Ways of the Antlered

Before deer’s ground nest
of dry needle and sap-fragrant soil,
I sit
in refuge rung by nibbled foliar spires
and thick backbone of pine.
Come peace.
Come stillness.
Come balance.
Come strength.
Gentle ways of the antlered one ask for givers of presence.
In study,
you are honored.

Departing flirtation

With red-shouldered hawk
standing
on my roof
and an old sorrow
abandoning its stolen post,
the chickadees gather
beneath the eave,
one sneaking away to the window
to brush the glass
in departing flirtation.

Wild ones

Wild ones come
in waking and sleep
blurring lines between worlds
Dream unfolds open-eyed
as those of night
visit through day,
pawing the same paths
with blazing eyes held,
or dropping close on whispered wing
taking advantage of a break
in the trees
The mystic bothers not
with real
unreal
One is inseparable
and messages reach the intended,
the veil only myth.

Guardians

Two white owls
dusted with beige,
perch in pine.
Upon revelation,
visual impact,
I wake with a cry.
From familiar swoop of tree limb,
one faces water, the other
toward opposite earth.
Keeping watch over the unseen,
with them I slept.
Escaped voice suspends forming tears,
a crash out of dream,
surprise vigil.
Guardians.
Cradled in mind,
held in slumber,
worlds animate with closed eyes.

Spider

Layers of tree bark,
braided pale paper wood,
and
A hole,
dark, deep, easily unseen..
Web strands whisper her presence,
then spiral thickly in
towards silence and no light.
Blowing gently through the open door,
she tucks her black shiny body away
from uninvited wind.
Disturbance not intended,
clarification made.
Spider~
graceful, delicate,
quiet, hidden, fast and capable weaver,
Why greeted with such fear?
Welcoming your power, fascinated,
held in awe,
Fear crawls, courage flies-
Let’s alter that and dangle from silken threads
of our own making.

Family

Without hummingbird’s gravelly persistence,
behind and to the left,
red-shouldered hawk’s cries
atop bending cypress
would have spread sound
into shared broad-winged flight.
But I miss that
to turn
and find coyote beside me.
Announcing myself, he looks.
Iridescent ones flit through shadow.
Adjusting his snout,
and partially lowering his haunches, he negotiates
whether to have a seat or trot away.
Hummingbirds scatter as he heads southward.

Coyote approaches

Coyote approaches
and, upon sensing me,
sits
gracefully,
slowly
stepping out his front paws
to lay down face to face.
Honor,
a swell, rolls through
in response to such a gift
from the wild.
I’d sweep the skies with bare hands
to bring stars down
to light your way,
weave the needles at my feet
to bring canyon waters to your lips..
but you have all that.
The best I can give is my presence,
gratitude,
a full heart,
and respect for big ears, bushy-furred tail,
and your taste for the unexpected.

sculpted

For those who left,
I now know,
I asked you to go;
And the rivers of tears,
the endless ocean of grief and sorrow,
my hand-written invitation
welcoming the fire.
Cleaved in two-
rock, split-
through those openings
water washed and sculpted
hollowed out and
slowly
re-formed this being
whose heart burned
and broke
over and over and over,
tumbling and grating in wave
after wave,
until
breath narrowly returned
from a final shattering
freeing a Self
whose unalterable joy
demanded release.