Wood Nymph

“Shine like the whole universe is yours.”
― Jalaluddin Rumi

Her dwelling was shadowed by tall trees
flecked in filtered sunlight.
At noonday she frolicked with light beams
and joyful butterflies.

Mesmerized by lofty saplings
from her lowly point of view.
Lost in expansive oblivion
her shattered heart was subdued.

Among the singing cicadas
she made an earthen house.
Sojourning alone with earth stars,
twas tranquil thereabouts.

Her bed was the floor of the forest,
veridian moss gave her rest.
She became the radiance of fireflies;
in hushed tones her vows were expressed.

On plunging into dark waters,
a healing reservoir.
She emerged a flawless daughter,
as bright as the evening star.

©2017

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Dreams of Heaven

Across the bay in a field of dreams
He occupied my soul
and gannets cried in the dead of night
I did my Lord extol
The moving earth in sublime grace
a remembrance of repose
Surrounded by the light of His Love
my true self was exposed
With dreams afloat in a magical glow
I awoke to thoughts of heaven
and what I found on the solid ground
were streams of untold blessings

©2017

Life’s a beach

Morning rouses birds
living life in words.
Walking southern delight
breathing in the sights.
Sun, ocean and sand
warm glowing tan.
Embracing balmy breeze
seagulls soar with ease.
Life’s a sunny beach
sorrow’s out of reach.
Waves crashing on shore
scattering seashells galore.
Autumn far from sight
summer’s pure delight.
Sacred moments treasured
gulping down life’s pleasures.
Children playing on dunes
occupying afternoons.
Hot sun goes down
quietness all around.
Stars twinkling reflection
the moons full affection.
Eyes closing goodnight
dreams taking flight.

©2017

Still my hero

A Cherokee or Ojibwa chief is said to have asked his young braves, “Why do you spend your time in brooding? Don’t you know you are being driven by great winds across the sky?” Don’t you know you’re part of a much bigger pattern? But you’re not in control of it, any more than you would be of great winds. You and I are a small part of a much bigger mystery.

This is inspired by AA’s book of daily reflections;

When I think of what you’ve done
I’m plunged into deep despair
and then I remember
the place of the miraculous,
where divine souls are formed
in the beginning when it was good.
I look up at the sky and know that
together we are part of a greater thing.
I accept those glorious paradoxes
and reaffirm an inner strength,
knowing that through pain
there is growth.
When I face my darkest fears
I am given courage.
Each time we confront our own darkness
we get brought back into new light.

Entertaining Angels

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart”
― Helen Keller

I have a regular visitor,
her name is Francis Geduld.
She is feisty and quite humorous,
though at times I’ve seen her wilt.

She comes with garbled stories
of hardships she’s survived,
and even through adversity,
She says that God’s her guide.

I ask her how she is doing
she tells me about her kids.
Sadness shows on her countenance,
there’s a flutter of eyelids.

The simple snacks I give her
cause her to beam so bright.
She puffs half smoked cigarettes,
she’s thankful and polite.

I watch her trundle down the road
when she goes home for the night,
she blows me a kiss in the distance;
I’m in sorrow of her plight.

“God is good” I hear her say,
she brims with mystical trust.
A belief that soars heavenward,
well acquainted with stardust.

I’m reminded when I see her
the preciousness of each being.
Through this life-changing encounter
I’m given a new way of seeing!

I’m entertaining an Angel,
her prayers can fill the sky.
A sweet little old lady
just waiting for wings to fly.

P.S. Her surname Geduld means patience

Carefree dancer

“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.”
― George Bernard Shaw, Immaturity

Take me back to a time and place
when I believed in magic
and heavenly dreams
covered my landscape.
When fairies lived at the bottom of my garden
and songbirds whispered sweet symphonies
in my ear.

Can I go back before harsh words
changed who I was.
I know there is a prayer in me
to forgive those who wronged me.
The sugar plum fairy
is dancing into the present day
entering my awareness.

I must not compare myself to you,
like once I did!
Comparison mocked my identity.
It’s pathology had evil intent!
Will you let me be me?
Whatever that is?
Strange and exquisite
Silent yet beckoning

I hear the birds calling me back to silence
they detect my racing heart.
The trees adorn me with their glory
and my breath again, is stilled.
The grass tickles my tenderness
and spiders jump about.

