Poems

Eyes burn

gritty paper, sand

tears pool

a room puddles

buckets, oceans pour over

dousing flickering flames

drowning

some letting go

dying

others left

wading

In this wild resplendent place

ferns unfurl softly green

below bearded mossy trees

rain falls, birds call, echoing

sound of deep forest

breathing

Words by Emily

an everlasting novel

penned amidst the moors

Catherine’s face was just like the landscape — shadows and sunshine flitting over it in rapid succession; but the shadows rested longer, and the sunshine was more transient.

Love lost

such cost drowning in seas

Waves flooding, some wading

tides to recede

Wash over

troubles, waters run free

to float, touch clouds

we hope

Smooth sailing, dead calm

we’ll drift, waves lift

to carry us

home

Water trickling, grooved patterns of bark

darkening drinking up

Bright yellow creeping

maple leaves losing green

fallen or hanging on

A wind gust

little rush of swirls

tiny leaves come to rest –

wakes the nightjar

from her evening nest

Wet wings, flickers fly

stellar jay looks on,

Roses withered, ages gone

petals on the

ground

This morning rain

autumn – cool rain falling into afternoon

hills, layers, fog nestled in

Clouds, mists become one

so far off, never a thought

the sun

Logs, wooded hills, we climbed

to view, our souls, some moments

in panorama we find

we touch our truths

divine

Yesterday

music encircled your soul,

laughter rang, so beautiful

Brilliant bells, colors, mountain meadows

An open book, you fell

in love with everything

Green hills, trees you climbed

above the seas

Stark

vast beauty of you, with worlds long hidden inside

fenced in places, cracks to be filled

your shinning brilliance killed

becoming so invisible

Illuminated

a flower, translucent you bloom

centered, calm within the petal storm

rainwater washing

clean the core

a place, no locks

your heart

an open door

Gray woods, morning mist

hangs upon the trees, leaves decay, sway

falling to the ground

quiet this world, but for the sound of rain

washing wet the berry vines, droplets

falling to the ground

tiny sparrow flits among sheltered branches

a nest to repair, twine and twigs, little sticks

falling to the ground

Moss, softly green as grass

some bare feet to pass

red fox and deer to tread

mossy stepped, quietly the forest led

soon to rest golden heads

bright leaves

falling sleepily

to bed

There was an ancient gully

there were skeletons,

ocotillos strewn across the sand

holy places creatures crawled out from

cactus brittle, drying, lying dead

Mirages leapt – spectrally

ghost dancers, drunkards falling down again

bloodshot eyes searching,

shipwrecks, lost waters, the sea

cool river floating past the trees, you drift

crash and wake alone

cow skulls haunt you

death’s sun bleached

bones

Sad the hour of denial’s disbelief

a day that never comes when years young of frolicking

Playful sweetest boy, swaying tail pure of joy

fluff ball dog in white, too soon your tired night

Long did run, his field days sung

we say goodbye, so cold yesterday’s

setting sun

Moon winds pretend to know me

clouds steal the sky away

never knowing my name

removing the veil

what game

night stars

play

We have always had tools

how to repair

stitch the tattered, fray of us

such fools

A family, shattered

all the days our

ruins

Can we will

such storms of darkness

now to light our dawn

love’s sacred singing?

We can

lighten our souls

softly winging

The

moth

drowsily

played

wings

of

spotted

eyes,

did

fly

Bright

the

candle

light

now

his

waxy

grave

No

more

the

fiery

flame

Running

do you

feel

the race?

Or meet with

it’s bitter taste?

