Rushing Ocean Morning

Dip your hands into the sunrise,

Drag your fingers through the frothing blue sky,

Light springs through the cracks in the walls,

Sliding across the floor,

Golden and still-wet from shining on the sea.

It is a new morning, and the world shivers in its sudden nakedness.

All is laid bare, so do not be surprised if you also tremble.

The Lord's laughter cajoles us out of bed,

His whispered words send pink clouds to clothe the fresh first minutes of day.

He is the Prince of Peace and He wants to share His depths with us - 

So He has made another day, another infinite amount of chances,

to follow in His footsteps.

Quick, run to the shore! to the edge of the Vastness that is your soul.

Let not fear still your movement.

Let the sea kiss your toes,

Let the sand grace your knees,

Let prayer sing from your lips.

You will then see large footprints in the sand;

God's offering to follow Him to the Temple in His heart from which all Goodness is born.

If you wish to dare to love, fully and with passion,

Offer your body, your self, your words, your freckles and your skin,

To the bright and shining sea.

Pearls glint at you from pockets of red coral and there are waving green seaweeds 

And golden sand.

Let go of your breath,

Forget yourself to find your Self,

In the rushing ocean morning. 

Rocking Rhythm

                                                         I live with a broken heart no longer.

In fact, I don’t have a heart any more at all.

If you place your hand upon my chest you will not feel a beat.

I grew tired of envy, and worry, and grief,

So I rode my bicycle to the ocean and filled myself up with water

All the way down to my feet.

I live with a weak pulse no longer.

In fact, i don’t have a pulse any more at all.

If you place your fingers upon my wrist you will not feel a single throb.

I grew tired of sadness, and fear, and hate,

So i rode my bicycle to the top of a mountain and filled myself up with snow

All the way down to my fingers and toes.

Once I was cold and wet all the way through

I swam across the seven seas to a beautiful island

Where all my friends were waiting for me.

We danced and we sang all night long

Letting our hair dangle far into space

As we caught stars in the salty tangles, miles of glowing lace.

Finally we lay down to sleep;

A mess of brown limbs and resting eyes.

We breathed deeply and fully and sometimes our dreams made us sigh

As we played in the astral and worked out our lives.

When the sun woke up we did too, stretching and yawning.

Young souls get hungry after a night playing tag

In the valleys and mountains of God’s wrinkles!

So we rode our bicycles to market to buy food for a feast.

But when we got to the field there were no orderly bins and lines,

Just hundreds of people wearing nothing but smiles!

We caught on quickly and stripped off our clothes

Then raced to a huge basket filled with tangelos.

We were soon covered in sweetness and full to the brim

So we went to the ocean for a surf and a swim.

I leaped into the blueness and it filled the empty spaces within me

As i let out all my air and drifted to the sandy bottom.

The rocking rhythm of the waves passing over me

Swept away all the impurities from my soul.

I kicked my legs above my head,

Watching when the sun danced through the water

And shone through the thin bit of skin between my toes.

Then something magnificent caught my eye --

At first it looked like a gentle blue whale swimming toward me,

But as it got closer I realized it was a dappled brown turtle,

And then I blinked and it was a bright piece of broken coral.

Then sand got in my eye and when it cleared I realized

It wasn’t a whale or a turtle or a piece of coral;

It was my heart I’d given up long ago.

It had followed me out of the ocean where I left it,

Struggled behind me up the mountain,

Then swam across the seven seas to my beautiful island.

My heart had lain beside me every night while I slept, 

And now it had found me when I was finally ready.

I reached out my hand to greet my old friend,

And my heart drifted into my fingers.

I clasped it gently and put it back in my chest where it belonged,

And it quickly melted the rest of the cold snow from my toes.

My friends appeared, swimming beside me.

They were smiling and blowing bubbles;

They could see my heart and I had found each other again,

Reunited beneath the rocking rhythm of the ocean waves.

You, My Love

You, my love, cannot stay in my arms forever.

                                                Life beckons us different ways,

But when the wheel of the Universe turns on its axis

And we find ourselves face to face, hand in hand,

These are the things i hope for us:

That the grace of God will cover us like the stars blanket the sky,

And we will find freedom in each other.

