Cattails almost spent
Red-winged blackbirds call their young
Shadows threaten rain

birthday rap

this is a birthday rap for You
all my friends and myself, too
we're bathed in a sea of amber rose
covered in love from our head to toes
sometimes we falter
sometimes we fret
it's oh so easy
to forget
with eyes that close and can't see how
we've holding available
here
and now
reaching out can be so hard
we'd rather stay curled in our ward
of walls that keep us in our wombs
just our own music
making us swoon
but when we sense the hearts of others
turns out we care for one another
emerging from our undergrounds
connections always can be found
so here's to all of us, hooray
we're given at least one more day
to stretch and touch
to celebrate
the truth of love
it's never too late!!!

more haiku

the day stretches you
captive in imagined needs
evening calls your name

sometimes in the morning

your face appears before me
glitter and shine
all rounded edges and holding
satin patchwork quilt enfolding
me while my sharpened teeth
bare their essential furor
ready to rip off chunks of the
irascible young one within.


Bowing to you
divine essence within
breathing into you
i remember she is hurting
tender places need protection
she does the best she can to give voice
to all that rises within

we return to that which is not finished
we surrender to that which in the end unleashes
we lift our hearts to find what lies beneath

love is indeed the opening door