Their disapproving stares could not tame
Nor their prayers quench the fire in her veins

This tempestuous primal bloom with skin that smelled of lavender and tasted like the sea
Had a thorny sting as sharp as the arrogant wasp

"The loss! The loss!" they warned as they tugged and pulled on the hem of her skirt
But she kept walking, staying one step ahead of the fullness of their grasp and her own wind blown shadow

They responded,  "Go then! You are in God's hands now!"
Their words stopped her and she turned to face them, "Indeed and I go gladly. Perhaps you'd care to join me?"

The Queen of Hearts
Tired of simply baking tarts

Decided "Inner Revolution"
Would be the phrase of the day

She summoned her court and her Knave and King
Stating "Your Queen has something not lovely but unruly to say"

You can imagine, I am sure, how the very notion of such a thing
Caused quite a stir and they all came running, dropping everything

"Please join me in my revolt against usual and everyday
Instead think farther than castle doors; and Advance! Adventure! Play!

Let us meet new folks in the world's other places
Let us dance to the rhythm of their language
The beauty of their faces

Let us do it with the eagerness
And the purpose we hold inside
Let us do it with reverence, curiosity and pride

Let us open our eyes and our hearts and explore
Let us stretch and expand and
Become so much more"

Tell me...

Before you close your eyes
Tell me of today's miracles
Did you part the Red Sea
Still the sun and the moon
Bring back to life what was dead and gone

Tell me...

Where will you keep these miracles of yours
What will you do with them
Will you weave them together and sleep under them
Will you carve them in red stone and build a Tower

Little one, little one come to me
Little one come to me
The evening birds they sing their song
And the sky is kneeling down
And the sky is kneeling down

Will you build a Tower so tall
That it stands high for everyone to see
So that you never forget
And always remember
So that your legend becomes a page in humanities story

Little one, little one come to me
Little one come to me
The evening birds they sing their song
And the sky is kneeling down
And the sky is kneeling down

Tell me...

Before you close your eyes
Tell me of today's miracles

Would Be suitors, you sing to me having migrated to your breeding pond
All the night long you court me with your lively mating song

As I lie in my bed eavesdropping on you troubadours of princely green
I marvel and delight at the thought, that I may have been chosen your beloved Queen

I imagine you...watchful, eager with handsome green bodies adorned with bronze and brown
Banjos with loose strings strapped to your bodies tightly, as you hop around

Yellow throats bursting open with hopeful songs of praise
For all eligible green ladies with lovely long green legs

Long may you live and may your homes be filled with throngs
Of charming little boys like you, who fill our lives with song

Harvesting the past
Examining every chunk
Swallowing mudstone after mudstone
That compete to be the first
To weigh down a hungry belly
But they hold no threat
For a belly on fire
1300 degrees fahrenheit
And RISING

I have closed my eyes
And gulped LIFE down whole
Heads, tails
And all the innards
So you are in my wilderness now
~ Juicy red cell upon cell ~
All containing history, geography, chemistry, language
And story

But we are all more than our stories
Aren't we
So much more
This is just the beginning

Come.

From the perspective of a goddess,
love can be found everywhere
in people, in animals, in nature, in objects, and in moments.

And the Goddess of Love continues to bring the willing to love's banquet table
and her disciples continue to feast with odd and hungry hearts.

“Advance!” I shouted
That **** monkey wouldn’t budge, not even to look me in the eye

“Insolent decrepit brat!Advance!”

Still that monkey did nothing

“Advance, I say! Do you hear me? Advance!”

“No.” said the monkey

“No?” I asked incredulously

“No.”

“And why not?” I demanded

“Because” said the monkey “you did not say please.”

It occurs to me that often our struggles are with Fortresses we've built

Every vow and promise we've spoken
Each, acted as a sturdy wooden beam

Blessed by our passion and determination, they fastened together

Shielding and protecting those that we most cherished
And thus created a safe haven for many tomorrows

**Is it any wonder then that attempts at deconstruction are often so difficult?

There's a stirring when old ways start to whisper
Almost without a hint of knowing

Despite very good intentions
Despite diligence

When the whispers start ...

... Do we listen?
Or do we explain it away?

"Probably just a creak in an old joint settling ... just one of those noises old vessels make in the midst of the darkest hours...it's nothing."  a voice will often offer up in the hope of silencing vigilant angels.

After all we're all big boys and girls. We can do this on our own.

*Right?

As light begins to embrace darkness,
Dawn steals a kiss from the East

Woman, her skin parched and thirsty,
Calls out to her feet.
"Take us to the Apple Orchard.
There you can ~ dance upon the dew~

Perhaps, not as lofty a quest, as the ~ walk upon the water ~
But the ordinary is miraculous also, is it not?"

With great lust, amused and rowdy feet answer the call
And woman is caught up in a moment.