Will you be silent with me and say no words
just sit and watch the sun move across the sky.
Do you have time to gaze on carefree flowers?
I don’t need your words
or your intensity.
Can I decree right now that this
dance with silence will heal us?

I’ve been in a place where darkness saturated me.
Woeful inscriptions were written
on the walls of the hell I once lived in.
I prayed for death,
supplications sustained me.

You were not there in the midst of my suffering.
I found isolation more comforting.
Though you saw my devastation from a far way off,
I shut you out.
You see, I had so much shame contained in me
that it had overwhelmed me.
An ocean could not contain the shame I felt.

Should I clothe myself in contrition
when the tentacles of shame spread
their malignancy across my being
and infect my heart?
Bitterness has occupied the deeper parts of me
but I’m refusing it entry
refusing its dominion,
even though it has knowledge of a secret access!

Just walk with me a while
and say no words.
Breath in the silence.
Feel the warm drops of rain wash away the malice
and bathe us in enchantment.
Let the gentle breeze banish fear.

Come with me to a place
where the pain first began?
Are you brave enough to delve into the darkness with me
and go to the place where I first hated myself?
It was a time of innocence
when they said I should be more like you
and I couldn’t be,
even though I really, really tried!
Parental suffocation changed
the substance of who I was!

Will you hold that despair and longing for a moment
and let it occupy your understanding
then set it free!
Can we just go back in time and let
this little sugar plum fairy
dance once again
into mystical radiance.

So that when I wake up tomorrow
despair will be a distant memory
thrown out beyond the constellations!
Let me take occupation, away from harm
and begin to recognize the glistening
in fragments of light
and embrace the soft and pleasing parts of me.
My fragrance will multiply in the sunlight.

Murmuring will be no more
and the sobs that once racked my isolation
will be absorbed into the stratosphere.
Bitterness will turn into frolicking
I’ll pirouette into significance,
no more an invisible dreamer.
My torment will become sweet prayers
of thanksgiving.

Can we repose in the forest a while;
I won’t need your words.
Let the green covering of moss be our comforter
and the trees our canopy
as we listen to the tree frogs call
and watch the beams of sunlight
dance among the foliage.
Together we can consume the extravagance
of the Universe.

I desire to put away childish things.
I wish sorrow to be expunged from my presence.
I want laughter in my core
and joy in my sinews.
Will you celebrate my coming out of shame,
the shame that stole my existence?
I will frolic with you into the translucent light
of our understanding.
Words cannot
explain this movement……

©2017

Saturday serenade

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
― Mary Oliver

Junk shop delight

To my good friend who I have spent many
happy hours with, looking for hidden treasures!

Piles of junk excite her
she always spots a gem.
I sneeze in the corner
my allergies go mayhem!

We’ve upturned wobbly tables
to find a fossilized piece.
Negotiating with the dealer’s
some wonders will never cease.

There’s a junk shop on the corner
that hawks odds and ends.
Their hidden treasures delight her,
with dusty worn out trends.

Teapots, jugs, an old suitcase
can brighten up her day.
She finds spots to stash them
or put them on display.

A shop could open tomorrow
with a spare room full of junk.
I hear her say, “I embellish”
oh sorry, it’s in the trunk!

Her husband groans on her return,
there’s a glint in her eyes.
Knowing she’s been a shopping
he shakes his head and sighs!

©2017

The sea

“My soul is full of longing
for the secret of the sea,
and the heart of the great ocean
sends a thrilling pulse through me.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Once I lived by the sea
a stormy sea.
The tide would come
up at night
high in my windows
and echo my desolation.
It would mock my sorrow
ridicule my pain.
The moodiness of the sea
enraptured me in despair.
I was submerged in its depths
delirious with longing.

Still, I live by the sea
not a temperate sea
but a tamed silence.
The storms they visit my door
but they do not enter in.
They draw back before dawn
when the seagulls beckon
chanting sweet melodies
in the sunrise.
Serenading me in wonderment.

In these days of equanimity
the ocean transposes
pervasive thoughts,
hushing me with its thunder.
Rumbling accolades,
applauding my courage.
It’s fragrant breath
imbues me with sensations
of the Divine
I’ve surrendered to its disposition,
abandoned myself
to providence.

Pleasant seascapes permeate my dreams!

©2017