Gentle current
Beneath the ice
Downstream rumbles
Break the crust
And I am freed
For the moment
Only a thin sliver of hope
Graces the sky
Soon enough
The stars
The constellations
The galaxies
As the grand parade
Of existence
Once again
Fills the cosmos
We navigated
The long night
To morning’s welcome
This new shore
Beckoning
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
Delightful frolics
When the clouds softened
Saw blade peaks
Rather than coat the sky
In remorseful grey
Like Today
I remember a better day
And another to come
A future memory known not by
Prescience nor forecast
Only, hope
Though patience
And softness
Cannot resolve
Every problem
The peace flowing
From their practice
Bears a reward
Of its own
As I watch
The sun set
Upon the stone
The river cut
To understand this
Is to master life
To master life
One must master death
sun falls
like a poet’s first words
illumination lacking warmth
so I shiver
wrapped in a blanket of silence
broken only by the wind
bending the tall grass
rapt in a solitude
broken only by gulls on the wing
bending the air to their whim
