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The Calm Below the Storm, White Point, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada

The Calm Below the Storm

She reclines on the porch swing
Sways with gentle breezes

She loves this spot
Overlooking the bay
Always the picture of calm
Even if the sky threatens rain

Artful reflections
Flow over glassy waters
The ominous clouds tempered
As the wash of a watercolour
On which her mind paints
Stories of transformation

In the morning
A mug of americano
Vapour wafting
With the scent of roasted bean

Then the garden
No more than a thin film
Of rock-strewn topsoil
Spread over a bed of granite

Now the afternoon
Pinot gris
The bottle at her feet
Chills in a bucket of ice

This afternoon
Began earlier than others

Though not the earliest retreat
She may not need
To replenish the bottle

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Storm Hardened, White Point, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada

Storm Hardened

Some thought her broken
Even brittle

But all the brittle
Had broken away
In countless storms

What remained
Was hardened
Tenacious

She’d shed many facades
Until what was left
Was what she chose
To keep

She kept nothing
For perfunctory friendships
Or pettiness

Able to withstand any hardship
She chose carefully
What to stand for

And who

Content in gentleness
She suffered no one
Who drove hard upon her shores

If some thought
Walking away made her weak
She walked away
While they washed out to sea

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The Path Through Darkness, Middle Head Trail, Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia, Canada

The Path Through Darkness

Stillness in dark, dense forest
Light trickles through the canopy
Enough to cast shadows of utter black
In near blackness

Trees and roots form vague outlines
A maze of a path
Upon a maze for footfalls

I stumble my way
In a direction which seems
Forward

Progress slow
Or futile
I do not know

No matter
If futile
Step back
Seek another path

In this sense
All paths lead to the light
Failure is to remain complacent
In the darkness