daybreak

Photo: Brian Federle, Palm Springs Dawn, December 2016

daybreak, still limbs lace

to gray sky, wait for the next

storm to shake open

morning, still sleeping

shuttered windows conceal the

cold face of daybreak.

(1/22/2012 - 8/29/2017)

Breaking Silence

Photo "Stream" Brian Federle, 2014

It is not speaking that breaks our silence, 

but the anxiety to be heard. Thomas Merton

In chilled twilight swells

the chorus overwhelming

echoing passion,

half of water, half  

of leafy bank, they fill the

night with lusty will,

persistent, straining

these marshland poets converge, 

anxious to be heard.

Spring Storm

Duck Creek Lightning Night, 2012, oil on linen
V...Vaughn (used by permission)

night drops suddenly

birds, nervous, slip into eves,

silenced; a stone drops.

peace be on this stream.

sliding song of rain soaked creek,

rising moon, refreshed.

(28 April 2014)

First Day of Spring

doors open, ancient

hinges grind, summer’s sun grows

immanent as love

as trees, bare, bending,

tough and twisting as small buds

prepare to explode.

Stones in the Darkness

stones in the darkness

cold, unseen, the wind above

my wooden fence sighs

silence in the night;

I hear only my hushed breath,

feel my waning life.

(12/26/2013 - 10 Dec. 2016)

Serenade

“We are always traveling and traveling as if we did not know where we were going. “ Thomas Merton

Warm wind stirring our
tallest trees.  Sunset retrieves
another hot day.

Descends silken night;
passion ignites summer's sky,
stars, like wine, delight!

In cool rooms I'll wait
for you to awake. O come!
We'll begin again!

(31 Oct 2013)

Moon-struck

“We must be content to live without watching ourselves live, to work without expecting an immediate reward, to love without an instantaneous satisfaction, and to exist without any special recognition. “ - Thomas Merton, from No Man is an Island

high above my sight

she’s shining with borrowed light

unaware of me,

oblivious of

the moon-struck sea, she sings her

song: simple, pure, free.

(26 October 2012)

Morning

light, liquid, over-

flowing bright leaf, washing clean

night’s graven, dull stain.

Tree and Cloud

Photo; Tree and Cloud by David Saltaire

Upward strains brittle
limbs, arid tree lifts grey age
drifts down love’s pure grace.

(9 Aug 2012)

March Rain

March rain, thick mists drip

from grey branches, glowing grass,

rising like fire.

Buds bursting in slow

motion, unclenched, learn to trust

that green spring will stay.

wild mustard

Mustard and Mt. St. Helena • acrylics on panel • 8"x10" • © 2013 Karen Lynn Ingalls

(Used with permission of the artist)  www.KarenLynnIngalls.com

spring hills, green peaks laced

with strokes of gold - waving flame;

the wild mustard flows

what the rain has done

www.ahhh-thelight.com

Enya’s “Paint the Sky With Stars”

vision scrubbed free; stars

pierce the silken night. Oh! see

what the rain has done!

Cold Mountain

close to the edge, cold

mountain shreds fears, streams dying

earth with living tears

morning storm

http://www.ibiblio.org/kelly/vnc/at/pics/snowcap.jpg

bright smudge in slate clouds

violence on the mountain

morning of the storm.

Monument Valley

Lifeless distant plains

Jagged peaks, red sky rising

God’s fire, frozen

Flawed Haiku

clouds gather where none

had been, promising rain, they

scatter in vain

Starlings

Clean and cold, bird-full

dawn’s veils drop to where starlings

rear their satin heads,

raise their diamond eyes,

praise the perfect sky and drink

clear tears of heaven.

reconciled

a bird peers down from

my neighbor’s roof, waiting for

my silence to fall.

where there were five trees

are now three; survivors morn,

buzz-saw’s anger quenched.

softly clear water

falls; brown to green rising, coaxed

into life again.

Song of Spring

Lusty old bird squats

on branch, bends backward knees and
bawls his song of spring.

Tree at Dawn

tree at dawn, bursting

seed, rising sun, emerging 
summer’s golden day.