Dark water
of other countries
wild northlands
the splashing sea at night
bump and rocking of water
tangle of ropes and nets
swell of waves list and blister
splinter like thorns, swelling of wood
safe a place to anchor
these stars between clouds
maps, little sparks
to guide us home.

Lilting lake of music
echoes, birds, your watery world
I am fully undone in clear turquoise depths
glacial waters blind me to all else
I dream to walk across, song of you deep in heart
at the edge I stare gazing, a bird of dawn
alas, to dream, to be one with earth

Far away
it must have been another world or looked a different planet,
the earth red as fire all the mountains wide, dawn of painted skies
banyan trees caressed the landscape, we rested under, dreaming
words echoed through vast rock walls
that seemingly had no end
drifting up and out the canyon, mingling with clouds
to fly away with birds, the words are floating in the air
connecting all the world
in the birdsong
that we hear

amber jeweled room
mountain mist of curtain lifts
sunlight drinks the day

Last night, so enlightening
the full flower moon, illuminating
somehow brightening our words
the sun had gone, taking only the birds
leaving the sky of red mars, the alluring stars
you and I, naked traipsing through the woods
the blazing moon of firelight through the trees
a splendorous love potion, we drank the night, celestially

Harsh the winds, canyons - deep your drowning
echoes mirrored a lifetime looked upon
sun slept, darkness crept calling
lift the shade, peace parade
roses laid a silken path or
reign the muddied road
all for you to choose
finding your way
toward home

When white wings, feathery scatter
silent as snowflakes gather
resting on rooftops
a soul does not linger
but flies in the vastness
of forever

Like some birds in clouds
we've never seen, though
felt in rain, or wilds
Swift a rush that chills
and floods the heart unknown,
a gift of truth reveals
that which eyes cannot look upon,
and only hearts
can feel

When white wings, feathery scatter
silent as snowflakes gather
resting on rooftops.
In death, does a soul linger,
does it fly in the vastness
of forever?

Like some birds in clouds
we've never seen, though
felt in the rain, and wilds.
Swift a rush that chills
and floods the heart unknown,
a gift of truth reveals
that which eyes cannot look upon,
and only hearts
can feel.

The taste of your mouth
it exploded, salt bright
upon my lips and I fell
reckless, haphazard
as the night was - of shooting stars
blushed, bright flashed, gleaming.
I fell, the thump and tumbling
of hearts, by the moon, love spun.
Your arms, bands of gold, bronze
gathered me - each part
like stars, one by one.

Oh, bird how can you sing?
and today of all days you bring
little twigs and colors green
to fall among dead flowers.
Do you know of this lost garden?
How can your heart beat so
amidst such troubled, sorrow?
Still you fly joyous in the morning sky
lighting hearts afire in the early dawn
long before the sun.

Soon came horizontal rain, leaving green music
willowy fingers played the Spring, white explosion
dogwoods on the lawn, to sail salt rivers of ocean
blossomy boats, float puddles
petals returning home

In the gathering fields
wild grasses brush across
our warm brown skinned legs
stopping only for brightly colored flowers
indian paintbrush, red as blood
with yellow specks of sun
a summer meadow of swirling birds
speak in secret soulful words
pensive penetrating songs
circling round our heads, whistling
bird songs, that carry us home

green forest child
you grow in sponge drenched soils  
drawing me in - an epiphyte longing
sunlight piercing raindrops
of lettuce lichens drinking
mosses soaked, greening
softly underfoot

Someone's at the door, he wants to know me
I am lonely as a thousand dark winters
and because of the deep blue of you,
the wrecked sea of you and me
and much to my chagrin
I will not let him in.

When I am a thousand miles away
and you are seemingly a million more
here where I trade the sun for rain
dwell in the intermittent patches of grey
I distract myself in gardens green
study madala art of spider weaves
decaying, diaphanous maple leaves
the cool of wet mud wriggling around my toes
and yesterday the black birds watching me
disturbingly, the cawing crows
and I could hardly think or speak
as I dialed you long distance on the phone.