Our pasts will fall away until they're just pretty lights in the distance

And we're both exactly what we knew we'd be, what we always wanted to be:

Pure and light and happy, every word that passes between us a simple token of appreciation,

Every kiss a gift we know we deserve.

We'll be so full of self love and self respect

Anyone that sees us or talks to us will glow inside,

Full of joy at our obvious total enjoyment of each other. 

I’ve so many things i want to tell you, stories to share and songs to play,

Movies to see and stars to watch, questions to ask and places to go.

The days will stretch long and the nights will never end,

We'll be lovers and best friends, close like two shirts hanging in a closet,

And apart like two trees in the same forest,

Like two stars in the same constellation,

In total awe of each other's beauty but notbecoming each other. 

These are the things i hope for us, 

Even though you, my love, cannot stay in my arms forever. 

With Gods And Angels

Dark dancers crawl out of my depths,

Swinging their arms behind my eyes and flicking their heelsIn tight pirouettes around my heart.

As I breathe in, their dance turns into a heated frenzy.

As I breathe out, they fade into smoky shadow.

They leave only the faintest trace of their tumultuous existence inside me:

A deep nod of my head, a graceful sweeping of my foot,

A trickling laugh that leaps from my lips...

A deed of kindness that turns my steady heartbeat

Into a hollow gourd drum beating out a wild rhythm

That sends me romping playfully through my days and nights.

The dark dancers always come, with sharp beautiful faces

And crowns of thorns nestled into their thick hair.

I release the leaping, weeping, keening dancers

Even as they call for me to fall into their bony, familiar arms.

I do not wish to hear the tapping of their feet for more than the blink of my eyes,

Because pain is sweet only in the first moments

Like the deep red of sudden sunrise.

I prefer to dance alone with deep breaths and slow, measured movements

Like the moon in its cycle through the sky,

Like foamy waves rising, curling, and whispering down onto the sand.

The dark dancers are my inspiration to keep cavorting across sunny wooden floors,

To smell flowers with every ounce of my concentration,

To dive into my Self as I dive into the ocean,

as I plunge into my bed at night,

As I fall into the arms of my friends and family,

As I plunge into Grace and kick up my heels in the valleys of the Milky Way

With the Present Moment playing fine spun music in my ears,

As I romp all night, all day, with gods and angels. 

Right Now

i have heard that a lot of people spend their lives

            trying to find Themselves.

            trying to find the Right Person.

            trying to find the Successful Job.

            but I have found,

            that anything worth finding is right now.

            Right Now.

            Right Now.

            Right Now.

            so take every Right Now,

            (and remember to breathe)

            and let it be Right Now,

            don’t put any Tomorrow’s or

            What If’s in it.

            stretch your happy muscles,

don’t let them get cramped

            (and remember to breathe). 

For Teachers, Especially Mine

I am taught by a great teacher.

she leads with her heart,

and through her Love I have begun to walk the starry paths

of my young heart.

this teacher has taught me to untangle myself from the sticky

web of my dreams, so I may find joy in my present moment.

she has helped me to discover that if I desire deep sleep and deep love,

then I must cease my anxious pacing on the shore.

I must dive right into the heaving storm that is my new life.

I lay in the burning sunlight of her lessons

so that I may become a great teacher one day too.

I have seen my inner hurricane and weathered the violence.

I listen to her words so I may know the peace of resting on God’s broad chest…

so I may know the rhythm of my Lord’s steady breathing.

so I may rise with His inhale and sink with His exhale,

knowing that I can hear His unchangeable heartbeat

whenever I put my ear to the Earth and listen. 

For My Parents & Others Who Miss Me

I am sending love to you tonight,

Wrapped in stars and silver clouds.

My hugs and laughter find their way over the oceans with ease,

Skimming across the dark surface of the water.

But all I can send is my love and light.

My shoulders and head stay here in the shadow of green mountains,

And my toes splash in water clear as glass.

You see, I am walking a path that winds forever on and on,

And I may sometimes pass from your sight.

But do not be angry with me,

Please say goodnight to me each evening even though I don’t sleep beside you;

I will hear the love in your lullaby

Even though you may sing it to an empty room!

I know God’s ears listen at all windows,

And He whispers into all lonely ears.