Murmur
I am the murmur in your heart
One thousand wings flutter you
awake. I am the golden kiss opening
your lips. My breath reaching inward
searching your darkness with light. I am
the sun, but also the moon. Night dancing
inside of you breaking dawn
into filaments of truth
witnessing the glory
of you rising to meet
me
Inspired by Sue Vincent’s weekly photo prompt. If you would like to participate, please click here.
Frozen
In the midst of a world that appears frozen
follow the purple path within
Know that beyond the shadows holding darkness
there is always a source of light
reflecting truth. Waiting to melt the way
as it softens the heart that would stay cold
Indifference is the face of fear grown tired
Used to the battered landscape, the eyes refuse to see
the false hold. And so we remain frozen together
in stasis, an inert body wanting to be held
until the fever burns once again
into love
For Sue Vincent’s weekly #WritePhoto prompt. Click here to participate.
Gardens of Roses
My grandmother visits me in the garden
as I cut dead limbs from the azalea
I can smell her soap and perfume
The love I once longed for
opens the pores on my arms
She knows there are roses
newly planted. The dirt turned over brown
wraps their roots in memoriam. In the hidden
chambers of my ears I hear her voice
calling “Leethie” and we smile
together through time
Despair
Last night I watched a ship disappear
one life, followed by another, until the last
was swallowed by water lidded with ice
nothing left behind but despair
They say pay attention to colors
in dreams, the screen before me looming
in shades of gray and white while I stood
a part of the spectrum of rainbow light with my son
in the shadows. This lesson on despair
sinking before us and I feeling only
hope
Baba Ghanoush
I barely slept, although sleep gave me dreams as proof
before I crept downstairs and slipped
into the haze of slow time. Sometimes the body’s rush is ceased
by the unseen hand. Acceptance the only release. Late
yesterday, the deer returned in a pair to eat fallen apples
but the dog ran through my distraction of the cat
who watched without movement. Stilled in time
Before breakfast, I opened the door to pull weeds
thinking of how fast they grow and take over
space. When I ate late, the waffle was cold
and I left the table feeling undefined
noting the softened eggplants on the counter
One the color of the hidden eye
the other mottled by the crown. I brought the pair outside
turned the grill’s surface into a flame, and roasted
their skins black, peeling after the insides liquified
thinking of caterpillars and butterflies, I pulsed
their remains with tahini, smashed cloves of garlic,
the juice of half a lemon, and pink salt from a faraway sea
until the house smelled of baba ghanoush and my thoughts
turned once again to night and shade and whether you can have
too much darkness, and how the sun in excess
blinds the eyes to sight
Last night, I drank Surya
tea. The sun god trickled
down my throat weaving golden rays
through the darkness until
I rose. Lifted arms
like wings and soared
my body ablaze with his fire
freedom is the absence of density
and my cells knew only light
You travel swiftly in this river
called life. Rushing over rocks
pulling your weight around sharp
corners, creating the froth
of exertion. Yet
your span is infinite
in stillness and
when the flow becomes
a harmony to the rhythm
within. One vast body
boundless. A life without
edges, blending all matter
soothes the sides of resistance
with the awakened pulse
it is both the bridge
and the current
For Sue Vincent’s weekly #WritePhoto prompt #Span.
While sitting on the porch this afternoon, I had a visit from the resident hummingbird and found myself pulled into the stillness of the present to bear witness to life. While it is all too easy to try to take over life in our hurry to live it, sometimes it is worthwhile to allow it to take over us. If even for just a few moments.
Sometimes it is enough
to watch the circle of life
and listen to the rise and fall of its notes
How the sky screams the hawk’s warning
before a spirit lifts from the body of a chipmunk
to rejoin the infinite expanse
Hidden in the green, the house cat
skulks as though it were in Africa
The dimensions of size and place lost
to the memories of cells
In the stillness of the moment
tense is erased by the rhythm
of the breath’s own steady rise and fall
inviting the heart to find
the harmony of the dance
Beautiful things happen when you enter
the space of infinite becoming
where each aspect of the self unfurls
its petals to the stillness contained within
in soft waves of light
you are birthed
whole to all that you are
and discover essence is not confined
to a body
love drips
like water through the pores of skin
dissolving this sheath that would be armor
do not allow yourself to be held
too long in the coat
beauty is a timeless seed
requiring darkness
to germinate
a hidden code revealed only
when the self lets go of all
that it thought was real
and becomes Life
itself
Four directions
mark the way of the living feet
Points on a compass
as old as the cross that divides
and joins them
our marker of death
We remember Jesus
as a son of God
splayed in four directions
for all to see and worship
a martyr to our sins
We place the symbol on our graves
and walk over what is buried
soon forgetting the features of skin
covering bones as if it were the structure
that matters most
Yet the cross also marks the way
inward. Two lines bisected
into four join at the heart center
We look at the agony of pain etched on the face
blood dripping from nailed hands and feet
stopping that movement we call life
forgetting that the center
returns us all home
For Sue Vincent’s #writephoto prompt #Decisions.
The Light Behind the Story 