So came the days,
long of summer's winging
sweet the cherry chickadees sang
of June

Grasping leafy ribbons hung,
willowy warm the trees we swung
All the green - the frog soliloquy pond

Fritillaria, frilly forest fronds
grassy mountain meadow paths,
daisy clouds bloomed, swirling past
Wild geese flocked the lake,
dusk too soon alas

August night of seasons end
starry meteors flashed across
velvet black whistling to
a blue moon

I have lost all sense of time, hours linger
days fade, I look at photographs
those of you and I, unframed
in gardens, or mountains
or pictures from the hotel
the warmth of you, my chilly toes
lonely - I remember your smile
the window, the trickle
of autumn rain.

walking
no place today
in mind
thoughts reaching -
no tomorrows
to find

little daydream
a tune to be sung
life spinning
under autumn's sun

far off
meadow plains,  
cool wanes quiet falling sun
golden, reds
still hanging on

A place, nowhere to be,
no one am I
content beneath blue fields
of sky

In the water, some tears erased
below the surface, they slip away
only a watery grave of what used to be
a mirage, a vision of possibility
a looking glass, this moon-green sea.

Watery suns flood
spilling over
ponds ripple
caressing shores
sands blow over
footprints walking
on water, birds
hover over
smiling back
at me

Polished stone, bare *****- rafters loomed above
silent owls swooped, black before the dawn
red wood carved with sorrow's blood
masks to hide behind - some never found
So swift to pass upon the earth
ashes, silence underground
Diego painted the Santa Catalina's
mountains now hung upon a wall
have found him glorious
in the lost barrio

When I was a child
making my way, always to a forest
obsessed by green, or light
shining through greens
that is how I lost my mind
never even knowing it, or why?
No explanation needed
for a child, crazy
deep in  bliss.

Finding your poems, there, all but faded
dust of pages, your fleeting song of days
secret book of you, lost among the ruins, laid
and there I stayed, many an hour
and could not tear away

I am in the fire my love
I cannot tarry, cannot extinguish
nor distinguish right from wrong
sometimes places I don't belong
I am desolate in a desert, resurrected, burned
deep in fields of sage
a breath of fiery blaze
the pull and push away
I lay in a bed of ashes
feel this rebirth
as another death
blows away.

All the air alight, sparks fly
lightning, touching down
the falling of skies, falling of stars
dumb, I am mad and beyond
too far off course to find
the mere constellations
I've ever known

When I can no longer discern the path
when I am seeking a seer's looking glass
I walk miles of desert alone, travel years from home
to stand hot or cold, in a wilderness, fragile or strong
in storms, sun sweltered and windblown.
I believe in fire, the burning into ashes reborn
look for defining lines, watch for the telling signs
I listen for the music of words, spoken softly sweet
for love notes, tucked in heart, to keep.

High in the hills wends the road to your home
steeped and flowered by lupine towers
after long slumber, the waking hour - warmth of summer comes
our feet grassed and green, we wish on dandelion dreams
watch tiny parachutes glide into the sea
this place is wild resplendent music
we have become more than ourselves and slowed
have stopped to feel our breath grow
making a path cut from last year
we are slipped and sloped toward shore
silhouetted just before the end of sun
when the world sinks silent
but for the deeply toned
hum of whale song.

The mad allure
the bite, the cure
haste and taste of you
splendorous kiss
sudden slip, we drip
wet in rivulets
of sweat

Our flaming fire
swallowed by desire
a gathering storm
so calmly warm, just before
the fall, the come hither call
that pours and pours
drops of diaphanous rain

I walked the wooded path, remembering
sunlight flitted about the trees of early spring
I could taste the smokey woods, steaming in the sun
a fragrant dawn, a lily fawn hidden by the flowers
still as winter's pond

When little was left of looping thoughts and troubles
silence was a river bright and swift, floating as a feather
and I could not remember, but a song playing
softly over

"go out in the morning now,
a crown of maple leaves, a crown of flowers
circling your sweet head"

a mantra
pulled me in - forever
and there,  I lived on

Soft
green blanket
stair step moss
climbing to stars
raindrops rolling
falling from
blackened branches
wintery maple

Giant skyward leaning
shedding leaves, do you dream long
of summer's greening?

The gold of days have waned
the gray rains sway
fall will leave you
cold in winter's lay.

Seemingly a thousand years old
a seedling sown
born of an ancient
maple forest.

Maple tree
giant skyward leaning
Dropping leaves
do you dream, long of summer's greening?

