Your Inner Tree

-------Your Inner Tree-------

From the middle

of a little

seed

Calls, to all,

the Inner 

Tree,

"My friend, my friend

remember

me".

-------

Unto Others

-------Unto Others-------

Judge one and be judged.

Love 

and be loved.

You are a great, crystal ocean

wide open and moonlit

collecting every single drop

You have ever

helped

to make.

-------

Empty Light

-------Empty Light-------

Down this river potion

  intangible

feeling

  broken.

Black is white

  and nothing is

every thing

  and empty

light.

  Without 

a word

  Hero falls

her soft, red lips

  the humble call.

Welcome change

  greet the night

every thing

  and empty

light.

-------

Thirty Springs

-------Thirty Springs-------

Imprinted within me

are generations of colored people.

Beneath the skin, 

pressed like footsteps into mud 

before the frost.

I am not white, but human;

flawed by 

judgement,

beautiful by the courage 

to leave it.

For thirty Springs 

the earth has thawed around me,

taking back every step 

but leaving whole 

the memory of walking.

Through empathy and crystalline heaves

the lines between here

and them 

and the past

disappear.

We are each a moment 

in the ever-changing.

A colorful

fleeting child 

of the seasons.

-------

Forget Me

-------Forget Me-------

Forget me.

Hold on to the light we shared,

but forget

me.

Remember the kiss and

the sounds of that evening

when the noise disappeared.

But forget me.

Remember how the world opened up all around us

and that feeling of falling into a place unknown,

a place so beautiful.

But forget me.

I am just a moment you once saw yourself in,

a memory 

upon your lips,

And forever 

the promise that Love 

is somewhere very, 

   very near.

-------

Up in the Air, Heaven in My Hair

-------Up in the Air, Heaven in My Hair-------

Gradually, like the end of a brushstroke stretched for a thousand miles,

the Great Plains rise to mountains 

across strawberry fields and out to sea.

From a privileged, floating perch

I can see the world come back together

as Winter covers the lines we have drawn between us.

Every religion, every color and gender

is touched by the same invitation.

Subject to the winds, like everything else.

Flight carries a unique perspective

and the descent, in me, 

anticipation.

For we are human.

And I yearn to see this vastness inside people,

to walk with heaven in my hair,

To travel and to question,

not for answers,

but simply to explore.

-------

Courage

-------Courage-------

When I find the courage 

to let myself be seen

I will 

finally

see you.

Until then I will remain

with the candle in my hand

fumbling through 

darkness 

for a match.

-------

So Completely Filled

-------So Completely Filled-------

The peaches and cream colored sunrise

I watched on hilltop this morning

made me hungry,

so I started back

toward home the long way.

Through the forest, along uneven trails of earth and stones

and the river; the quiet, winding river 

I have traced so many times upon my lovers back;

each curve and bend

a fractal ode to the persistence of Life's pattern.

This memory kept me warm

as the air turned grey and cold

and followed me to my little cabin,

wherein awaited a fire

and a cup of bitter tea.

Sipping 

   these 

      slowly

my insides rejoiced 

like a valley replenished by a flood,

and I wondered

on the temptress, sugar,

on the satiety of movement,

and how the graceful ways of Nature

can fill one so completely.

-------

Within

-------Within-------

Throughout 

the entirety 

of my life

I have known 

only great women 

and men.

Some 

have put on disguises

or change their names,

but Love has taught me 

how to listen

and where to look

and no matter how clever

one's efforts to hide 

may be,

their Light 

reaches out to me,

like a beacon through the fog,

saying, "here I am,

here 

I am."

-------

The Earth Turning

-------The Earth Turning-------

Our lives spin around

upon a fine 

and fragile point.

Over and over.

The tide turns a broken bottle into sea-glass.

I have walked through graveyards in Spring,

down dark, forgotten trails

lined by nettles and wineberry,

over hills, alone

and into hollers,

and I have been kissed

by the greatest 

beauty 

this world 
has ever known.

The sun will rise, no doubt.

If you sit quiet

you can feel 

the Earth 

turning.

-------

Longest Night

-------Longest Night-------

From the longest night

a beautiful, little seed

rises with the Sun.

-------

A Rose

-------A Rose-------

Sorrow 

need not be 

just a thorn,

but a gentle reminder

to take care

with the awesome 

beauty

at hand.

-------

Vocation

-------Vocation-------

Know me

as I know myself

better in the garden.

Forgiving my name to the Earth

and my plans to the movement of the seasons

I dig

bare-handed and grateful to the cold

for this chance to feel.

I am here

and very far away

seeing and unseen

like a memory on the surface

crouching humbly before death and life

and planting seeds

into a thousand years

of rebirth.

This is spirit taking shape.

Know me

true.

-------