You belong to untamed rivers,
Rippling from mountains
Out to the sea.
I belong to the one who flows with them,
Free yet connected,
His heart beats with me.
You belong to untamed rivers,
Rippling from mountains
Out to the sea.
I belong to the one who flows with them,
Free yet connected,
His heart beats with me.
Seeking my bear
I found cobalt dragonflies
Lounging on blades of grass;
Water gleaming, cradling boulders;
Knotted roots anchoring pines.
Two osprey circled the mountain air.
They crisscrossed,
And I felt you
Standing next to me
As if we would hold a secret
Of a dive into the alpine lake,
Returning to the sky with a fish.
Then, we would catch a kiss and a bear hug
Beside the shore.
Flying with purpose, of service
Protecting sacred Life
The Spirit’s natural flight
Brought to the edge
Of existence
By humans poisoning human food.
But today — she soars
Above the ridge
Of the rescue effort
Made by people who joined
The Spirit’s natural flight
Arising on a sculptured cliff
Expecting the cool embrace of my familiar
As she had welcomed me the day before with
A misting flutter through cypress branches.
Yet, pulling back the curtains,
A clear day dawns with
Pink, yellow, and orange along the horizon
Like Birthday Streamers
Reflecting in waves splashing peninsula rocks.
Surrounded by whistles and chirps,
Frogs sing in their creek while
Monarchs and bees call among
Pride of Madeira and Indian Paintbrush:
All the world will celebrate
And say you are loved
If you listen.
Pour your rain upon me
Until my rivers swell
And creeks appear on every path
Race through my forests
With your gusts and gale forces
Fell the dead towers
That no longer serve me
And stand in the way of our
Evolving Dance
Crash them onto my soft, supple body
And I will transform them into new life
While we sing of our union
Our balance and harmony
That’s greater and more powerful than time
Gravity pulls like rip tides in my veins
To swirl amongst your forests and fish —
A child of your mist.
To honor Earth Day, this year I am sharing two poems to show the beautiful and devastating reality of being a human on this planet right now. Both of these poems are remixed excerpts from my book Varanasi Sage.
“She Comes to Me”
I am soft and humble, yet unafraid
To share space with Titans,
Entities Unfathomable,
Spirits born from the depths.
I am a guest in their great hall.
Quietude surrenders me,
Dissolving me into the air,
The empty space.
Here
She comes to me,
The truest part of me, for
I am made of Her living body.
My heart turns over to Hers,
And our sacred Oneness,
Endlessly present in time.
“Where a Temple Once Lived”
Ghosts stand visible with
Charred, barren limbs
Naked arms reach for mercy
Bodies no longer breathing
No longer creating clouds
Nor home for animals and insects
Burned alive
Electrical wires cross the hills
Like music lines forming
Measures of a strange and deadly song
A transmission tower’s guilty buzz
Plays the melody composed by
Corporate greed
Man wasn’t exiled from the Garden
He chose his depraved separation
Life-bearing molecules, thank you, for falling
Each drop: an answered prayer
Animals and plants rejoice with relief
For more days in the company of green hillsides
For more flowers and frogs and bees
May the heavens continue to hear our prayers
And send dark clouds filled with hope
On a boulder, beside the ocean —
an emerging canyon —
beneath a waterfall and crumbling cliff,
I listen.
Faithfully creative, guiding the way,
waves and boulders collide in foamy syncopation,
painting bubble mandalas in the sky.
My heart, a seed within soil, calls the heavens to coax me out of dormancy.
My arms, oaks on drought-afflicted land, ache from the lost embrace.
My outstretched hands, messengers between earth and sky, cast pollinated prayers to the wind:
Beloved, do not allow your creations to wither. Without you, we are not whole.
Nourish our roots with your abundance; bring forth the flowers of our soul.
Deliver us to ourselves, and let our purpose grow.