I Color the Sky

I color the sky
With my eyes.
I draw the earth
With my feet.
I sculpt the world
With my thoughts,
And paint portraits
With my words.

Hope Blooms in the Winter

Though
I can't see it,
I feel it,
a flower
blooms in the snow.
Though the frost
kills its petals,
the flower
still blooms,
as promised.

I Want To Tell You / Immortal Words

I Am

I am small
thinking I am big
and important.
How could I be
otherwise.

Utilities

I give room
to power lines
asphalt highways
pipelines
landfills
they are utilities
necessities

but I also
give room
to forests
grasslands
tundras
shorelines
oceans
atmosphere
also utilities
necessities

A Predator is Born Before My Eyes

So quickly,
two beautiful creatures
morphed,
the sparrow into prey,
the falcon into
a predator,
before my eyes.

Thoughts While Watching the Snow Fall

I could try to run from my problems
and maybe distract myself for a while
but when I stopped running I would find
I was carrying them with me all along

and then the great secret I hid from myself...

I could try to search the world for my joy
and find many wonders and treasures
but when I stopped searching I would find
I was carrying my joy with me all along

Sagebrush Faith

Sagebrush do not pray for rain,
but anchor themselves
to this hard dry place
and wait for whatever comes.
They truly live by grace.
This is their faith.

I Cannot Ask

I cannot ask the clover
to be anything more
than clover,
or the sun to shine brighter,
of the night to be shorter,
or the frost to forbear.
I cannot ask the wind
to change direction,
or the pinyon
to be taller than the poplars.
I cannot ask the sparrows
to stop twittering
in the bushes.
I cannot ask nature
for more or less
than what it already is.

Dreaming

snow's coming again to today
I sit at the window
looking at my garden
dreaming of what
will be growing come spring

I Watch

I watch
as the slightest hint
of a breeze
moves this blade of grass
while a sparrow
watches the garden
and I watch
the sparrow

Predator and the Prey

Feeding birds every day has consequences.  The birds come of course, but there is a family of mice that have taken residence under bird feeder.  And then there is the falcon that has claimed my feeder to be within his territory.








The inevitable happens and the falcon captures a junco...

I like the junco, but I also like the falcon.  The coyote and the rabbit, the wolf and the elk, the orca and the salmon, the spider and the fly... the predator and the prey I have to accept them all, and love them all, if I truly love nature.

13 January 2018

I am wearing a dark blue suit today.

After reading a poem,
I feel sorrow wash over me
mortality is life,
to deny it is to deny
my humanity.

I inhale the jasmine in my tea
and drink the bitter infusion
of flowers and leaves,
and then I breathe,
and chuckle and the simple joy
of this moment.
Here too is my humanity.

Worries, fears, anxieties,
hopes, faith, resolutions, plans,
all bound up
in one soul.

Put a uniform on me,
give me a script,
put words in my mouth,
make me one with you,
one of you,
but I will still be me
behind the mask
you have made for me.

Today I wear a dark blue suit,
and red tie.
That will throw them off...

Fog

This morning
the clouds reach down
to embrace the earth
with frost as a sign
of the midst of winter.

A Hawk

a witness
watches everything
we are seen

Not Native Here

My roots do not run deep
here in this red rock and clay
or in any place.
I am cut off from Kansas,
from California,
from North Dakota,
from Utah and Nevada.

No, not a place.

But, my roots run deep
into the lives
of fathers and mothers,
of grandparents,
of my ancestors
of humanity,
deep into blood and dreams.

I remember wheat fields.

We Have Seen It All

We see what we want
from what we can see,
thinking we have seen it all.

Others

others walk here
the same as me
(but without shoes)

their path
reveals intentions
and their art

Looking at an Old Photograph

Beyond My Reach

How much is beyond my reach:
The birth and death of stars,
The beginning of life,
Our world's history.
And I will not live to see
How it all turns out.
My children's children's children's
World is not mine,
It is beyond my reach.