Becoming peace

What could possibly go wrong 

On a day that starts like this? 

That is not the question: 

We really should be asking 

How we can become this moment 

And carry it into the world, 

Bringing peace 

To all whose lives we touch?

Enraptured

An irresistible sunrise 

Pulled me out into the yard 

And across the lawn 

To the fragile edge of the cliff 

We’re told we’ll lose 

At some unnamed time 

In the hopefully distant future. 

But I can’t think of that now: 

I’m too enraptured 

By the colors in the sky.

Why?

Art can be so intriguing: 

Why would someone 

Build a phone booth 

Clad in cedar 

And fill it with 

 A meditative rabbit 

Pensively holding a phone? 

But then “Why?” 

Is a question I seem to be asking 

 All the time these days. 

Why?

Faces in the trees

Can you see the faces in the trees? 

To me, they look worried, 

As if they trusted us 

 To treasure and protect them, 

And they fear we may have failed.

 I fear the same…

Temporary losses

Pink and orange streaks 

Dance across an empurpled sky 

As an evening shared with family, 

Love, and laughter draws to a close. 

Yes, these are hard times: 

Illness and poverty the dark clouds 

Some must bear, and yet 

Affection and respect 

 Express themselves in teasing; 

The rosy edges that help lighten 

What we pray will prove to be 

Temporary losses.

On the fence

On close examination of this photo,

 You’ll discover

 That the reason this house can feature 

So many lovely flowers

 Is because they’re all protected From the deer’s depredations by a fence —

 A choice we have chosen not to make, 

Which leaves us largely flower- free.

Life’s interruptions

Life’s like this, from time to time, 

Like walking through a forest, dark and deep 

And then a patch of light appears, 

And maybe even something beautiful,

That doesn’t fit but somehow still belongs 

And cheers beyond all measure…

The sunset threat

Like the rhodies, 

We live with constant threat 

Of sunset; with the knowledge 

 That all things are subject 

 To change and loss; 

That petals and leaves 

 Turn brown and fall, 

That skies turn gray and blue again 

And so we celebrate 

 What joy we find in Now, aware 

This pleasure must also pass 

While others will emerge anew.

A sea of daisies

T'would be good if I could 

Be a boat afloat 

And sail on a sea of daisies...

The bad boy paradox

I think this picture helps to explain 

The whole bad boy phenomenon: 

It’s not that we can’t see 

That he’s threatening or destroying 

 Something important to us,

 It’s just that he’s so charming 

 We kinda forgive him…

Wisdom in the grass

It’s daisy season, 

And the fields are all awash with white: 

Chalk dusted on a field of green; 

Erasures on those green blackboards 

Of our youth, making me wonder 

What equations and quotations, 

What wisdom has been wiped from the soil

That we might still need to learn.

Equal distribution

This — I am embarrassed to confess — 

Will never be me. 

I have neither the courage nor the balance 

To attempt to stand on a paddleboard, 

Even, I suspect, if it were on level ground. 

What bravery and balance I do have, 

Expresses itself in other ways and other places, 

And I believe that, like intelligence, 

We all are given equal amounts, 

They’re just expressed in different ways…

Past times

There are times when the opportunity 

To capture a scene from another time 

Is irresistible…

Blue skies

Yesterday the sky was blue; 

Today it’s awash with clouds and gray, 

Which is not to say that makes the world

 Less beautiful, though possibly 

 Less distracting — either way,

 There’s still work to be done:

 A lawn to mow, a garden to weed, 

A poem to write, a protest to be made. 

Gray skies make it easier to do; 

A blue sky makes me long to stop and be.

In wildness is the preservation…

How is it 

 That some of the prettiest flowers in my yard 

Are not the ones we planted so carefully, 

But the ones that grow wild, 

In spite of all our labors?

Precious gifts

Nature presents us with so much beauty. 

How is it that so many people 

Can be so careless 

 With her precious gifts to us?

Window to the soul

If eyes are windows to the soul, 

Then what can a broken window tell us 

About what we see in its reflections? 

Are the parts that are boarded up 

To remind us of our blindness? 

And where the glass reflects: 

Is that because so much of what we see 

Is just projections and reflections 

Of ourselves? 

And that one small chance we have 

 To see through to the other side: 

Why is it so dark? What are we missing?

Fear of the future

It’s hard, when the sky looks like this, 

Not to be thinking of smoke and flames:

 It feels like a harbinger of wildfires to come. 

While surely it’s wise to be wary, 

Don’t let fear of the future detract 

 From the wonder of Now.

Delicious

The sky has been so beautiful 

 Both last night and this morning 

That though I know 

 I should save some for the future 

I cannot seem to choose just one 

To share with you.

 Like a chocolate cake or potato chips, 

Just a taste is never enough!

Noticing

All the choices that we made 

Whether wise or foolish 

Have brought us to this moment now: 

Standing here, beside the car, 

Preparing to leave, 

Watching as this bird pauses briefly on this branch. 

Now is all there is; This brief, precious connection, 

Until she flies away. 

Be present. Notice. Breathe.

Wishing you peace and joy

May you find some quiet time today, 

And use it to find peace and joy 

Within yourself, and then send both 

Out into our troubled world.

The invitation

The invitation is always there: 

To walk through the weeds — 

However distracting and appealing they might be — 

And step into a deeper, richer, consciousness, 

 To discover a new clarity of purpose.

Flocked

We got flocked yesterday 

By local high school students 

Raising money for a substance-free 

Graduation party. 

True confession: 

I loved having those flamingos in my lawn; 

Loved the ingenuity as well, 

And the sense that we are part 

Of this community.

But most of all I loved 

The little white one in the middle. 

