Poet in Search of a Poem

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When life has worn you into

an unthinking shell

without words

and you sit, blinking into space,

in a place of No Thought,

tap the lifeline

of poetry

that lifts your heart

out of its everyday concerns,

into the realm

of midnight moons

and hungry ghosts.

Look up into the raven sky

and chart the silver moon goddess

as she trails mystery

like a gossamer cloak

across the heavens.

Remember that life

is more than bread and worry.

It is beauty and aliveness

and gilt-edged miracle.

It is the suspension of disbelief

and the belief in quiescence.

It is the lifting of one's eyes

above the "raveled sleeve of care"

to remember

music and poetry 

and love

and the silver shining sea,

forever ebbing and flowing

upon a shore lined

with old growth,

and fastening one's heart

and vision

and belief

firmly

upon that.

SKY FULL OF RAINBOWS

(thoughts while walking the dog, looking up from my worries

to see more than one rainbow in the sky - glorious!)

January 25, 2006

When you are hanging onto

the very last edge

of the edge

of the skinniest branch

and you feel your grasp slipping,

look up!

There's a sky full of rainbows,

row upon row of them,

shining up there,

to tell you that

all will be well

all will be well

all will be exceedingly well.

God's in His heaven

in the so clear air,

and all will be

exceedingly well.

When the grayest of rain clouds

has just dumped its deluge

upon you,

and you are mopping your eyes

and wringing out your hair,

look quickly!

You just might glimpse

the shine of angel wings

hovering there,

at the very edge of

your peripheral vision,

to encourage you and I

that, on the other side

of this trauma

or sadness or challenge,

the radiant dawn

of a brand new day

lies somewhere

waiting,

just waiting

to break across your

morning sky.

When you have reached

the very limit

of what you feel you can

or should

withstand,

when the stress has

weighed you down so far,

you're not sure exactly

how you will

pull through,

go out to where the water

meets

the mountain.

See the waterfall

tumble down its slopes

for you.

Watch the eagle

lift out of the mist

into the shrouded skies.

Take a deep breath

and believe,

just like the eagle,

your spirit, too,

your spirit once more

will rise.