Tuesday, November 8, 2016

What to do when you meet a Wolf

Stay with it.

Sit down if it's easier to see eye to eye.

Embrace it.

Take a deep breath to pull its essence inside.

Observe it.

As you start to see it clearly you will notice it is a sheep in wolf's clothing.

Take in its beauty.

Place your ear on its soft fur and smell the warm spring sun reflect off its coat.

The blind side of discomfort is love.


Tuesday, November 1, 2016

How to Find Your Way Home

Home is where you feel warm
               where you can smile and weep
               where you take your true form
                                 close your eyes and breathe deep
                                                                                     
                                                                                           
                                                                                         Welcome home.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Liquid Peace

It's not something you drink

In fact most people 
                              tilt
                                   their
                                                head
                                                                 up
                                                                                  to
                                                                                                        the 
                                                                                                                                 sky
To avoid
              any
              of
               it
              spilling out

POUR IT ALL OVER YOUR FACE

Sop it up with joyous 
                                   flapping
like a happy wet dog

If you like, wear it on your sleeve

But I prefer to absorb the saline goodness
                                                                   through my cheeks

Soaking it into all of the internal ropes
                                                                 I've pulled so tight

Easing them up a bit
 
How you wear your face is your call

Try soaking in your own personal epsom salt facial

Maybe it'll help you 

UNTIE SOME KNOTS  
 

Wicked Witch

Remember the Wicked Witch?

She was made of walls
At first they started inside
Around her heart
She thought they wanted to rip it out
But they were looking for warmth
The kind that builds on itself when an individual's internal incinerator
Is connected to another's
Like an energetic interlocking web of roots
Sharing what their limbs pull from the air
One of those one plus one equals three things
But she took no chances
She had no time for risky business
Too busy taking power to receive it

But then she thought, what of their breath?
To avoid a reaction to their respiration
She built a wall around her lungs,
Tightening her breath

They tried to show her love with food
But she was afraid to absorb their aura
So she turned her stomach upside-down and
Built and wall around it

To get to know her they asked about her interests
But she worried they would see weakness
To take advantage of
So she pulled her Adam's Apple to the bottom of her throat
And enclosed it inside walls

When they couldn't get her to talk to them
They told their own tales of temptations and thorns
So she clogged up her ears as if she was
On the highest mountaintop
And built a wall around them

In one final attempt they organized a walk
Through the most gorgeous gardens in town, and
Invited her
But she worried that time amongst the people
Walking with them
Might allow them to fear her less
So she built a wall
Around her
Entire body
So that no one could see her

With this, the group finally left her alone.

But Dorothy, who could see the goodness in her, told them to wait outside the door.

When they finally left, the Wicked Witch thought she would feel relieved. But with each wall she built she had caged herself further, restricting her own movement and causing tremendous tension. With everyone gone, the silence felt hollow and her body felt weak.

To try to relax, she laid down and serially sighed. She looked up at the ceiling suspiciously seeking out the source of the leak which had dripped on her face, but the ceiling was dry. Liquid was pouring from her eyes and melting the walls she put up. She scanned the room for the offending onion with no luck. She was able to breathe deeply again, but could only breathe in with jerky movements like a backfiring car while moaning like an oversized muffler. Uncontrollably, all but one of her walls quickly melted away. Her heart was still safe in its self-imposed casing.

Dorothy, who had heard the sobbing, went back in alone. She saw the Witch, no longer dressed in her scary costume, vulnerability and all. Upon seeing Dorothy, the Witch popped up, ready for battle. But before she could strike, Dorothy charged her, wrapped her in her arms and pressed her ear against the Witch. She could hear the Witch's heart slowing down.

The Witch raised her arm to strike, but felt something odd. It felt like sitting next to the fireplace, only it was radiating from inside of her. Her skin went soft along with her brow line. Dorothy's embrace had melted her last and final wall.

She felt more powerful than ever, capable of anything, fearing nothing.

But she saw a strange discoloration on her arm, creeping down her sleeve; and when she rolled it up she saw that her green skin was fading rapidly. It was flowing out from underneath her clothing and changing her. The strangeness of it caused her to push Dorothy away in shock.

But as her final stretch of green faded away, she realized it was the first time she could remember feeling at peace. As she wrapped Dorothy back into her heart she was a new person.

