sand

(originally written in foot-high letters 100 yards across a beach) ebb and tide    wind and wave        will steal these words     yet I will        for a moment            steal the silence                from this sand      […]

real life

the dozens of living swansseem amazingly like the real onesI know from Disney     from plastic and concrete in the old woman’s yard    from childhood picture booksI had never seen a real swan    aren’t they supposed to be in a lake    don’t their necks form hearts?    where is the music  […]

moving mountains

photo © 2009 Steve Berardi | more info (via: Wylio)   the desire came  uninvited    unreasonable    untouchable  by my own derision  or the inevitable scorn of     wife    mother    father    friend    boss    and even Goda mountain that stands unmoved      against wind      against storm  […]

orange

orange twilight    glows over the waters    fir silouettes stretch    across the horizon    along the island mountains beyond beyond metaphorbeyond storybeyond discontent the shaded path meanders    mile after milethe silent and persistent    life of the forest        moss and fern and woodtranscends    scientific explanations    the seeking […]

part

O and the ocean does churnand the mountains do standand the sun does shine across the waters And all the criticsfight the constant tideof trivia and envy and need The tiny child rests againstits mother’s quiet breastsafe and unknowinga part ofapart fromall the angry urgent majestic world.

winter poem

silent wild fury
descends from deep heights
quiet I stand
made of secrets

Awl

It was the awlthat blinded little Louisthat was usedto create the first braille. It was the everymanthe destroyer of sons and daughtersthe wounder and the woundedthe patient and the doctorthe blind leading the blind. I am the blind oneI am the maker of waysfor all of us unhealed.I tell rumors of light and colorand unseen […]

isaac

“Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”” Genesis 22:2, NKJV. Your son your only son whom you love: Take him tie him […]

The wild river

I went down to the wild river todayIt is sometimes opaque turquoise, sometimes gray, sometimes blue. It is never the same.today it was clear emerald greenwith a mighty constant roarand white foam bursting from the stolid rockstanding firm in the wild frothy midst. The boulders and banks were covered in white snowwith dark green and […]

Hallowing

O God, teach what it means to hallow Your nameso many of the problems in my life stem from thisthat my heartfrom which flows all the streams of lifehallows the wrong thingsand these thingshaving inadequate gloryproduce no real hallowingthus I know nothing in the nowof the hallowed. O God, teach me the passion of hallowing […]