Monday, October 28, 2013

Home Alone in a Storm #132





Pebble dash dreams
rattle the window
sheet rain slashes
the inky mire.
I lie in my clay house,
my safe house,
still awake,
and yearn,
as the storm prowls
the walls,
yearn for his company
like a stove yearns a flame

(waking, sheet, safe, clay, still, inky, erode, flames, yearn, bend, immeasurable, pebble)

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

On Being Born - wordle 129



When the gentle, constant massage
of many months, changes,
becomes stronger
and more urgent,
and the nest,
this watery home
becomes too small,
this being, ripe and ready,
takes the chance,
the journey,
through that secret passage.
So clever, it knows the way.
With hands crossed and head down
it travels,
swept by muscles,
into the light.
The stars circle above
as s/he is born
and, shorn from that rope of flesh,
blinking, full of love,
one becomes two.

(Chance,blinked, hand, saw, swept, stars, flesh, ripe, secret, clever, basket, nest)

And here's a sideways view of how I began to put words together.


Friday, September 27, 2013

21 Days

She sits
in another dimension
oblivious to all.
She has found her centre
and only time
will shift her.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Close Encounter




My brother and I took the rowing boat out across the bay. The sea was smooth, just a deep swell came rolling in, in long bars, from the North West. We rode the swells as we headed for the scarlet buoys that were bobbing near the reef on the far side. They shone out against the sombre greens and grays of water and light. 

I sat in the front, in readiness to grab a buoy and start to pull up a lobster pot. I could see the lasagna seaweed waving darkly, deep below us and shivered at my thoughts. On the shore line oyster catchers lamented at the rising tide and a sheep called out.

As we neared the first buoy, what we thought of as a swell became an inky black island that rose up from under us and let out a blast of air. We were so close we could see the blow hole. We could have leaned over and touched that oily black skin. A feathery excitement passed between us, though we dared not say a word. My brother held the oars up and the water ran off them, noisily, as we waited for something more to happen. The boat rocked, the water splashed off the oars, the oyster catcher continued it's song, but we were alone once more. The surface of the sea was smooth and secretive.

Later, as the evening was getting darker and we were nearing the last buoy, we heard that sound, of air shooting out of the blow hole, further away. The small whale was heading out to deeper waters. 

(Wordle words wet, sway, lost, sparks, oiled, feathery, inky, close, hole, scarlet, shoots.) 

Monday, August 26, 2013

Height of summer wordle 123

Enough
the word comes gusting out
like a sigh,
like a telling breeze
from the South
with the rattle of dry leaves
in the slipstream.
Still the sun keeps belting out
'though the shade netting
no longer filters
the fierce long fingers
of light.
The cows move through
the bitter, burnt dust,
and the figs drop to the ground
half ripe,
with pieces taken out
by the golden orioles -
their cries fill the valley.
This is the time
when I dream
of taking the train North,
to sit by a mountain spring
in the rain,
surrounded by moss and ferns
and green.

(fierce, filters, keep, enough, pieces, train, cries, gusting, bitter, springs south, out.)

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

My lucky stars Wordle 122



There was a period in my life
- years -
when my heart was numbed
and nailed to the floor.
I persuaded myself
to live a vision not my own
and by degrees
be slowly driven into the ground.

A few short, sharp words
loosened the nails
and I flew home
to a place I had dreamed
was lost and gone.

And now I stay, nestled,
in this hilly space.
My heart grows
and soars like a hawk.
I give tribute to the stars that be -
If not for them
there would be no me.