Rolling landscape
beneath soft quiet stillness waits,
as still, petite flakes
waft upon the breath of winter.

It’s bitter air
bites at my cheeks and nose,
sharply, waking me
to a day washed clean in white.

Reverently embracing
the solitude of morning light,
I revel in the crispness
of fresh new winter hope.

Paint me a picture,
I heard the world cry,
and give me the wings
from this madness I'll fly.

Our hearts have been squeezed
to their limit I fear,
and the pain we all share
has been found in our tears.

But the deep winter sun
has burst forth on this day,
giving hope to the hopeless
and warms sorrow’s prey.

It’s stark sparkling light
atop snow tops it dances,
dusting glitter on snowbanks
like diamonds it flashes.

Across fluffy drifts
with impressionist hues,
brings to mind sandy beaches
of Caribbean dunes.

So dance if you can
for this day will soon pass,
let your mind find its picture
‘til you find peace at last.

The heavens sing
its winter song,
through crystal ice
in snowflake form.

With starlight hues,
across the sky,
in awe we watch
parhelion’s array.

Beneath this world where life was birthed,
is painted in awesome mystery;
Eden-like beauty fills its silent world
and creation beyond imagining.

Shimmery scales flash before my eyes
in the quiet of the afternoon sun,
as blue tangs dart about in unison
in the turquoise of the shallow seas.

A world pulsing with life,
sparkling with newness every day,
awaiting us to learn its secrets,
within the school of the seas.

I reached to catch my dreams
as they teased me in my sleep;
foreign lands beyond my grasp,
and acceptance to be me.

There were many times I wished
I could just give up this fight,
days of solitude and grief,
fighting just to stay alive.

With my eyes fixed on my goal,
I was blind to gifts around,
and the changes from within,
came to me without a sound.

Now I stand among my gifts,
with the lessons life taught me
and thank the heavens for the pain,
that caught these dreams for me.

When asked what I wish for, for those coming after me;
I reply, a sweeter passage, for those longing to be free.
I wish for freedom from without and wars that rage within,
and for courage with to find a voice in this world we live in.

My hope for a tomorrow lies within a better day;
a day when people are not hungry, and when skin does not betray.
I ask for kind compassion for those lesser in this world,
and a greater understanding from those of privileged from birth.

I’d pray for bullies banished, for their souls to fully see,
that the hate they are creating, is no place I’d wish to be.
I ask for leaders and for kings, remember where you’re from,
and be a shepherd for your flock, not fleece your lesser sons.

I’d ask religions of this world to live in love and peace,
and live according to their faith and that violence decrease.
I’d ask that all would come to know the joy we will receive,
when we treat all men like brothers and all women equally.

The last thing I would want for them is life without the pain,
of fearing what tomorrow brings within this pouring rain;
a life of bright tomorrows, without worry or hopeless fear,
and I will go in peace, if asked, behind my grateful tears.

The mundane day to day never spoke much to me,
with its voice, foreign, speaking in a language unknown.
It slept upon my porch and knocked at my bolted door,
but I swept it away in the morning with each dream I dreamt.

Dreams have carried me to far off lands,
reminding me to reach beyond what I knew,
and bade me to break free from the shackles of life;
to heed their vision as they beckoned on the wind.

Many times I’ve risked it all and left what I knew behind
to follow my heart, beyond the safety of my world,
each time I aspired to be more than I believed I could be
and run with the wind and risk to be free.