She was ready to receive the world.

Monday, October 10, 2016

I Declare Jubilee

You may not know this

I have paid my debt to you

I have paid you 1,000 times over

I don't owe you anymore

I have worked tirelessly for years
                      sometimes through the night
                                                        to make sure
                                                                        I reviewed every scent

You had long forgotten?

An unrecognizable speck in your rear view

A waste of oxygen to recall it

I have been observing it
                        through a telescope

Three words in the mirror and my telescope vanishes

I forgive me


Tuesday, September 13, 2016

What To Say

What would you say to the flower
            for the deep belly breath 
                                          of the smell 
                                                      of home?

What would you say to the ocean
            for the safety of sweet soothing 
                                                         sizzles
                                                                to calm any storm?

What would you say to the breeze
               for electrifying your body
                                                     with a
                                                           gentle brush?

What would you say to your favorite food
              for allowing your lips
                                              to
                                               slow down time? 

What would you say to the butterfly
             whose beauty provides
                                              unquenchable
                                                                  wonder?

I love you 

Monday, September 12, 2016

Native Nourishment

A black velvet flying carpet washes over us as we sleep

Foreigners stay up late into the night crackling acoustic sparks into the cavernous silence

Light spills into our eyes, surprising even the birds, causing them to clear their throats as if they were already awake

We both roll outward like a creaky old drawbridge making way for the passage of our telepathic geriatric squint to acknowledge we have mirrored feelings

After a few minutes of clumsily preparing nourishment like a pair of drunken blindfolded bears we slice through the heavy cloak of the natural night to regain control of our bodies

We coerce our frozen robot limbs to approach the trailhead

The vigorous exercise of scrunching our foreheads, tilting our chins up and pushing our retina to the top reaches of our eye sockets to analyze the ascent thaws our bones

We drop layers like a pair of excited teenagers until the cold nibbles

The heat of burning the previous day's fuel and the cool sharp mountain air blend our bodies with peaceful purpose as we feed our Ancestral Need.

Blue

Don't exhaust yourself
           trying to blow them away

Observe their beauty

Gray will be blue again

Let Yourself Take Shape

The waves of shadows blow towards me

Leaving sparkles of glitter flashing off like a million excited fans

To see the light

You must face the dark

Let the water mold you

Resist and it will unleash a barrage of endless attack

Invite it in and let it gently re-form you

Then you no longer have to be whipped by wind

Take the shape nature intended

Cool Blood


Thank you
                Sizzling Waters
                                Radiant Sun
                                                Breeze of a Million Tickles
                                                                The Sticky Peanut Butter and Jelly
                                                                 Sandwich of gravity and Earth which                                                                  only feels like I’m being propped up

Thank you
                To my everlasting internal scaffolding of bone enveloped by organs, flesh and blood which push equals gravity’s pull, except when it’s time to grow

Thank you
                To my self-healing, elastic onion layers of wrapping paper skin which have the strength to hold it all together and the flexibility to move as needed

Thank you
                To the unknown alchemist who methodically mixes my perfect pot of elemental soup, while executing the precise air traffic control of alphabets in and alphabets out

Thank you
                To the automated accordion player always on cue, pulling Os from thin air and releasing them with Cs, the length of whose notes drive the orchestra’s pitch

Thank you
                To the one-two beat from the iron pump drummer, going day and night listening attentively to the needs to his neighbors, pumping powerfully when asked and quietly when untasked

Thank you
                To the drummer’s cousins, the non-stop nannies never complaining while they flush the maestro’s many vices and bad habits

Thank you
                To the 90% of the wrinkly gray maestro who takes care of 99% of the coordination and goings on, and would do 100% if the other 10% of him wasn’t too busy to listen.

Thanks for Making ME

The glaring sunset in your eyes
 

Honey so thick you have to scoop out the comb
 

The single solitary stone perched on the edge of the cliff 

The old overweight naked masked dancer
 
The shoe-throwing Iraqi assassin

The friend who tells you you're fatThe ferocious growl of a lion-suited child 

The kitty with no time for your pretenses 

The protest that made your commute three hours longer

 The mustard stain on the shirt from your closet

 YOU know what happens if you put your hand in the mouth of a hungry tiger.