I think the fawns are getting to me…

Accepting our boundaries

Whether you’re on the outside looking in 

Or on the inside looking out, 

Curiosity is clearly not unique to humans. 

That said, it can be counterproductive 

 To focus too obsessively 

 On what we cannot have or do 

And the boundaries of our circumstances 

 While failing to appreciate 

 The life we lead inside them…

A plethora of libraries

I love being in a community 

That sprinkles Little Free Libraries 

In every neighborhood, 

As common as the lilacs, iris, 

And lavender in spring.

Notice tenderness

When violence and cruelty,

 Insanity and injustice 

Seem to dominate the news, 

Noticing instances 

Of tenderness and compassion 

Can help restore your soul.

What the camera reveals

I took three pictures of this fence,

 But this is the only one in which 

The clouds, and even the lines of trees 

Echo the line of the fence; 

In which the camera noticed what I didn’t see — 

 And that’s the joy of photography: 

When the spirit moves you to take a picture, 

And it’s only later that you discover 

 The beauty that’s revealed…

Beneath the island

Those days when you feel like an island, 

Singled out by the clouds 

For either praise or injustice, 

It’s good to remember that beneath the sea 

We are all solidly connected, 

One to another and each to all.

Choosing to bloom

To choose to bloom 

When blooming will highlight 

The differences between you 

And those around you 

Will take courage…

 Bloom anyway!

Recovery

Having left a golden chain tree behind 

At a previous home, 

I longed to add one to our yard 

When we moved. 

So we planted one three years ago, 

But before we could fence it in 

The deer ate all its lower branches. 

For the next two years it stayed almost bare, 

Growing just a few leaves, 

But finally this year it has recovered 

 And sprouted glorious chains — A reminder:

We, too, with patience and time, 

Can recover from our losses.

Return to Eden

A garden is such a gift to all who walk in it: 

It’s as if, for just a moment, 

We were returned to Eden; 

To the original purity of the world.

Contortions

Mama was determined to rest,

 But baby was determined to suckle. 

Ah, the contortions we go through 

To get our needs met…

Island life

How blessed to be 

Living by the sea, 

In the shadow of 

 These glorious mountains!

Oyster lessons

Watching the oyster farmers: A gentle reminder 

That while the tide must come in for growth, 

The tide must go out

 If we are to harvest that growth.

 Highs and lows both have their place 

If we are to evolve.

Blessings

May peace and light fill your soul 

Today and every day.

Predator safety

We spent a quiet day, 

Punctuated by bursts of rainfall, 

Reading and occasionally watching

 A pair of geese who appeared to be nesting 

In the field below the house, 

When suddenly they flew off, 

And just as you started to call attention 

 To their departure, an eagle flew in 

And perched in the tree above the spot 

Where the geese had been foraging. 

Of course, we thought. No one feels safe 

When a predator is near.

Fifty shades of green

So many shades of green in my garden, 

Each a beautiful addition to the whole. 

So many shades of skin in the world, 

Each enriching the human garden. 

Why would we not include them all?

Take small steps

Little creatures, 

Placed outside a hospital window 

To brighten a patient’s day — 

A small thing, but it shows that someone cares. 

We needn’t berate ourselves 

For all the large ways we cannot change the world, 

But we CAN choose to take small steps that matter.

For the love of Iris

It’s amazing, 

After a long dark winter, 

How much pleasure 

A single flower can bring.

A moment of stillness

Wishing you moments of stillness 

And peaceful reflections 

To soothe you in a turbulent world.

Mountain glory

The colors, the textures, 

The layers of clouds… 

Some mornings the mountain 

 Just blows me away: 

So grateful to live in her presence!

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day 

To all — male or female — 

Whose hearts ache just a little 

On seeing this new fawn; 

For whom the sight of vulnerability 

 Inspires a longing to protect: 

We are the ones 

 Who will give life to the future; 

We are the keepers of the earth.

Lavender season

I couldn’t resist this drive-by shooting 

As I headed out of town yesterday morning. 

It’s lavender season here, 

And sometimes the plants are so amazing 

We don’t even notice the beauty of 

The manmade structures behind them…

Imagining more snow

After weeks of painting dark and gloom, 

A little burst of joy, 

Imagining a larger snowcap 

In our mountains than what’s fallen 

 To a mere 36% of its usual grandeur — 

Which means drought, already proclaimed for our state. Why bad news would inspire light 

I cannot claim to know, but still I’m grateful…

That undertone of sadness

The rhodies are blowsy with color, 

The lavender purples my view, 

The Queen Anne’s lace is sparkling, 

The golden chain has chained at last, 

The fawns are frolicking on the lawn, 

And even the sky is blooming with color, 

Why, then, this undertone of sadness?

Dual awareness

To hold both in your consciousness — 

The beauty that is near to hand 

And the beauty of the distant scene — 

Is practice for the challenge 

 Of comprehending simultaneously 

 Awareness of both the me that is your body 

And the me that is your inner aliveness, 

The spirit that animates that body. 

To know and rejoice in both 

Is to be whole and fully human.

First fawn

I watch with joy as the first fawn of the season 

Crosses my driveway with his tired-eyed mom, 

And I grow teary-eyed watching him nurse 

And romp about beneath my neighbor’s apple tree. Welcome to the world, Little One.

Peace offering

May the quiet peace of an early morning 

Fill your heart and restore your soul.

A call to justice

Some sunsets are simply irresistible: 

A sweeping, magnificent, breathtaking call 

To Hope, Faith, and belief 

That surely something 

Greater than ourselves 

Is capable of redemption; 

Restoration of the values 

Our forefathers worked so hard to put in place…