just dream

Dream again.
Go big.
Go small, too.
Any kind of dream will do.

Just dream.
Let ideas grow your heart,
perhaps the perfect pasta sauce
or an amazing work of art?

Forget the fetters
can’t and won’t,
forget the doubts that others say,
in your heart you know the way.

So look inside
and see what’s there,
uncover your dreams,
lay them bare.

Like food and air
we need our dreams.
Unique and precious to each one
they touch the world like rays of sun.

Your new words now are
can and will,
the quest of your dream
only you can fulfill.

###

Stand for Freedom

a celebration, still

there would have been 
cake 
and candles.
the house would have filled up
the rooms would have come alive
with chatter.
there would have been
stories and jokes
and laughter.
you would have made a wish
and blown out the candles.
i would have seen
that light in your eyes
as you looked on
smiling.
even now
i smile
too.

###

Stand for Freedom

rosebuds

upturned faces
washed by the sun
wind tossed
the tender buds
reach up
strong, intent
each one tearfully beautiful
in its becoming
every moment 
suffused in the journey
finally one day unfolding
into extravagant bloom
the petals swiftly spent
drifting to earth

###

Stand for Freedom

heavens

I want to lie outside with you
in the deep of the night
lazily searching the stars
as they gaze down at us
the silence and the sounds of the dark earth
wrapping around we two like a cocoon
breathing the scents of summer on us
and in the drifting breeze
the air cool on our warm skin
our voices mere whispers under the dome of the galaxies
the stars dancing their mysteries
surely giving blessing as we gently stumble
awakened into the prayer
we finally offer

###

breathe with the earth

Breath comes slow and easy as light begins to filter through, gently breaking up the night. Breathing yet with the earth, calm pervades, questions long released to dreams, and now forgotten. The breath comes as sure of purpose as the reaching rays of light, the unclaspable growth of all the tender, green things, the insistent push of the river.

The breath comes so sure of purpose until the myriad of little startles begin and proliferate, the alerts and notifications, the chirping of the self-holding devices somehow always there. The breath catches, its pace changes, as the chirps and tinkling bells and snippets of music begin to fill the day. Ever ready to make life easier, the beeps and vibrations assume the helm, tracking and steering breathlessly.

Breathing into the palm of the hand, eyes fail to scan the treetops, the skidding clouds, the sun pushing brightly through the blossoming catalpa, the other eyes that would speak if they could, life relentlessly unfolding and whispering away on the stream.

Without fail, night comes and pulls toward sleep. The breath falters back toward that slow rhythm, synced once again, breathing with the earth, sure of purpose as the sun reaches above the horizon.

###

wise one

My eyes open to the soft darkness, instantly aware of the now familiar unease. Closing my eyes again, willing myself back toward rest, I feel the fatigue of this anxiety we are all lugging around. We labor together to haul the uncertainties, the fears stoked to fever pitch and still amply fueled by so much in the gaping absence of trust.

In the quiet, troubled dark, I feel the velvet brush of the cat’s paw on my forehead, so soft and gentle. I can hear his deep, radiant purr. He speaks to me with some other kind of knowing. 

I can find my way back to joy. My heart beats not for my place on this chart, my statistical or economic value, my pool of data. No, my heart beats for the unquantifiable. The ecstatic mysteries of life and love are wholly mine, ours. It is there where all possibility remains. I turn my eyes in that direction.

Slowly, I am lulled back to restful slumber, feeling the cat’s soothing undercurrent of purr close against me.

###

dance

We are called to rediscover
our innate compassion, dignity, and respect for life
in all its forms
with Joy and Wonder.

###

on a day of remembrance

longing to simply

live and love

in a world

shaped less by 

dollars and destruction

more by 

life and love

solace

out of this tangle
of dark emotions and words
solace is woven

###

JB

he seems just a mere whisper in the night
a ghostly wraith
i could put my hand right through,
but no,
he’s really there, breathing,
standing unsteadily in the dark cool,
the light of the streetlamp
glinting off his head where hair used to be.

how long, how long will we have you?
days? hours? or perhaps just minutes.
you are barely there
i would put my arms around you
but for fear of breaking you.
you laugh and you smile
as if you are not in the act of disappearing
as if you are not in pain.

look at this long bold man
who forged his path
his own way
doggedly gripping this life even as he
ebbs into a world beyond —
what is it that we are? how is it that we stand
in this place of in-between together?
why must we suffer this collision?

even now,
look at you in the bright heat of the oven, 
hammering, crafting on the anvil
the only thing that means anything
at all.
and just look at this beautiful and cherished thing
you make in the midst of the
incomprehensible.

###