To Plant with Spring

-------To Plant with Spring-------

 To have the chance

we take a chance
and plant our flowers into the weeds.

 Because we are stubborn

and can't listen any more
to the tired doctrines of "master gardeners".

 Because we trust in the beauty and fertility

that is about the roots
of all things.

 -------

A Breath to Remember, A Breath to Forget

-------A Breath to Remember, A Breath to Forget-------

Every day,

   and many times within,

we give up and fall,

   inhale and again begin.

It is a gift we sing,

   through heart, 'tween breath,

to love the other

   through life, through death.

Let's take it honest,

   let us take it slow,

humbled, by every little thing,

   how little we truly know.

-------

Cuts and Bruises

-------Cuts and Bruises-------

Dirty hands make for a clean living,

say the souls who have strayed 

beyond 

the classroom and school yard.

To the wooded places and colored fields,

under rocks, on skateboards and tree-houses,

is an education that transcends

what the discerning mind does judge.

Maybe 

there is more to learning than can be taught.

Maybe 

those who are told they have failed just see falling in a different way.

The nature of the lesson

is what children and wanderers already know,

and where we long 

to return again.

-------

Like Begets Like

-------Like Begets Like-------

The color of our intentions

charge each stroke 

in the forms becoming.

It all makes sense

when likeness 

is realized,

that thinking

sets the act 

to be received,

and each one's separate piece

becomes the Maker's 

self-portrait.

-------