One Vessel

In a sacred grove

We are fairy nobles

Gleaming golden crowns gilded by kindness

Holding staffs of insight

that glow gently with warmly lit orbs

It is here

The wounded seek us out

And lay their weary burdens at our feet

We offer tenderness fueled by a river of compassion

and seek our kingdom’s treasure in each healing transcendence

In a ​dense and uncharted​ forest

We are ​​weathered adventurers ​

Soaring along the valley's limbs

Jumping off cliffs and gliding like parrots to the ground

We light fires and pound drums and laugh and scream into the face of​ night’s madness​

It is here, you and I

Seek courage in the roar of ​wild things​

Fierce with purpose

Unleashed by powerful breath and

An unbridled heart

Nobly seeking to lead and be led

In the serenity of pools and gardens

We lay and lapse into sheer contentedness

The touch of smooth skinned shoulders

The brush of your coarse beard against my cheek

Peace and tranquility interrupted only by

The bubbling brook of laughter

It is here, you and I

tend to one another gently, devotedly

testing and teasing out the locks of rusting prison doors,

coaxing the tumbling of mountainous fearful walls we built within

In a sacred grove, in an uncharted forest

and among serene pools

Wherever I find myself with you

There is a binding magic

where love pours forth

from one vessel

rolling their eyes

you hesitate

you cringe

you hold your head and push

push into the pressure

to relieve like with like

to meet my stubborn prow that is endangering your

individual

boundary

and push it back

push it away

i persist

i thrive on my anguish

it fills me like a sack of knives

that I want to fling at the door

one at a time

thwang!

thud!

they stick in

and i know my words are sharp

i know they stick without cartoonish sound

they agitate both you and me

with their relentlessness

they

are

looped

into my head

with a steel cable,

and it ain’t going no where.

so how do we do

love now?

how do we reach back into that

playful space

that resting peace

that feeling of love that soothes like popsicles,

the jingle of change

and someone’s warm hand oozing prana into your cold?

the heated diffuse

feeling of ahhhhhh….

all of that is sitting on the stairs

rolling its eyes at us

asking

why... again

why now?

when will they learn

there is better choreography for this

there are better love bytes, sound bytes, sexual bytes

than this

but at least

they are there

on the stairs

and we will meet them

and, thank heaven

swoon

once again

into heart space, our space,
love’s space

strawberry

strawberry sweetness

hands open and receiving gifts,

mouths drinking in the surprise

of fruits of labor turned into

a  generous resonance on the tongue,

a refreshed mind

settled in clarity, brimming with hope

strawberry crush

a pit in the stomach

rolling into unexpected softness

it collapses its flesh against untender pressures

weary of time, weary of sun

it fades,

and yields to the elements surrounding

vulnerability a predictable task for delicate fruit

and eternally will succumbs

strawberry passion

belly to belly

together they lie glistening

seeded, heads a tuft of green in disarray

full of intentional bursts of livelihood

in a swallow full of drip down dreams from the sun

strawberry tartness

the sour bite and underdeveloped nature

that skids and swerves and heeds only

adventure and idolatry

instead of poise and promise

sassy and defiant this berry blows its own horn

as its selfish birthright gives not an inch of satisfaction

instead leaves one hesitant to explore

any further commitments to a life so un(for)giving

strawberry pie

sloshes and warms its gooey innards

satisfied by the binding heat to be come together

this is the summertime when skies are clear

and breezes are drifting fresh linens

it is crumbling and buttery and the sweetness of exploration

the satiation unbeatable, the pretense of being lost in goodness

while never having to lose something good

strawberry essence

a collaboration and coalescing of possibility

aim, desire, failure, predictability and razor sharp intuition

that when fully grown feels the incredulity of existence,

fearful of atrophy and the power of neglect

while acutely yearning to bear its most beautiful gifts

upon the widespread fields of green.

a smile in the sky

Ephemeral pheremones...

position entranced
burgeoning a mask of faith
a side step two sway
anger deals the cards
and the joker laughs

something full and white
negative grace
circle me and drown out the positrons
draw me into your black hole so I know of the depths

satisfied mind flushed with endorphins
sinking into the washing tub
steam and wringing towels around wet hair
pale toes, a delicate endeavor
to begin anew

grasping tight and giving up
the step forward delayed as you silence your desire
by mimicking the master plan
fulfilled and unanswerable
but always in the right
you guide me

beckoning night
show me mercy

garnet

snow and black rock
showing sparseness and boldness in equal measure
how does the trumpeting blankness of color divide the territorial blackness of the soul?
fated breaths blow and scatter the ice crystal sands.
Even as they are soft weighted footprints,
they are no more welcoming to my hands with their impartial temperatures
than the haphazardly hewn and jutting blunders formed by hardships.
At times it is darkness that offers more transparency to my view.

Yet it is in the vacant lightness of air and water (even slowly as their elements are moving) that I find my malleability.
it is child's play to turn a white landscape holy.
borrowing wings and the ethereal glow needed to transcend this earth
snow and black rock exist neutral to my questioning
and if that is Zen Mind I Seek It.
polarized between the sinking depths of pure and frigid realizations
and the surface level of a rudimentary and sharply discovered ignorance

tsunami

My heart is poisoned with a drip line of
hate
this questionable string of truths
heavy as weighted sand bags on the
ankles of a swimmer in the deep ocean
careening with the tide
a bauble
at the mercy of the Sea God
proud and dangerous with his
trident- ready to strike at knee jerk reflex

the cyclone prepares its own
tsunami

rough throat of passion unspoken
my injured mind vibrates a disruptive symphony
deafening, weakening, stomach churning

Dare I take the reins again?
Barely keeping the stitches in my
heart from busting open
sleep in peaceful gardens is a distant hope,
rumbling across the ragged pavement of violent deconstruction

For Aphrodite- the sensual lover

I want to forgive myself for deeds done
selfish confusing hurtful indulgent

I seem to be sending out love in multi-directions
to one man devoted
to another who behaves selfishly as I do

add in the allure of motherhood
these babies of young women
the neediness, the responsibility, the beauty, the miracle

how could I celebrate that now
when my life is at the helm?
waiting for direction
waiting for the signal to follow the path of contentment
and growth-without a soul fracturing

I carry my heart in my hands
a beautiful dark crystal
I carry myself only
I ask forgiveness
I ask for peace.