I – Reunion

Real July breathes deeply
Dark green forests exhale
Tall majestic conifers
of the Northwest Coast
Growing exquisitely
Right down to the shore
Seagulls above
Big, grey white and brazen
Rich dark blue and soft wave soundwaves
Ocean stretches infinite
Calm as a lake cradled
between hot summer mountains
Colour and gleam
like the pearly lining of an empty mussel shell
like these blue fragments mixed
through the pebbles of the beach

It’s easy to love a sandy beach
The rocky shore requires a different kind of seeing
Sometimes you’re born with it
Sometimes it hits you one misty day
Clouds like dark poems shifting in the sky
sometimes it’s just    Home
The white barnacles keep you company
Each wave sighs a little song
before it slips back into the silver crested sea
Frosted with sunshine
The mountains across the strait painted
Delicate watercolour
They frame the horizon with hazy blue lines
Jagged   smooth   rising   falling

Full round clouds
Float just above the peaks
Besides them
The sky is clear
so clear sight sinks like a pebble
into the deepening hue
And gets lost
Lost in sweet blue space
until the honeyed summer sunshine
pulls us back out
by the corners of our eyes

A soft breeze
The salty smell of the sea
Wise and wild geese in Vs
who know where to go
Every stone sits perfectly
Home in time
For this perfect moment
Brought to me by the scent of hot seaweed
and the flash of glass green
just before the breaking waves bow forward
into frothy white
Dry cedars and firs behind me
And drops of sunshine
On my toes

II – Distracted

Hoary grey rock strong beside me
Mother Earth whispers on the breeze
at last I stop to listen
She sees how weary I am feeling
hugs me ever so gently
brushing my temples with her soft summer breath
Let go my dearest
She invites me to slip out of my heavy thoughts
into the light freedom of her perfect day
Her nurturing sunshine
late afternoon softness
Bright green leaves full of life
Feather touch of the zephyr upon my brow
Nectar gleam to the light

I want to
I think I don’t know how
My chest feels tight and heavy
Who am I anyway
Can I dare trust that
I belong
She stays with me anyway
Makes the leaves sashay and twirl
I am tired but I am not a lost cause
I know I can find my way home

III – Reverence

On the beach and the evening Sun
Mm
Exquisite rolling wave
Crash
Because of the wind
But here      just here
It blows lightly
So blessed
I am
Kissed by the rich low rays
Here
Well
An ease within
this place
That holds me

The crashing seashell song
surprises me
Tucked away in the trees
I could not tell
Reed grass ripples
Fly away leaves
Dry seaweed
Strands of hair dancing about
ticklish
dark waves     dark water
Blue mountains     blue sea
Infinite skies     Blue    blue    blue
And the ocean too
Beloved blue earth

And beloved the green beneath that cold surface sheen
The path of hot white to the late afternoon sun
Feet at the end of lazy legs crossed one over the other
Did they ever look so right?

So right
White veils atop the swells
Blown over by hearty gusts
Hazy golden dream air
Hugging me so close
Something has bitten my ankle
It itches ferociously
My joy    gentle joy
Laughs with delight

Like the fire in the sky that warms us
Seaweed-spangled rocks and
sand fleas and crabs
awaiting high tide……….
Is there anything like a crab?
Water   air   soft   hard
We used to catch them and turn them over
to see if they were girls or boy
Underbellies with ridges like ripples in the sand
At low tide

Yellow flowing spark evening
Hot glow of it in my eyes
Close them. Feel it.
The shapes that dance in that
substanceless red
While wrapped in the blue coast air

Sea mountain sentinels
Sacred watch
Sky and earth
Family of treasure
Where does this come from,
This enthusiasmus
Specks of glitter in a big black round stone
A flicker of something good
Fairy dust from the days of open magic
no doubt
and right here and now
Glittering with Quality
in the brown algae pockets
and the mineral flecks
alike

This is my homage
so that I might not be driven mad
with love
Crash    swish     sigh
Shimmer    burn     glow
Whisper soft breeze and salt
Water spray
Let us love together