Watch me
and I am a wheel -
always finding a way
to spin anything into gold.
But given just the right moment,
and just the right rush of speed,
you will see me as I truly am:
A gyroscope,
my angular momentum
keeping me upright.
And you -
You are always the right rush of speed,
And it is always the right moment.

I am not weak
For swimming with the water's course
Rather than climbing ashore
When the river is going where I must,
For it would be far easier,
Far more convenient,
And far less painful
To push my joy,
My sorrow,
And my love far away.
Yet, here I am,
Catching on each log,
Each basin,
And each precipice,
Feeling it all
In the wash out to sea.

Time burns steadily on -
Sage, cedar, sandalwood.
A resource infinite,
But not nearly so,
when all beginnings
must have endings,
and we are each allotted
but one bundle to burn through.
How long have we been here?
Two notches on the incense clock.
Smoke rising and swirling,
evocative divinations
of all things,
future and past.

The winter has her chilling cold,
The wilderness is ruggedness,
The ocean has her pressure bold,
And space, an abyss of nothingness...

Majesty is most often guarded by Peril.
To find her -
and I mean truly find her,
You must first be armored
with tools of science,
and essentials of life,
Then with your wits
and ambition,
And then,
Just one thing more...

(An openness
of heart and mind...)

Then you might reap the wonder
of seeing more, and knowing little.

We can't care for oceans,
We can't care for whale pods,
We can't care for rivers,
Or salmon or cod,
We can't care for beaches,
We can't care for birds,
For the stolen land,
Or its people, or herds,
We reuse our bags,
We refuse our straws,
We opt for less package
Whenever we can
But faced with these scars,
We sink in our tracks,
Powerless, unaware,
Where to begin?
It's bigger than us,
It isn't one person,
One Trashless Saint
Can't save us, that's certain.
"Let's tear down the systems!"
We say, "They're all broken!"
Without hope of waking
The ones who aren't woken.
I have no "right way"
To channel distress,
Cause nobody sees
A way out of this mess.

Oh, sweet hallucination
of a lucid dream,
What I once sought to treasure,
is not what it seems.
I stumble through morning
to shake myself loose,
From the cruel kiss
of a seductive noose.
Oh, sweet imagination,
please leave me be,
All your tender entanglements
are torturing me.
In my waking life
I remember and feel
Things that did not happen,
and are not real.

Just like a river, meandering true,
I'm like a river flowing back to you,
From the Alpine turquoise to the ocean blue,
Cascadia, flow through me.

Just like a Cabernet, smooth and red,
You're like a wine flowing to my head,
I won't get enough, not until I'm dead,
Cascadia, flow through me.

Just like the city running to and fro,
I'm like the city when I even and flow,
Like a train, if I leave, I know back I'll go,
Cascadia, flow through me.

Just like blood, with no end or start,
I'm like the blood flowing back to my heart,
Returning to you, dear, has become an art,
Cascadia, flow through me.

Just like the city train, just like blood,
If you're the soil, I'll be the bud,
Just like the river, just like wine,
If I'm coming home to you, I'm gonna be fine.
Cascadia, flow through me,
Cascadia, flow through me.