At Last

Listen to the birds

outside the door

speaking in song

I ask myself

Am I truly listening 

or am I merely waiting

to speak?

We must often do the impossible

and reconcile the world 

with our own heart.

I grow older but I do not grow 

more numb to the world.

I grow older and I feel myself

a greater part of humanity.

My joy and disappointment 

are mirror images.

I grow older and realize 

I must be gentle with 

the fractured and broken.

All of us are so.

I grow older and cannot 

consume blindly and 

without thought.

I must have restraint.

Does the deer dream?

Does it dream of the forest?

Of fresh water?

A quiet valley?

A land without fear?

Some mornings

I sit and must remind myself

that no feeling is final

that I must breath

that this is all there is

this eternal present

this perpetual gift

All these words

All these thoughts

like leaves on a tree

sharing a branch

sharing a body

living

changing

returning home

at last

Early Summer

What they say is true

You have to die a few times

before you really start living

I have lived long enough 

to start seeing the patterns

in my thoughts and actions

almost as clearly as strata

in a canyon

I am not as unique as 

I once thought

I am as human as you

I am as human as 

everyone that has come before

Memories

Old pictures

Music from another time

These things at once part 

of me and yet separate from 

who I have become

How much younger we were

How much older we are now

Everything as it should be

Everything as we chose

Contemplation / Morning 12/26/17

I woke up thinking

about wanting to free myself

from my bodily desires

To free myself from my bad habits

of drink and food

To move more

To feel the wind and sky more

To explore more

To slowly move from my room

to this outer world once more

I want to be more

I want to feel more

But only I can bring this dawn

This remains in my hands alone

This is my choice

This is what I must remember

This is how I must act

What was good enough can no

longer be acceptable

I must let myself be more fully

present in the present

This - the eternal now

Always

Always here

Discipline

Control

Growth

I must master myself

to foster these

To receive love

To give love

To receive love

To give love

To receive love

To give love

Dying days of a dying year

We look towards the sun

towards the moon

towards the stars in the heavens

Looking for an answer

Looking for reassurance

to get us through the days ahead

Winter  at our feet

Dreams of Spring 

just further ahead

God is within

What does this mean?

Have you considered

that you are the expression

of universal consciousness

that you are in fact 

an incarnation of God

We are all God

in this fashion

Flawed and finite

as part of an infinite

timeline stretching 

far behind and ahead of us

plucking of strings

drops of rain

resonance

sound bleeding into air

lungs breathing 

I am the steward of this body

My spirit

My body 

This place I call my own

A Few Thoughts On Love and Related Subjects.

I.

When love sparks
it sets off a blaze
that could burn down
all the trees on the Earth.


II.

Not now. Perhaps another time.
Perhaps when we are ready
to receive the full measure
of the gifts we are ready to receive.


III.

Can love be renewed and restored?


IV.

I am better for having had you.
I am better for having loved you.


V.

Morning/Mourning both mark a change
into something new.

The Painting Beyond The Frame

Before I died
I wasn't thinking about
the government, taxes, work,
or any of the things that I used
to get caught up in.
I thought about God,
or more accurately, whether
there was anything afterwards.
I was never much of a believer
in life. I'm still not sure
where I am or what is going on
but I can tell you this much,
it's much nicer being able
to see the scenery beyond
the frame of the painting.