Tuesday, August 13, 2024

We Get to Choose

 


An illusion conspired
by pathological power figures
and fake news, or
a return to solid values -
we get to choose.

When all the rules
of decency are broken,
it's time to unify,
not quibble
over lucid words
finally being spoken.

An escapee from reality,
his own fixed point,
reincarnated from the 30's -
self-worth puny
but self-importance grand -
his babble increasingly
unhinged and picayuney,
he speaks gibberish
no sane person
can understand.

Two paths stand before us -
dark and light.
Now strength has risen
more than equal
to the fight.
Two paths lie before us,
win or lose:
go back to chaos
or forge ahead -
we get to choose.


for Shay's Word List. 

I am enjoying the current political situation in the US with great relief. I am aware that there are already plans in place to interfere with the election. (I cant understand why such illegal action is not preventable by law.) It is good to feel hope again, and to trust that the response will be more than enough to turn the tide.


Sunday, August 11, 2024

WHEN YOU LOVE A WILD THING

 


"...you can't give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they're strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky. That's how you'll end up, ...[i]f you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky."


— Truman Capote (Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories)

When you love a wild thing,
you're rekindling your kinship
with the wild.

Every cell in your body
remembers
when you once ran free
upon the land,
when you lived the Old Ways
we once used to
understand.

Part of you remembers
when you hunted the deer,
and part remembers
when you were
the deer being hunted.
Both sides know fear.

The part of you
that catches your breath,
your heart quickening,
when that old grey whale
turns her ancient eye on you,
is the part that recognizes,
but can't put words to,
the message in her
mournful song,
about this planetary home
where we all
belong.

I gave my heart to a wolf-pup,
his eyes intelligent
and true.
He loved me more
than anyone
I ever knew.

He remained wild,
but left both
wilderness and sea.
In order to be with me
he relinquished
being free.

And when it came
his time to leave,
he tried so hard
to stay.
Since he's been gone,
it's like the wilderness
itself
has gone away.

Now, when I walk,
yes, I'm looking
at the sky.
I'm listening
at each full moon
for his lonely
cry.

I walk the length
of his favorite river
with tears
that we're apart.
But I'm glad
I loved a wild thing,
because he
fortified
my heart.

I'm linking this one for my prompt at What's Going On on Wednesday - It's Raining Cats and Dogs. I am looking forward to meeting some furry creatures this week! It will be fun! Come join us!

Saturday, August 10, 2024

WHEN YOU LOVE A WILD THING II


When you love a wild thing
your heart becomes wild too.
You gallop together joyously
along deserted beaches
to the roar of the waves
with an exultant song
of freedom in your heart.
You track through old growth forests,
padding gently on the mossy floor,
alert for other critters
in the bush.

You walk the beach
to the moo of Lennard's Light,
in fog so thick that others' voices
are disembodied spirits
that emerge, startled and laughing,
when you get close.

When you love a wild thing,
your heart soars with eagles
and is tethered to the land
only by love.
When you love a wild thing,
the bond of devotion
runs deeper than any human
you have ever encountered
was capable of.

And when you lose a wild thing,
your heart resists
its return to
being tame.


 I am revisiting a couple of old poems, written for my beloved Pup, for my prompt this week at What's Going On - It's Raining Cats and Dogs - where we are sharing poems about our furry loved ones or spirit animals.



Thursday, August 8, 2024

Distraught Sister Moon




Distraught Sister Moon,
I see you up there, pacing around,
wringing your hands,
"what to do,
what to do,
what to do?"

Down below, all hell is breaking loose:
bombings, shootings, drought,
famines, floods, melting icebergs,
wildfires,
wildlife fleeing in terror,
no where to hide,
dangerous people with bad hair
behaving badly.

I see you trying to efface your fullness
quickly, perhaps thinking
if you lessen your roundness
the populace can return to calm
under a slice of moon.

But when were we last calm?

By your light, madmen and prophets collide.
By your light, poets seek truth and beauty.
By your light, we dream of a better world.

You have stopped pacing.
You like where this is going.
Okay, hear this:

By the Light of Your Silvery Moon,
on earth
(perhaps in vain)
we dream,
we dream,
we dream
of peace.


