Day’s end
A gentle paddle
On glassy seas
My body
At peace
With my mind
With the land
With the water
With the sky
My spirit rises
To the surface
Of my being
My consciousness
Swirls in the essence
Of all that is
Like eddies
Hugging a paddle
In a vast
Bottomless
Sea
I look deep within
Marvel at the unknowable infinity of being
A reminder that I stand as a presence
Manifested of an essence
Without dimension or time
angry sea
angry sky
in between
the boughs all fly
tree trunks bow
wind tests their roots
and salts the air
with whitecaps flare
so here am I
lens held to chest
braced to keep
a steady frame
while all around
the chaos roars
a shutter click
renders it tame
Such soothes the grief
Of one life’s sad lament
Whose diminished light
No longer casts
Onto the stilling sea
Sufficient light
To bounce a single ray
Confused and lost
Mind gone astray
Now take another breath
Do I
Remember bounteous light
Which shimmered off
A rampant sea
And know that souls
Are infinite
That one life lived
No matter grand or small
Is but a drop
Where raindrops fall
So many more still yet to come
And this one
Though diminished now
Once was bright as raging sun
The scents of sea
And conifers
Carried on the breeze
While I
Close my eyes
Breathe in
All of existence
Gathered in a moment
Spinning and spinning
In infinite space
And I no more than a mote
A sprinkling of star dust
Coalesced in flesh and bone
Which one day woke up
Asking questions about
The universe and itself
Is there more than that?
I may never know
Perhaps I simply forgot
Hold the tiller fast
As grey gulls surf
The unseen wave
Leeward of the mast
And I at peace
In my dead reckoning
Far between the harbours
Of duty and burden
Riding the tide of release
The camera never lies
But the photographer
Knows how to fib
And should I find
A mountaintop
Who’s to say
I find the one
Reserved to some
Refused to those
Who’ve never known
The pinnacle
