Snowflake Touches

Photo on Pikist
Photo on Pikist
I think she
is a light flurry
of falling flakes:
twirling in spirals
fluttering softly
making small shivers
With small shivers
I meet them:
small skin kisses
smiling all over
rejoicing my senses
making soft meetings
I meet her
for love of them
for love of her
I meet her shining moonlit flakes

Heart Waters

Photo by Manish Gautam
Photo by Manish Gautam on Pexels
My soul sings for soft, melancholy melodies
that run in restful rivulets,
follow their own flow under Autumn’s raining leaves
My heart hums in harmony with tender tones
that sound in sighing breezes,
sharing thoughts in gentle tellings to all who listen
My heart hears and lives

Rusty Rails

Photo by Mike Birdy
Photo by Mike Birdy on Pexels
Down by rusty rails
frail and flaking
over stoney steps that fell
til faced with currents breaking
Along the weary way
to crests by crumbling
under hand and step the feel
the smell of salt
the rails were shaking
Where moss and lichen lived
my soul was breaking

Breathing Earth

Photo by Marianne Long
Photo by Marianne Long on Unsplash
The lovely earth instills her sanity,
emanates bliss, breathes belonging.
in stirring leaves & smell of moss…
in soil scent & whispering gust…
Oh, to feel apart from her is sorrow!
Forgetful soul, left without:
from life-well draw a drought that never dries!

Heart of Morning

Photo by unknown artist
Photo by unknown artist on Pikist
Your heart is the morning
a beautiful mist
dappled in sunlight
each touch is a kiss
Your thought in the weather
of tremulous heart
is song like a child’s
I’m taken apart
Ah land ever lovely
I sing at your thought
in your lull I will listen
breathe never for naught

Wind Song

Photo by Dan Meyers
Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash
Old as the sound of the wind
new as its touch unseen
Soft as the world’s own whisper
ever-spoken
suddenly heard
Fair as mist-bright weather
dark as mystery’s heart
So the song of the one I call my land
of voice so small come
sea-deep words

Loss of an Hourglass

Photo by Gif Frame
Photo by Gif Frame on Unsplash
A frustrated hourglass, stiff and fragile:
the sand slips through grain by grain.
They slip through smoothly, time still passes:
its curved body cannot contain.
The glass bends inward to grasp each grain
as sand dances through its open hand.
Each crystal falls like precious rain
the sand so fine flows on like time.
A lonely hourglass has lost its last:
an empty peace so calm and still.
The desperate pain left nothingness,
but the glass is turned and so the sand will spill.

My Land, My Love

Photo by Peter Steiner
Photo by Peter Steiner on Unsplash
I am here…
holding your heart with each thought
breathing your presence as written words take form
sighing of each inward breath
until of my labor at last I birth
song enough to say my secret
verse enough to voice this truth
poem enough to remember these moments
that should I be drawn away
I should find my way again
find again my love and know her

Our Sacred Stories

Photo by Ric Perin
Photo by Ric Perin on Pexels

Sacred stories are narratives from which peoples, cultures, and individuals derive hope, a sense of continuity, and of belonging. They tell our sacred truths with a power like myth: the truths we believe about ourselves, the ones that feel like freedom and lightness of heart. They are also the ones we miss when we have lost touch with them.

But sacred stories are not just about communities. We each have our own. For instance, consider this quote from Professor of Psychology, Dan P. McAdams:

A personal myth delineates an identity,
illuminating the values of an individual life.
The personal myth is not a legend or a fairy tale,
but a sacred story that embodies personal truth.
The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self

Within each of us there is an abiding sense of self, a knowledge of who we are that grounds us like an internal magnetic North. To be in tune with it is peace; to live otherwise is suffering. Discovering our personal sacred stories can be a means of reorienting our lives to be in alignment with that inner knowledge.

It is hard to live apart from the person you know yourself to be. It can feel long and hard, but as soon as you remember, it is like finding you are suddenly free. Seeing yourself as you are, with child-like eyes, is gladness of heart…

But what can we do when we have lost touch?

First of all, it is important to surround yourself with people you trust. Trusted friends and family members can reflect our hearts back to us when we feel lost and vulnerable. Your trusted community will help you remember when you forget, but it can also help to have a practice of personal reconnection.

How does one go about creating such a practice? Consider the following:

Take some time for yourself with the intention of making space for your heart. Go to a place where you have felt most like the person you are glad to be, and ask yourself questions like the following:

  • What has my heart been telling me I am missing?
  • What have I been longing for, or going without?
  • What has seemed impossible to me, or impractical?
  • If nothing were out of reach, what would I joyfully ask for?

Resist the tendency to think of these questions as happy endings; rather, consider each one a gateway to an exciting beginning. Let them inspire you, and then listen to your dreams as you would to a child speaking in earnest. Be merciful to them as they try to express themselves.

Take your time, and write them down in a way that is easy to remember, powerful to repeat. Or if there are too many, try putting them into meaningful word pictures that can be invoked by a phrase, perhaps like a mantra, or maybe just a simple affirmation. For example, here are a few I wrote for myself:

I want to channel the living beauty
of my lovely world
in words and stories that inspire connection
I want to be free, to have time
to give myself, body and breath
in relationship with my beautiful land
to put words to her ever-flowing thought
shared with me, confided,
til not one of her precious thoughts goes unheard
I want to reach others
I want to see her light in others’ eyes
and have the joy of knowing she is seen in mine
I want this life, this work
to radiate wellness, healing, blessing
to transcend age, brokenness, human constraints
I want to see it realized in the here and now
I want to begin today

When you reconnect with your dreams, your sacred truths will emerge. It can be a first step to living as the person you were meant to be. So what are your sacred truths? Who were you born to be? Are you ready to begin today?


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Athirst for Naught

Photo by Mike Birdy
Photo by Mike Birdy on Pexels
Alive, like flame undying flickers;
Bright of heat like friction, hope?
Yearning, yearning,
tendon, bone
from thirsty soul
that birthing wind
in labor must hold still.
Starving, starving,
let die what will
to strip what won’t
til finding naught
at last one must let go.