Tuesday, August 6, 2024

GRANDMOTHERS WITH WOLF HOWLS IN OUR HEARTS

 

"This is not a political protest.
This is an uprising of the soul."
David Brower
ecologyofthespirit.com


Wild Woman hears the voices
of the Old Ones,
rising on the winds of change,
telling us the white buffalo calf
has been born, and the time
of the prophecy is at hand.
On the soft breezes of dawn, I hear
Grandmothers weeping all across the land,
where so much of what we have loved
is gone.

The Black Snake slithers
across Mother Earth.
Oil spills into the rivers of life,
the water of the People.
Mother Earth’s womb is torn apart
by fracking; the ocean fills with
plastic detritus and toxins. It vomits
a graveyard of man-made garbage.
Wildfires burn; mountain slopes crumble;
rivers overflow their barren banks.
Whales and polar bears are starving,
the earth heats, the poles melt,
and  hunger stalks the living.

Meanwhile, the Mad God of Money rules.
Men with dead eyes stuff their pockets,
grinning goulishly, as the planet burns.

Our Grandmothers’ blood stirs in our veins.
This is the earth we love;
we can’t stay silent as it is destroyed.
This world and its future
belongs to our grandchildren,
not to these mad fools.
We are muttering, across the land and oceans;
we are rising in our numbers.
We are gathering, in peaceful protest, 
but with hearts like banshees.
Feel the chill on the hairs
on the back of your neck;
we are coming.

We are standing by the sides of rivers
and sacred burial grounds.
We cannot turn away,
for the bones of our beloveds are here,
near your bulldozers and dynamite,
your pipeline of destruction.
We cannot turn away
because our children (and yours!)
need fresh water to drink.

You have dotted the landscape
of our nightmares
with strip mines and oil derricks.
In every corner, you threaten
our combined existence.
No! It is Enough.
We have lived men’s ways for millennia;
see the result, as the earth gasps
under the yoke of your oppression
and misuse of power.

The Grandmothers and the Mothers,
the Aunts and Sisters, the dancing Maidens,
and the strong little rainbow children
are rising, with fire in our bellies
and the hope of transformation in our hearts -
with understanding even of the men
in the halls of power, wounded
and empty, whose dead eyes proclaim
they have never really felt loved.
Here is what wise women know:
even a trillion dollars will never ease that wound.
Instead, hug your sad-eyed sons
and smile – not like crocodiles -
at your unhappy wives.

We will unseat you – hopefully quite soon -
replacing you with those
who can lead with compassion:
the grandmothers and mothers,
the aunts and sisters,
and strong, dancing maidens.
This war is a holy war of light over darkness
and truth over lies.
The Grandmothers, the Women, are stirring;
the force of the Ancient Ones
is standing with us in our sorrowing.
Stand aside; we can show you
the way of life, of justice,
of harmony and healing.

We are grandmothers with wolf howls
in our hearts.
We will never be silenced.


for Susan's prompt:   Anger, which to me is always directed at social and ecological injustice.


Apathy is Unconstitutional

 


The apathy of the population
in this avocado world full of rot,
where all the trees are burning
and everyone is too busy talking politics
to lower emissions,
makes me writhe.

Awkward and bumbling,
we circle like deaf mutes,
trying not to hear,
furiously rejecting the gibberish
of the cartoon reality host
with madness and the murder
of democracy
on his mind.

Sigh.

It is all too much
for our tired brains
to hold.

Yet we're terrified that,
by some sleight of hand
(and interference at the ballot boxes)
we might yet return
to the mayhem
and will lose our minds
(and our freedoms.)

Apathy is just not possible
this time around. 
Our hearts rise with hope.
Let's follow them to the voting booth
in huge numbers,
and listen for
the global sigh of relief.


Well. This is what Shay's Word List had to say to me today.


Friday, August 2, 2024

Being Here Now



How is it that I walk down the street
noticing my sore knees, stiff legs,
aching back - watching my feet
and not the cloud-dotted sky,
the robin on the lawn, the sudden run
of a chipmunk into the bushes?

Lift up your eyes, I tell myself.
There is a sky-show going on
that you are missing.

How is it that I eat mindlessly,
barely tasting the food, so that
hunger is never satisfied?

Slow down, a voice within me says.
Be here now. Notice everything.
It is a world of wonders.

The old black dog with grizzled snout
and wolfy ears knows this very well
without words. He stretches out 
on the grass in the shade, gives 
a contented sigh, enjoys the play of the breeze
on his long whitened nose -
everything is perfect.
Everything in this moment
is just as good as it can be.
He wants nothing more -
except, maybe, a juicy bone
when he gets home.