We’re ferried across on gently
rocking waters
accompanied
by faithfully
following gulls. Sunlight flashes
off waves and wings,
and for a while
there’s just waves and
wings and sunlit, cloudless sky as
our ferry hums
us toward home on
another shore.
JDG
Evening weaves a tapestry of
many varied
strands. Sound and sky,
shore and setting
sun, a lone gull in flight form a
gentle pattern,
bringing to close
a peace-filled day.
Something splashes in the shallows
as crickets sing
and sound and sky
still hold the light.
JDG
It’s one thing to float in that vast
expanse when the
sun still lights the
sky, but when the
sun slips beyond the horizon
it’s time to head
for shore. I watch
as a tiny
craft slowly makes its way toward land.
When dark descends
we want to be
on solid ground.
JDG
That blue jay on my window ledge
had something to
say to the two
of us inside.
Not confident we’d get it if
he only said
it once, he said
it many times.
He didn’t let us look away
until he’d said
it all, then off
he went, content.
JDG
With a tiny touch of sweetness,
honeysuckle fills
the air. Down by
the pond turtles
and fish catch the scent of summer
and prepare. Each
year every scrap
the kids can find
is dangled from their fishing lines
to be snatched up
by George who’s been
caught many times.
JDG
I’m trying hard to focus on
the sea and not
the waves, the whole
and not the part,
to open heart and mind to a
broad expanse. There’s
always more than
fear or pain or
loss if I can only ease my
grip and freely
fall into the
surrounding grace.
JDG
At day’s end the sun shines through, gilding
the cloud covered
sky. All along
the road back home,
blackberries make their white promise
of sweetness yet
to come. Sometimes
that is all it
takes – a bit of light in all the
gray, a gentle
hint of juicy
times ahead.
JDG
As I sit and count all the ways
she’s been wrong and
is wrong still, an
uncomfortable
grace grips me and gives me a shake,
bringing into
view others I’ve
had this problem
with. A new possibility
is offered me.
Perhaps the one
who’s wrong is me.
***********
I want to lie down in Rumi’s
field where there are
no ideas
of wrongdoing
or rightdoing, where all there is
is a space where
I can join them
in the precious
fullness of this world and we can,
at long last, meet
and find ways back
to each other.
JDG
Each day at dusk, the deer gather
in our yard to
graze and debate
how best to deal
with intrusive folks and barking
dogs. After all,
this land was theirs
long before we
came, bringing with us all manner
of noise making
machines and things
that light the night.
JDG
For nearly two years now, I’ve been
writing minutes
almost daily,
reflecting on
the ordinary happenings
of my life. This
unaccustomed
discipline brings
measure to my meditation,
meter to my
poetry, and
metta to life.
JDG
aholdingplace 