On New Year’s Eve

For New Year’s Eve, bring warm bread and cold champagne!
I have oysters and cheese—
Together we’ll count the hours,
Go walk out on ice of lake,
March in endless single file just as do the years….
We’ll build a bonfire to warm hands and toes,
Give toast for generations gone and yet to come.

No need to bring stars—-
Kingdom of Heaven holds them all above.
We will celebrate with song and good cheer,
Warmed by love and gratitude
For both this precious Earth
And the Greater Silence that sustains us all.

You’ll Never See Them Unless They Reveal Themselves

I’ve never sat with a fairy face to face,
Only twice have glimpsed them
Flying away, their backs darting
Out among the trees at dusk.
But I know where the fairies bury their dead—
Even fairies die after 800 years or so.
I danced a fairy dance one full moon night
Among tall standing stones.
Heard the echo of their dead quietly murmur underground.

Eerie was the music played by fairy children,
Mourning loss of their parents—
Delicate melancholy notes of flutes and violins
Brought me sobbing to my knees.
Their love is different than any love I’ve known,
Displayed an innocence that never fades,
Deserves it’s own theme in song.

You’ll never see them unless you
Walk on nights under quivering stars—
So silently that deer are not startled
As they pass by within arm’s reach.
Wait there under shimmering full moon,
Trembling with delight when you hear the woods
Breathe in every season, a serene vortex
Appears an hour before dawn—
Pale lights encircle farms and meadows.

And if you are blessed by such moments,
You may, perhaps, catch a glimpse as they dance,
Watch virgin fairies prance in luxuriant clothes,
Speak words you’ll never understand.
There in suspended air they live on the edge.
Never will you see them but that they choose—
Reveal themselves without promise
You’ll ever, ever be able to see them again.

Mysteries Multiply

At times when the end of night is nigh
I think some great mystery solved—
And then when the Sun comes up,
Light illuminating greater blue light on Ocean’s sky.
I reach toward the Sun, hovering almost close to touch
But never is my reach enough….

Everywhere the mystery multiplies!
You are the root; you are the branch;
You are the vine; you are the grape.
You are the wheat standing in field
Waiting for yeast, to be kneaded— needed
Before great mystery in bread and wine
Transforms by Word in heart to peace.

Something New is Coming!

 Tonight, I sense within the quiet hour
Something on horizon I have never seen before.
It does not stalk the Earth as wolf might do,
Creeping with open mouth to devour,
But comes instead with peace within an open heart.

This new presence is coming gently,
Knows hour of promise is alive within cold air.
I sit and linger—ponder, wait awake.
I pray I will see it and not turn away
As it brushes past my sight.

Something new comes.  This I know.
Deep within heart and soul,
I sense its love within a larger heart,
Brings light within keen eyes that see
Where mine are blind tonight.

There may be times for rushing.
But tonight I sit.  I stay awake and wait.
Something new is on horizon,
Coming to be born…..

On My Father’s 100th Birthday

 Dedicated to the memory of Harry Burruss Turpin

As light  grows close to lowest point,
Cold darkness shrouds the past in silence.
Silence is where the past thrives best.
Set your eyes to focus deeper in the night—
Stay warm, be wiser as you wait.
It is futile to resist the tilting of Earth.
In due time it will tilt the other way,
Always spinning as planet orbits larger Light.

Snow falling from the sky at night
Spreads, intensifies light in marvelous ways—
Yet under night’s veil there comes humility.
Never measure Love by Time alone,
Nor by amount of light that shines upon the ground.
Winter solstice is perfect pause for reflecting sorrow
As end of year fades into emptiness.

Do you feel subtle sting as days grow short?
Light lingers for awhile before loneliness of dark—
Longer days are but memory.
Love this pause in time for all the memories it brings.
Here in the quietness of Absence, joy is found—
Still alive after all these years.

Christmas Day is my father’s 100^th birthday—
Gone these twenty-two years, yet in a flash
He stands here, young again, alive within the light.
Time is all we really have— here and now,
Breathing around the edge of consciousness,
Aware of all we have lost, for a time.
But they have not lost us.  They rest within the dark.
Perhaps you will see traces of them—
Voices or faces that are not constrained by limits.

Tonight full moon awakens old worlds, old words,
Old images I haven’t seen in years—
Ah, the bittersweet memories as Earth slants.
Soon the world will turn again as always,
Brings closer that time when both quick and dead
Will join and rise— New Life.  Amen to that!

Stay the Course and Keep the Path in Sight

Today I walk alone down winter’s road of snow,
Cold wind against my back, strong as winds can blow.
Brambles to the left and brambles to the right.
No option but to stay the course and keep the path in sight.

Another mile or so and soon I’ll find
Welcome home around familiar bend of mind—
Blazing fire awaits to warm my frozen feet,
Hot cider mulled with spice to make it taste more sweet.

Beauty of a snowy day makes walks like this abide
Within the heart and soul, to take the world in stride.
May angels of dark nights of winter’s slippery bliss
Protect all those who venture forth so nothing goes amiss.

Here I Live in Luminous Darkness

I have an address
But never can be found there.
Inside the darkness where I live,
There is often restless tension.
Listen deeply when you visit….
Hear the background call of constant prayer—
No words, no voice other than the One.

River is impossible to push,
Holds me within whatever muddy flow
Floods upon material world.
Wandering far from where I live—
Never find within the world a Home,
Caught within the current as I drown.
Slowly I swim through hours of day,
Protect heart from overwhelming storm.

In silence is where I am sustained by prayer.
Today, I weep as hard as rain in spring,
Mourning rises in the empty space,
Lasts throughout the night until the morning dawn.
Here, I attend to the One Necessary Thing.
Carry me, Round World,
Turn me from edge of continent to very Center,

If you cannot find me walking in the Light,
Search for me in Luminous Darkness….
There, within the mix of light and dark
Breathes bright Soul—
Here I live without the need to always know.

Uncertain and Curving Paths

All journeys are walked along
Uncertain and curving paths.
On days when sky is overcast,
No shadow shows itself.

Trees are bare of leaves.
Branches lift their arms in prayer.
Squirrels lie sheltered in their holes
As I walk the hours alone in peace.

There is no visible Sun
To guide the Soul
Upon its endless trail.
Finding home still seems assured.