Morning Poem
Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange
sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again
and fasten themselves to the high branches —
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands
of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails
for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry | 11 Comments »

Preface to Leaves of Grass (excerpt)
Love the earth and sun and the animals,
despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labor to others,
hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown,
or to any man or […]

Posted in Poetry | 5 Comments »

An absolute
patience.
Trees stand
up to their knees in
fog. The fog
slowly flows
uphill.
White
cobwebs, the grass
leaning where deer
have looked for apples.
The woods
from brook to where
the top of the hill looks
over the fog, send up
not one bird.
So absolute, it is
no other than
happiness itself, a breathing
too quiet to hear.

-Denise Levertov
(who was once a Seattle resident and attended St. Joseph Parish in […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry | 4 Comments »

Something is very gently,
invisibly, silently,
pulling at me - a thread
or net of threads
finer than cobweb and as
elastic. I haven’t tried
the strength of it. No barbed hook
pierced and tore me. Was it
not long ago this thread
began to draw me? Or
way back? Was I
born with its knot about my
neck, a bridle? Not fear
but a stirring
of wonder makes […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry | 5 Comments »

“Will you sail ‘cross the water and tell us what you found”
-Jane Siberry, “Sail Across the Water” from When I Was a Boy
 
Fear not the pain. Let its weight fall back
into the earth;
for heavy are the mountains, heavy the seas.

-Rainer Maria Rilke, from In Praise of Mortality

My dreams lately have been inviting me to enter […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Season by the Sea | 7 Comments »

Lord: it is time. The huge summer has gone by.
Now overlap the sundials with your shadows,
and on the meadows let the wind go free.
Command the fruits to swell on tree and vine;
grant them a few more warm transparent days,
urge them on to fulfillment then, and press
the final sweetness into the heavy wine.
Whoever has no house […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Seasons | 5 Comments »

Humpbacks
There is, all around us,
this country
of original fire.
You know what I mean.
The sky, after all, stops at nothing so something
has to be holding
our bodies
in its rich and timeless stables or else
we would fly away.
Off Stellwagan
off the Cape,
the humbacks rise. Carrying their tonnage
of barnacles and joy
they leap through the water, they nuzzle back under it
like children
at […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Embodiment, Season by the Sea | 7 Comments »

Thank you to everyone who participated in this week’s Poetry Party.  I am deeply grateful for all of your beautiful and thoughtful words.  Make sure to click over and read the most recent contributions (scroll to the bottom of the post).  I sent out a bunch of emails this morning requesting your mailing addresses if you’d like a […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry | 4 Comments »

Poetry
And it was at that age…
Poetry arrived in search of me.
I don’t know, I don’t know where it came from,
from winter or a river.
I don’t know how or when,
no, they were not voices,
they were not words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there […]

Posted in Poetry | 4 Comments »

Tess’ Sunday Collection is all about autumn, so head on over to read a number of wonderful links!
Bette has blessed me this day with the kindest and most gracious words.  Bette has been reading my blog since almost the beginning and has become a wonderful online friend who has inspired me in many ways, not […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Seasons | 5 Comments »