Your sunshine days,
the gray rains sway,
wintery cold

Once long ago
a tiny seedling
planted

Ever twisty they climbed - the vines
the tree was speaking low, so slow - the breathing
roots were diving deep, so deep the breath, the depth of grieving
concentric soul, go within to flow, letting go, it's time the past was leaving
born a child, wild as smiles, dance in meadows green
with joy your heart is weaving
and when the night starless looms, you'll bloom  
your heart, open as a flower

There are moments, sacred places
where the heart dwells beyond words, no language
only silence, brilliance of clarity shines through the vastness of time
connection to the divine, so soon the mind
will flicker and change, thoughts blow away
nothing will remain

involuntary
necessary signals sent
heartbeats and breathing

Looking to the skies, sifting stars and lies - you dream,
someone waiting at the gate, watching very late the night
Talking to trees, swirling circles breeze, windy autumn
leaves you to fall, sailing golden ships
red and yellow slips, arduous trips will take you
Whispers shake the soul, only you will know
drums of heartbeats
that awake you

Sharp shard with blood, it cuts
your armored heart of crystalline
no one knows you, nor gets in
barbwire wrapped and shut
black, the deep - you've fallen
your desultory descent ever sullen
gasp of strife that smokes
and chokes apart your life
makes a slave of you, alone
calls for your blood
and bones

desert flowers
abloom in red fire clouds
molten skies sweep over barren sands
shining suns of silver white bones
cacti glisten, soaked in afternoon storms
yesterday and tomorrow, hungry
where desert rabbits roam
and drown themselves drinking
bluest oceans

These women, they are old
in touch with ancient ways
the dredging of deeper points
they've come to know
and show, without hiding

Their faces are worn weathered maps
lines and holy roads
with soulful eyes
smiling they settle
and sit you down
beside them

In their circle of fire and knowing
these women of the earth
serve milky tea and mirth
their laughter resounds
it pounds the heart
grounds you there
in the fervent pureness
of your tears

The warmth of day lingered on, shadows played a sweeping sun
grassy swallows swooped, grey dusky light
colors of day, drank away the meadow
in skies of yellow, blue

Wind of wild roses, a thicket swirled sweet the night
flower petaled breezes swept the air
in fragrant fields of dream,
beneath the moon

Stars sprinkled hover
in blackness of sky
Cold darkness
gives rise and fall
to moon's breath

Stars sprinkled hover
in blackness of sky
Cold darkness
gives rise and fall
to moon's breath

When at night green seas touch the moon
pulling toward the shore, shiny creatures crawl the sands
in shells of watery homes, soon to drift away
swaying seaweed clings to metal rings of wooden boats and oars
Moon tides, ever pushing, pulling
transient sandy shores, and sings the light to follow
worlds emerge from dark of night, water filling up
the hollows

The road unpaved, waved winding red
high pines, unfettered buried feet, under needles strawed

Fragrance, piney, warmth of sap, bark bled
Lithia springs ring clear, a tumbled water song

Owl tree softly spoke
lily fawn so slept, caressed by mourning cloak

Sun begins to edge the hills
wings rise, flies the morning fog
Fritillaria bends the light, leaning into
daybreak's mantra song

The road unpaved, waved in winding red
high pines unfettered, buried feet under needles - strawed

Warmth of sap, fragrant, piney bled
Lithia springs ring clear, a tumbled water song

Owl tree softly spoke
to newborn lily fawn, caressed by mourning cloak

Sun begins to edge the hills
wings rise, and flies the morning fog
Fritillaria bends the light, leaning into
daybreak's mantra song

Strange path, with green overgrown
a place unknown, a wild bird haunting calls
as if to wake, coax the light of dawn
wet my steps, break with day
I wait the sun, to come
lighting slow, a lonesome home
or far off hills of grassy yellow
I hear the smaller birds too
beyond these trees, among the reeds
sing glorious amid morning's meadow
and I, entranced deep in nature's glow
can only hope to follow.

In the morning red hibiscus flowers
yesterday's petals have fallen to the ground
a hummingbird briefly hovers
in flashes, green iridescent feathered
soon the silver sun comes from behind clouds
reflections, in spectrum colors
of painted sky, brush strokes
in watercolors of dawn
the heart, a lotus flower
center of the soul
that opens.

I stood long under stars and trees
clouds transiently swift in winter's eve
memories of yesterday's child, a year to play
a dream, a pond to skate away

Now wintery thoughts are aglow
cool drifts the night through open windows
Owls haunt with delight
they seek to prey,
quick before the light
of sleepy days

I slept and fell deep the well
my soul drinking freely
bathed in sweetest darkness  
depth of sorrow wakes me soon
my joy alights this
morning moon