outgrowing

black, white and shades of grey, a lithographic print with swirling tendrils, blotches, feathers and butterflies, the image is darker at the bottom.
Chaos – with butterflies
Snuffling…
nose pressed in close,
close to the mothers belly,
the human race suckles
mindless. Instinct
hanging in for dear life,
knowing only need.
Need and voracious appetite,
appetite that leads
to greed. The assumed
lifespan a finishing line
for ambition,
the amassing of wealth
and carbon
footprints enough to bury the earth.
As humanity grows
and outgrows
the miracle of its existence.

winter

trunk and branches of a bare winter tree against sky that is blue-grey above shading down to almost white
spirit of tree
The spirit of winter flows
through the memory of
water molecules and
earth atoms; visits the land
with reminders of richness;
preparation that comes
before all new beginnings;
with celebrations of hope
contained within each unique
cycle of life.

noises off

clouds partially obscuring a warm-honey-colour moon in a black sky, vague skeletons of trees in the left foreground.
Turpin moon
Black on black
rain from a night sky
and the bluster;
noises off.
Twigs and small branches
ride on the river;
the wet world
glistens; bows
under the Turpin moon
as chaos pants
and chases through
the sleeping valley.

crown glory

on a blck background sits a crown of ice; it formed in the still water around the sides of an empty flowerpot. There are traces of brown fern embedded in the ice
ice crown
Finding ice on still water,
confirmation of winter;
and frost icing the tangle
of brown weeds dying beside
the still emerald greenness;
and the day, needing lighting,
takes me down, down where sunshine
is a private affair; down
where discipline is the life
that counters the grey, oppressed
isolation that threatens.
So, from here on in, the year
revolves around discipline

tangled

a tangle of tree branches from fat trunk to thin twig against a clear blue sky.
tangled
The wind, fierce and bitter, power gusted;
willows lurched and swayed. Breath snatched from my face
hair shocked and tangled, I watch the river,
now clear, gather speed, smooth out lazy weed
in long silken strands of green; absorb lines
of almost frozen rain. I watch the flow,
the out of body sensation as breath
and water swirl away. Gone. Look away.
Look away and back, gasping thin cold air.

 

the cycle

looking down on a red light almost submerged under grass and fallen leaves; the light looks yellow white in the centre, with a red halo fading to a dark green around the edges.
rubies

 

Time to abandon spring green,
time to reveal the cloth of gold
rubies, amber and fire opals,
Time to admit the true shape,
the true desires,
the burning fire.
Time.
Time to know that spring green
awaits a blanket of gold
to hibernate. Rubies, amber,
and fire
await. A cycle.
A life
time.

leaving water

from the river bank, with brown skeletons of summer weeds, looking across the placid river to trees already stripped of autumn colour.
naked
I watched as rain levelled the river
in a light, strange grey, echoing the
damp, hard to define colour of sky.
Under my umbrella I remained
dry, but increasingly cold; soaked in
misery more chilling than water;
allowing the spirit of leaving
water to slide away with my heart,
all on the off-chance that you might be
passing and notice the fluttering.
Notice and reach out through the strangeness,
wherever it is that passing hearts fly.

river dance

a gleaming white swan heads left in the image, its reflection clear in the kahki coloured water; weeds and bare tree branches occupy the foreground, leafy reflections make up the background
the swan
Slow, slow, no quick, the khaki coloured water
slid imperceptibly away from the old town;
empty water, silent, soulless and somehow sad,
She sat playing at the edge of the river,
her guitar across her knees, the case at her feet;
sound spilling wide quickened the life and the flow,
and the slow, slow twirled to a waltz, an elegant
race, a folksy tangle of upended ducks;
the swan appeared, the khaki cleared, as sound
sparkled and soft, danced its way through the air;
the spirit of music awakening life in the river.
I looked for her face, for the face I knew so well,
saw resolution, and unfamiliar dreams.

forever

The sea at night, low light levels with the lights from the pier reflected in the water.
night light
Night comes early, warm yet, as the sun
heated earth glows under a melting moon;
a moon that rocks in the dark waterweed,
fragments in quiet ink-black eddies,
travels low over a sparkling
firmament of meandering stars, all
lost, wandering wild as love through the dark;
a reminder that some love is
forever. For as long as forever lasts.

cloth of gold

firey autumn colours on small Japanese acers among the box cones in my garden
goldfire
On Sunday autumn shone in the river,
rich gold; wealth beyond containment,
beyond stashing away in vaults, beyond
the profit accumulating power
of the wrong kind of shareholders.
While the right kind open their eyes
drink in the essence of beauty,
feel its power course through their veins,
watch this abundance with their own kind of
generosity, free sharing
the cloth of gold in words of light.