Her fevered lips press against delicate blossoms
And as she drinks the delicate perfumed elixir
Memories of worms once found ~ drown upon the dew~

Love can bring you pleasure
Love can bring you pain
A delicate balance of loss and gain
It can lift you up
It can knock you down
Make you feel so smart
Let you know you're a clown

Love, the sweet vexations of love
Love, the revelations of love

I thought he really loved me
I thought I was his world
Turns out I was just another girl
One of many
He had strung out on his line
Boys don't cha know
That was a kick in my behind

Love, the desecration of love
Love, the revelations of love

Just another girl
What a slap in my face
I'm on a mission now to erase
Every single trace
Of that man
Would you like to help me
Formulate a plan

*Love, oh the frustrations of love
Love, oh the complications of love
Love, the revelations of love

When I walk down to the shore and it rises to greet me

I get caught up in those moments
Those moments when we both grow in size and grandeur
Just from the knowing of one another

The recognition
The reclaiming
The owning

And as I undress and expose hidden places
It crashes at my feet and reveals undercurrent treasures

We sit poised with pen over you

So much to divulge ... explain ... confess

But the sight and smell of your brightness, your freshness causes us to hesitate

It's not your fault that you fill our hearts with hope and sadness

At the sight of you, we are filled with the longing

To know the opportunity of having once again, a clean page spread before us

A new path eager for our markings to meander over it

Ones that are not weighted down so heavily

As to smear and tear with a past that bogs down and trips up


But you know there is no such possibility

You know there is no future where the past does not make itself welcome


And still you lie there spread open before our disquiet

Silent in your trust and in your vulnerability

We marvel at your courage and wonder if we could ever be so noble

No matter if our heads
Are tipped left or right
Or whether you’re examined
During the day or the night
There sits you, our dusty debris
Remnants of decisions made much to hastily

Consequential Residue

There you are but what to do?
Do we approach from the front?
Or approach from the rear?
But what if we capture you?
What then should we do?

Do you have a sense of humour?
Can we laugh you away?
Or are you pious and proper
And require that we pray?
Or do you require more effort than even of that
Of the continual sweeping of your creepage back under our mats

Should we bag and tag?
Or toss off the bridge?
Should we mount your head?
Or stick you to the door of our fridge?
It is just so very much to decide

**Whether to display ... or whether to hide

I am alive when you touch me, for I touch you

As you know me, I know you

Watch me as I lean into or away from

One element, open to another; who in turn leans into

Or veers from my earthy scent and rough caress



We all are seeking

Yearning to explore, be explored

To understand, to be understood

To penetrate, root into and connect with life

Stretching limbs and roots into the unknown

To touch and to know we are alive


There is roughness

That is part of truth

A toughness that comes with survival

Traces are left behind when we expand into each other's worlds

We are affected by all who come to give, who come to take

Bent branches, faded foliage, scarred skin

Do these markings make us less or more

Turbulent Waters

Swirling round my feet
Tugging me out further

Into your deep ... into your deep

A kiss is what I long for

But I choke on salty air
And those waters keep pulling
Do I turn or do I dare

This morning he leaned in
And stole a kiss from my sleepy lips
I looked up into warm brown eyes
And I saw God visiting there

Smiling
Loving
Seeking

So I kissed him
And discovered that he also
Had a pocket full of lightening
Oh my ...

Is it possible for one to know the depth of another's emotions?
Know it so well, so deeply, so profoundly that we too feel it?
That we too are brought to our knees?

If they could tell us;
If they were to try and explain their wax and wane
Their torrent of tears, their raging fears

Would we listen?
Or would we insist
"You're being unreasonable and emotional. You must stop this."

Are our hearts big enough?
Is there room
For a frightened soul needing to be exhumed?

Can you feel the liveliness of words as they form in your head and slip off your tongue
Each syllable pulsating, merging and finding its rhythm

Alive ...

Taking root, nourishing the mind with the palatable, digestible and the succulent
Riding the winds to the four corners and back

Gathering and giving
Gathering and taking

Alive ...

Igniting notions and philosophies, fancies and yearnings
Drenching, pulling you under and steeping you in your own thoughts

Alive ...

I have to say that I love life
I love walking outside and drinking in the seasons
Smelling the scents indigenous to our island
Even with my eyes closed I can know I'm home

Catching up with friendly faces
All of nature mixing and mingling
A cacophony of natural rhythms
That dance off  breath and pound from chests

The sound of  each snowy step taken reminds
That there is hope for tomorrow
That there is hope for today
That there is hope for yesterday

Purpose filled living that grows deeper and stronger
Grabbing life by the hips and drinking thirstily from her mouth
Striding wholly into the stratum of a living, feeling, breathing being
Thrusting into the wonder that is yesterday, today and tomorrow

I have to say that I love life

There was a wilderness about her that was savage in its intensity
The woman's spit was fluid fire ~ liquid desire

Oh Love ...

What you do to us!

How the sight, sound, smell and touch of you
Make the tide within our hearts rise and swell.

Ohhhhh and that rush of delicious heat!

That envelops a body from tip to tip
And makes knees go weak.

Oh Love ...

Our eyes overflow with your delights!

We are rendered both alert and powerless.
Submerged in a flood of feeling.

Swallowed by the current ...