The Light in November

Photo: Brian Federle,  Oregon, 2012.

The light in November slants low.
It fills my eyes as I glance
askance through amber trees
and see the leaves descend in
gold flashes
past my open window.

The autumn sun skirts
my low Suisun hills
casting deep shadows
along the ebbing marsh

where wading egrets probe
still, black waters

and finding their prize
rise to blue heaven,
white, slender wings
elegantly beating
the softly falling sun.

(2012-2017)

Leap of Faith

You decided

that you want me,

and so commanded

flashing angels

to invade my night.

With blind bliss 

to contend,

and weary with seraphic strife

I gave in:

(a pious moment

here and there,

a sign of the cross,

a whispered prayer),

until, patient Father,

in bright dreams you called

and led me high 

up your holy mountain

promising

that I will rise

and never,

never fall.

(24 Dec. 2011)

"The Gift" by Mary Oliver

Thanksgiving

Full from the feast

table laded

with fragrant dressing,

steam of onion and celery,

tender turkey and

five kinds of pies

The family gathered.

My parents smiled

at our busy banter

brothers

and sisters nudging and

teasing,  beaming

in the glow

of that happy day

so long ago.

Now you and I gather

our sons around us;

again we pause, pray

and eat the bounty

of this bright Thanksgiving Day.

They say that some things,

kind hearts,

hearty laughs,

enduring love

are so good

they persist long down  

the thankful

generations.

-----------
(for Brian we are so thankful)

Passage: Sunset. Photo by Brian Federle, 2016

Paradise

Deep inside

I carry paradise,

A bright flood,

pours through

my soul’s veins,

but like those blind fish,

I cannot see

the holy river

running through me.

On a good, clear day, though,

staring hard beyond,

I can almost see

God’s holy fire

glancing off

my boundless sea.

(3/30/17)

In Contemplation of Seeking

….contemplation is simply the “experience” …. of God in a luminous darkness which is the perfection of faith illuminating our inmost self….. a flash of the lightning of divinity piercing the darkness of nothingness and sin. Not something general and abstract, but something, on the contrary, as concrete, particular, and “existential” as it can possibly be. It is the confrontation of man with his God…    Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation

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In my darkness I seek you

through deep caverns I run;

my dying flesh yearns for

your fierce, piercing love.

Through darkness I see

you’re glowing so bright,

but always receding,

deeper than night.

I fear that I’ll falter,

betrayed by frail will

when softly you whisper

“my child, just be still.”

(3 Dec. 2013)

November Sky

See the perfect sky of November

cloudless, cool, southern sun,

garden of blue eternity

vaulting over rioting trees, leaves

shouting that life is good

as they fall, and with red cover

the green world

with perfect red

as in perfect blue

life turns inward,

like the planet,

pursuing

the fleeting sun’s

fading hue.

(2013 - rev. 2017)