The

Gold

Crush the painted pestle stained

of berries, purple, black

Liquid crimson geranium blood

red the paper sack

Gathering colors, lushly green

go shades of tan the water weeds

mixed upon a stone

Woodsy calls, her depths of fall

lone a painter’s

home

He was covered in oil that day

crawling undercover he did not play

Tossed out, abandoned to the rains

to join the ranks of strays

Green eyed guy found hiding, crying

shivering alone

Now Mr. Black is fat

in his happy

home

walking

no place today

in mind

thoughts reaching –

no tomorrows

to find

little daydream

a tune to be sung

life spinning

under autumn’s sun

far off

meadow plains,

cool wanes quiet falling sun

golden, reds

still hanging on

A place, nowhere to be,

no one am I

content beneath blue fields

of sky

She was sure of the shore,

much before the crushing storms

buried her at four – shoveled and pale

Sunk her soul

the brutal gales wailed

Tides dragged her off without a name

she lived where seashells lay

No words to speak, the silence keeps

fear’s troubling beasts at bay

Cold watery world, no place for a girl

she sleeps now in a fern’s curl

songbirds sing of forest’s green

the frond gently unfurls

Distant it grew nearer

shaggy, wagging butt

muffled barking mutt

In relation

to stars, planets – the earth

please share here the date of your birth

You needn’t put the year,

unless of course you dare

Now if you don’t mind

please post your

astrological

sign

Bird wings, sing

song’s sweet play,

gone – the rains washing

Hawk glides the sky stalking

talons piercing prey

dark the skies

they fall away

two birds

one dying

hearts unhinge

shutter, shattered

words swiftly bitter

twisted, uprooting love

This evening’s street fair

Twelve card spread, I am dancing

Gaia leads the way

Branches

Father

he spoke soft, willowy winds

protecting

when harsh, the storms blew in

Last night in my dream

Questions – secrets revealed

I wake with answers

The only one

The only one

The only one

I watched

first the thunder

booming, black of storm

All the gathering – flocks, clouds

leaves piled, blew

Windy gray the day deepened

void of birds singing

Breaking branches – cracked the gloom of dawn

all the scurry, dark forest floor so weary

Soon the rain began – a flood

death’s pooled lake of drowning

Ashen skies of furry, tumultuous blowing

ripped awake the day

Washing wet the soiled

stains of blood

my soul

South

Driving south

only cactus go by

my skin hot, dry

peel of my lips

taste how sweat drips

melt behind this wheel

sink into surreal

this road to Mexico

slow the air of black crows

slow the circling of death’s bones

cool riverbed, just ahead

driven from my home

drift, I float this desert ocean

dance this floor

alone

Seed soaking

dark soil of days

split apart, shed the self

you’ve planted

touch the earth, so clinging

brush the dirt

your freedom singing

rustic rain

brown- yellow hills

crows circle a carrion kill

I’ve come for resurrection to bleed against the sky,

thirsts like deserts, cool water washing

bones to soak

skulls abandoned, sun bleached white

prayer offerings for an earthly altar

here, where death

is hallowed

To fly as

paper birds

soft breeze to carry me

Wings rise, kiss the clouds

a kite, a dream

above the

Sea

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Drops – reddish rain on skins

slid dripping, pooled the leaves curled

Steps on stems break, gold the dawn awakes

windy wrecks of nests unhinge

needles, twine thru twigs

Ladders leaned

steps for splintered fingers

Blossomy buds plucked thru rungs

gone the breezy days we sung

Apple worms burrow

dig the beaking birds

Bees have flown homeward

In September’s slanted sun

we gather sweetest reds

Crisp the air drifts,

through branches overhead

River, branches grasped

Earth, my world spinning round

Released, I float on

Tears burn melt the flame

Ages fly – die the living

Final sleeps my dream

Maple tree

giant skyward leaning

Dropping leaves

do you dream, long of summer’s greening?

Your sunshine days,

the gray rains sway,

wintery cold

Once long ago

a tiny seedling

planted

So came the days,

long of summer’s winging

sweet the cherry chickadees sang

of June

Grasping leafy ribbons hung,

willowy warm the trees we swung

All the green – the frog soliloquy pond

Fritillaria, frilly forest fronds

grassy mountain meadow paths,

daisy clouds bloomed, swirling past

Wild geese flocked the lake,

dusk too soon alas

August night of seasons end

starry meteors flashed across

velvet black whistling to

a blue moon

Storm clouds gathering

Rain pouring, splashing puddles

Now the sun again

the steel – cold blue well

of unwitting wishes

sun silhouetted, blinding me

picnic blanket lazy days

wet petals, soft your kisses

deep the lake, some dive drowning in

or breathe their way back

home again

Grey

the darkness

deepened

Distant blue field

further, still the dawn

warmth of day, falls away

disappears into a

fragrant piney forest

a path – twine and twigs, mossy laid

soft steps, of hoof prints made

in tunnels wooded, dimly lit

gray lichen amid the moss

raindrops magnified, gazing through

boletus spongy staining blue

fat berries, salal and thimble red

sparrow rakes his nesting bed

when all the light has gone away

night slips silent into another day.

