Sacred Rhythms of Sky, Sun, Sea and Stone: Participant Poems ~ Cyndera Quackenbush

In April, 18 creative souls gathered with us for our retreat on Inismor – Sacred Rhythms of Sky, Sun, Sea and Stone. We had a wonderful group with participants from all over the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Australia. I am delighted to share some of their poems. Pour a cup of tea, imagine yourself on a windswept limestone island in the Atlantic, and savor for a while.

From Cyndera Quackenbush

Wind

You came in Spring
What seed survived your incessant stirrings?
Plenty –
Yet you swept away all falsehood
A wind-whipped cleansing
Of all not Rooted

Branches, no longer reaching,
Betray their trunks
Totaling city cars with their wayward weight

Meanwhile you sing with insistent whistling
Through the Open Gate

Invisible, you are known outside
Heard Inside
The effects are visible
Especially in my hair
Like the soul, you cannot be seen
While we witness your presence everywhere

Fire (11 Illuminated Forms)

            Inspired by Mark S. Burrows poem “Nine Forms of Light”

Light between Leaves,
Shimmering with Breeze

Light within Bird Wings
And in the Song that She Sings

Light in the Rainbow Grass Dew
Light in the Sky’s Eternal Blue

Light on the Rooftop
Lights in the Car Lot

Light on the Surface of Stone
Light in the Ringing Telephone

Light is in this Place,
Eyes Closed,
The Sun upon my Face

Water

In Praise of Laundry

The washing machine is a Womb
I could sleep to its sounds of churning
Vibrations of cycle changes

There are secret crevices
Where the fairy liquids go
And then
The waters flow-
A musical medley of clothes
Through a sea portal window

Out come the lavender scented parcels
They look like wet, wilted infants
Ready for the wear of life

I smell each one,
hold it close
And place it lovingly in the dryer

These Clothes,
Creations of daily identity
Will meet here again

Stones

St.Ones

At Midnight
The Moonlight
Spills through stone slits
Onto altar slabs

In illuminated dark,
I make out Heart
My fingers finding
the silk of stone

It used to be,
These entities could be a He or She –
This stone says She to me

Lips open to sky
She sings a soft stone song

How She,
A stone chosen, begins again
While doing nothing at all

The Big Dipper,
Found in this framed night filled with stars,
Reminds these roofless walls
Of the Possible, Possible
Promise
Of surrendering
To the Moon and Structures of God

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Cyndera Quackenbush, MA, is a storyteller, educator and Reflection Card Reader in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the creator of the Story Through Stone Reflection Card Deck, that features naturally occurring billion year-old imagery from rocks found in her native Mojave Desert. With the development of the Story Through Stone Reflection Card Reading Method, she assists individuals in uncovering their deeply known truths and insights with imagination and intuition. Find out more at StoryThroughStone.org