butterfly

by Mary Oliver

Black Swallowtail

The caterpillar,

    interesting but not exactly lovely,

humped along among the parsley leaves

    eating, always eating. Then

one night it was gone and in its place

    a small green confinement hung by two silk threads

on a parsley stem. I think it took nothing with it

    except faith, and patience. And then one morning

it expressed itself into the most beautiful being.

home

by Shannondoah

like a crimson

wing

unapologetic

phoenix rising

up

from

the

ashes

of yesterday

of today

of tomorrow’s sorrows

forgiveness

release, and then

peace

soaring above 

the 

sun

and around the

moon

talking to stars

they tell me

all

i must know

for tomorrow

for today

for yesterday

so i keep

trusting

and i 

rise

and i glide

and breathe deep

the air

as it flows

beneath my wings

carrying me

home

to you

horizon

by Christina Rossetti (1830-94)

Echo

Come to me in the silence of the night;

     Come in the speaking silence of a dream;

Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright

      As sunlight on a stream;

            Come back in tears,

O memory, hope, love of finished years.

Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,

       Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,

Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;

     Where thirsting longing eyes

        Watch the slow door

That opening, letting in, lets out no more.

Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live

      My very life again tho’ cold in death:

Come back to me in dreams, that I may give

      Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:

           Speak low, lean low,

As long ago, my love, how long ago.

beloved

by Shannondoah

beloved

the lovers tell stories

    of silence,

of songs from

    afar

speaking in dreams

    to one another

traveling from star 

    to star

one lover says

    to the other

‘look up’, to see

    me, to feel me  

the other says

    ‘look in’

inside of your

     heart; i am

there

     always waiting,

always loving

one day we 

     shall meet

in flesh, divine

     timing is

synchronicity

beloved is my

    lover so

bright, so close

    and also so far

i’ll meet you where

    my heart ends

and then where

    yours begins

look up, look in

    forever and ever

within.

the coast

by Mary Oliver

Invitation

Oh do you have time

   to linger

    for just a little while

       out of your busy

and very important day

   for the goldfinches

      that have gathered

         in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,

   to see who can sing

        the highest note,

          or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,

     or the most tender?

         Their strong, blunt beaks

            drink the air

as they strive

   melodiously

      not for your sake

         and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning

   but for sheer delight and gratitude-

     believe us, they say,

       it is a serious thing

just to be alive

   on this fresh morning

      in this broken world.

        I beg of you,

do not walk by

   without pausing

     to attend to this

       rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.

    It could mean everything.

      It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:

         You must change your life.

empty

by Shannondoah

empty

the fall

      enters the air

like a soft

      blanket

comforting us

      at night

new moon

      rising, eclipse

sharing all there

      is to know,

to release,

      to let go...

giving thanks. 

woodland

by David Whyte

Excerpt  from “Santiago”

From PILGRIM: Poems by David Whyte

THE ONLY ROAD YOU COULD FOLLOW

The road seen, then not seen, the hillside

hiding then revealing the way you should take,

the road dropping away from you as if leaving you

to walk on thin air, then catching you, holding you up,

when you thought you would fall - 

and the way forward always in the end, the way

that you came, the way that you followed,

the way that carried you into your future,

that brought you to this place, no matter that

it sometimes had to take your promise from you,

no matter that it always had to break your heart

along the way: the sense of having walked

from far inside yourself out into the revelation,

to have risked yourself for something that seemed

to stand both inside you and far beyond you...