She loved the moon

long awaited ripeness full

Stood gazing

out the window

Then came a fool

his senses dull

they took their toll

and blinded dark

her radiant world

Autumn frost of mourning air that’s ever near

roaming roads weaving a way homeward

sudden clouds the cold gray surrounds me

hurried birds madly through trees

winter’s early calling

little footprints sparkle

white snow stars

falling

Orange woke

the sleeping world,

clouds, cumulus, creamy

feathery skies, painted fly

far escapes the night

sings morning pink, red

heavenly glow

ablaze in dawn’s

delight

The dawn, still the quiet embers

linger, wander, falling under

spells to uncover

Hands grasped golden nights

music fiery, blazed the heavens

mingling with starlight

Morning birds on wing,

dawn of sacred blessings

calling lovers home

The heat and scorch

a black singed wound

the blues and bruise

only a gaping hole

salt stung to close

still a heart in order to mend

must not contract

nor defend.

Dark skies whisper starlit

trailing arrows, sparkling glittery fly

hands illuminated, fingers moon dappled entwine

kiss of love’s star

Venus will have

her way

In Uganik Bay that year the sun never set

I walked the long greening path to the dock

fireweed taller than I shooting summer’s sky

Warmth of sun bringing lazy lily’s leaning

Little waves splashed breaking cerulean blue

I waited the mail plane, pontooned it flew

Lulling oceans smooth you landed

with eyes that sailed me far-off island stranded

next to you

Float plane to carry us edging mountains, snowy, jagged

Dall sheep, perched asleep precariously rocky hung

Kodiak bears forded rivers we circled streaming on

Deep black kettle ponds no man to touch

snowy patches amid viridian lush

frozen, not to melt

our treasured days of flying

We met again at Hatcher’s pass

with hearts to break as fragile glass

a part of love undying

Two maple trees

sun dappled window leaves

doves awake my dream

mourning breathes the air

breezy robes caress

green leaves

singing

That time in summer’s red, the hilly sands I climbed

willow grass woven white with yarrow, fragrantly entwined

my eyes softened in sea drift’s tide, of puddled shallows

ocean sang in rising waves, wild sea kelp tangled

sun slept scarce hours, it’s shining seaward beams

that only leave as the final silhouette

vanishes into night’s dream

I always take you in

the way you lie

on your back, exposing underbelly

Twitchy, tricky tale of you

scratching up my legs

you quickly turn

next moment fully purred

You haunt me in the night

hungry on the prowl

whiskers brushing skin

fierce in your growl

You never had to try

so hard, every trick in the book

your forlorn eyes

clawing caught me hooked

Strange music shook the mourning hour – waking

crash landing dreams, my sleepy ways forsaken

Til under other slumber I fell

to walk a lilting lake, green lily pads to float me

White petaled boats, lotus watery bloomed

other worlds sailed my dreaming room

strange music froggy

deeply toned

Long night

curtains dark the gloom

creak the steps to her sleeping room

solemn woman walks these woods

transforming limb and bone

in feathery flight she delights

to grace a moon swept pond

her whispers weave a song, to call her lover home

entwined they float the woodwind air

until the night is gone

Shapeshifter lights the darkness dawn

to shed the dreaming night

now slips away her lover

and fades the glorious swan

The perfect slanting of sun

tundra cotton leaning northward

salmon spawning homeward

golden grass – waved in winds

The cast of red autumn’s spell

Long road, cool ocean’s sun

Bare feet, warmth, sinks the softness

Drives my soul back home

Chemicals — hexafluorosilicic acid and sodium fluorosilicate

Derived from the phosphate mining industry,

both considered highly toxic by the EPA

These hazardous wastes are dumped into drinking water

LIES … Fluoride – it’s so good for your teeth

lies the dentist, lies the doctor, lies the politician

Lies the dead fish

in the water

Mossy, forest floor

orchids sweetly sprinkled

tread ever softly

your feet of

lady slippers

An

arrow

piercing

one’s heart,

left bleeding

for love’s sake

Stars sprinkled hover

in blackness of sky

Cold darkness

gives rise and fall

to moon’s breath

Harsh the winds, canyons – deep your drowning

echoes mirrored a lifetime looked upon

sun slept, darkness crept calling

lift the shade, peace parade

roses laid a silken path or

reign the muddied road

all for you to choose

finding your way

toward home

Lilting lake of music

echoes, birds, your watery world

I am fully undone in clear turquoise depths

glacial waters blind me to all else

I dream to walk across, song of you deep in heart

at the edge I stare gazing, a bird of dawn

alas, to dream, to be one with earth