Smoke ascended, swirling gracefully,
From the chimneys of mud houses’ kitchens,
As I bid farewell to my beloved village.
Lips of my mother, weathered and wise,
Moved in silent prayers, murmuring pleas,
And her frail, aged hands reached towards the heavens,
Beseeching God for my journey’s success.
child rider
free to follow the light—
a seeker of love’s embrace
always seeking the sun
while tied to the earth
reader of the codes
that are interwoven
in the fabric
between then & now
between heaven & earth
seeds that grow
in the life force
that surrounds us all
to rise above the earth
only to be buried once more
pushing ahead
slowly, back against the sun—
it’s step by step for some
and careless joy
for the ones they carry
Were this a whisper kept low, soft; as though
Winter sun shadow-sifted, tossed amidst
The sweep of scattered limb and splintered bough,
A gentle breeze that under canopies
Of icicles had crept, so soon dismissed
By idle cardinal's chatter in the eaves-
Never, no.
Insistent instead; a pitch high and clear,
To shake some constant evergreen alight,
Awake, aware; needle-sharp, piercing drear
And dulled alike that were culled of glisten
In fiercest dark of bare, blanched friendless night.
