Sunrise Dance

Walking through a lazy morn,
Drops of sweat and drops of dew,
To skin surface drawn, they form,
A film of cool, a feeling new.

Waking eyes to morning rays,
Light basks faces once immersed,
In nights dark and starry haze,
Now aglow, healed and nursed.

Sun, still gentle, cups my face,
A soft kiss into my eyes,
Her lips touch, a gentle embrace,
That quiets the noise of inner cries.

To think, this jewel fired by love,
That speaks through thunder and blood,
It beckons to heights, to rise above,
I dream to taste its cleansing flood.

Walking through a lazy morn,
Sipping a new taste of innocence,
I long again to be reborn,
In the hope of the sunrise dance.

*** This was probably written about 12 years ago.

Quickening

Already your bones have formed,
Toes, fingers, and eyes adorn,
Your slender, fragile, transparent frame,
Though we do not yet know your name,
We love you.

Already your tiny heart's beating,
Umbilical life — an intimate meeting,
Of total dependence, without any shame,
Though we do not yet know your name,
We love you.

Already your little legs are kicking,
Response to voices or some inner yearning,
Our lives will never be the same,
Though we do not yet know your name,
We love you.

Already we are counting days,
And long to be familiar with your ways,
The day we sensed you is the day joy came,
Though we do not yet know your name,
We love you.

Already we have parental tears,
Fueled by all parental fears,
Greatest joy amidst the greatest pain,
Though we do not yet know your name,
We love you.

**** This one goes back 14 years...to when my wife and I were Expecting our first son, Jonathan.

2 Older Poems

I Know I Need To Know
(Poem for Pastor Boillat)

I watched the waves
Wash Away,
I watched the sun
Set today.
I listened as the wind blew,
I listened and listened,
Until I knew.

I watched as the clouds
Changed.
I watched as my parents
Aged.
I listened as the birds sang,
I listened and again they began,
Then I knew.

My life one day
Will wash away.
When I'm done my light
Will fade away.
The wind will blow
Over my grave.
Until it too will pass,
Into another age.

I will be as the spark,
A small part of any song.
Oh God, make sense of this,
For soon I will be gone.

I watched the waves,
Wash away,
I watched as my parents aged,
I watched the sun
Set today.
I know,
I need to know.

****This one written for my Pastor at the time...just diagnosed with Cancer. He died about 2 years latter.

__________



***And a funny teenage poem.

Love is a Bird

Love is a bird
Yet a bird-so absurd,
It flies, free, 'tis true
Until it lands on you.
Then it will starve to feed,
Meet your every need,
Pluck its own feathers,
To keep you warm in cool weather.
It will offer its flesh
To fill your emptiness.
Yes love is a bird
Plucked and torn, yet unheard,
Are any cries of woe.
It doesn't want you to know
That love is free and unearned.
What a bird!

*** Some Really OLD Poems...we're taking my late teen  years here...so over 20 years ago!!!

Night

Mind ebbs in apparent death
Body slakes hunger for breath
Reprieved

Weight of the world appeases
Last thought chills and freezes
Relieved

Filament of fears nocturnal ghost
Possesses defenseless unconscious host
Besieged

Terrors in tormented souls awake
Numbed to demons that will not shake
Retrieved

The Ocean

The ocean is alive in movement
Bending the earth and sky
Chaotic symphony of cloud and wave
Will envelop me until I die

The ocean's hypnotic grace
Ever fixes my longing gaze
Power storms, tender currents
Are the pattern of my days

The ocean is both depth and power
A beauty both fearful and mystery
Adrift within its momentous tides
A lunacy a terror, wondrous and free

The ocean's embrace swallows all
In passion, in anger incomprehensible
Beholding her eyes, sharing her love
I will adore a rose with love equally

Unfathomable


****Another Poem from Maybe 4-5 years ago / Feeling moody by the water's edge!

On Time

Merciless planet tilts in space
Fading darkness-in its place
Light embers on the horizon
Past bone does it emblazon
The day

Chronos's drives hard as flint
Eyes resist but then they squint
Weight of the world floods within
Awaking souls to their chagrin
The Morn

Automaton limbs without thought
Into the fray –movement without plot
When Apollo crests within the sky
Baked brains shuffle without a sigh
The noon

Calendar page in autumn wilt
Day begins to loose the gilt
Breath and shadows growing long
Embracing antithesis of the dawn
The dusk

Shadows give way to lightless paths
In grief, in drink, in darkness baths
Face holes again longing to close
Lose the self within the throes
Of night.

Love impinges on time's cocoon
Calling persons to leap to swoon
Cracking open dark chrysalis
A winged soul in beloved bliss
Morningstar rising.

***1 from maybe 1 year ago...

A Thousand Miles

A thousand miles
May clear the eyes
That cannot see
Beyond the cries
To the love behind the pain.

A thousand miles
May wound the soul
Whose hardened shell
Though black as coal
Longs for innocence again.

A thousand miles
Ignites the longing
For the pure simplicity
Of love’s first dawning
Elusive as the air..

A thousand miles
That is how I love you
My spirit spans the chasm
Stretching between we two
Taste how much I care.

Oh thousand miles
Please wash our eyes
To know the beauty
See through the lies
To the love behind the pain.

***I wrote this 10 Years Ago...