In the Root Cellar

Claim the curve of the Earth, the world is worth the risk.”

As women,
We have poetry in our lives.

Words like semen ejaculated from all the need of the man’s world
Held in the depths of the womb
Patiently awaiting silvery shaft of the moon
To penetrate darkness of blind night –blind sight.

Vaginal canal carrying the Milky Way
Into the world of inner space where
Adjectives in ovaries bloom,
Carried together in fallopian tube nouns,
All to the verb eggs
Waiting to be cracked
Open like the ‘crack’ of the birth of a star.

Desire, the forbidden fruit
Invites us to cravings
Hungry bellies are necessary for
Space of creation
Carved out by spoons of hungry times,
Hungry myths.

There needs to be a place of birth
There needs to be a root cellar
Cared and tended for
By long skirts and small hands,
Kept safe underneath the Earth
For futures to survive on the
Preserves of Grandmothers.

There needs to be a receptacle
For all the stories
For all the pain
For all the pleasure
For all the nothingness
In-between
The words.

Ferninand the Bull, May 2011

You came here a man on fire
Blazing heart burning the path forward
Towards falling into the abyss of longing
For love, the divine spark, the source
Of this flame;
To be reborn.

Search in the ashes for the beginning
For feathers of the Phoenix,
For missing pieces that bring wholeness in partnership.
To be honored in wholeness.

Honor me in my pieces.
Like the pieces of the sky at night
That twinkle, sparkle and shoot magic
Towards my heart and then come together
Cosmically, above my head while I sleep.

Wishes in the dark
The eye of the moon
Bring the gift back in order to gaze towards a direction.
Together, in the same direction.
Love is…says the Little Prince,
Says the man that dances on the ridge with flowers in his hands,
The beloved on his shoulder.

Such a curious gentleness of compassion through pain.
You hear it in the stories he tells,
The stories we tell.

From the place where the Goddess dwells
To the sacred, deep spaces of the ancient ones
The stories come,
The song sings,
The warrior walks.

Sometimes he walks as if he has lost something,
As if he has fallen in love.
He wanders, he wonders
About the beautiful mystery
Until—it is here, there, everywhere,
Within and without,
He smiles.

He remembers that the beloved comes
With gentleness, deep eyes and infinite time.
The beloved is all that is loved for the Give Away.

From the sense of purpose we return,
To uncertainty.
To space, wide open space--total potential.
The infinite fertile void
Where the fire meets the spark
And they dance all over again.

Born of the same circle
The same endings and beginnings
Falling in and out of love
Because nothing is permanent
Surrender is what the waves
Sing to the sky.

Sister

Sister
You keep me,
Deep inside the world.
The place where the embers are born,
Where the sparks find purpose,
Where the flame starts to dance.

You keep me,
In touch with angels.
Your arms like wings
Spread open to the winds of the world
And the turbulence of love.

You keep me,
Looking into life
With wide eyes and open heart.
Without fear of what might be seen in the dark,
Because you are there with me.

You keep me,
In your back pocket now-a-days.
A place of worn in comfort,
Sometimes forgotten, put through the wash or sat upon
But always there.

You keep me,
Longing to hear you laugh
To see you dance,
To smile,
To shine your light out to the world.

You keep me,
Dreaming of adventures
When can we play the way we once did?
Laughing out loud, big belly laughs,
Freely and without abandon.

You keep me,
Sister of mine
Forever I am yours
Whatever your needs
Wherever you are
I know it too, I feel it too
I see you too.

You keep me,
Together.
Come back together,
Take my hand
Do not fear this place
We’ll be here together
We’ll go together.

You keep me,
Sister.

JR

You live behind reflective sunglasses,
held on by creative forces and duct tape,
shielded by decorated hats,
wearing the symbols of moments
like badges from an ancient war

When I seek your eyes
I only see myself.
Distorted by the curve of plastic lenses
and doubts of my own creation,
I am left seeking

Your demeanor is one of deep currents
moving with space
watchful deliberation and
the ability to take things with you
the power to leave others behind.
On the shore,
waiting to become someone else's treasure.

In some long ago story,
when dragons needed slaying and
battlefields were not yet cemeteries,
you carried the sword.
You played the hero.

Now, in this story
the dragons have all but retreated into Middle Earth,
the swords hang over mantles and
battlefields have become historic sites and visitor centers
full of Hawaiian print shirts and camera flashes.

Now, in this story
you play games in the dark
with your own shadows
learning the art of combat, protection
the hero by your own need for rescue.

I am drawn to you
the way I am drawn to water.
Something deeper that I want
to know, to touch, to hold
if just for a moment
to treasure
to know something more about the mystery
the parts that make the whole.

Ode to Danny Z

There once lived a boy,
With red hair and a smile so coy,
Who seemed to dance through life,
Never grieving long with strife.

His vibrant energy was vast
And many a time from class and work was cast
Back out into the place he knew best as home,
The mountains under a starry dome.

Danny could always be seen with a smile
Taking time to pause for a while
Only long enough for a double heli and PBR
And then back out to shred the gnar.

He laughed with his heart
And from his light we are sad to part.
Dan lived each and every day
To the very fullest potential for play.
His thirst for adventure
Was beyond any Der Sportsman sport quencher.

Danny traveled many places
And laughed with many faces,
But his home was always here
And we will feel him forever near.
The mountains have taken him back
And although his physical presence we lack
Danny Z lives on forever
With his little elf spirit so clever
In the hearts of us all
And the mountains surrounding us so tall.

A Prayer for Marriage

I pray that your days be precious and treasured together and alone.
I pray you cherish each other as your own unique essence without judgment or assumption.
I pray you feed each other with your deepest desires and keep the self and the other in the best of health.
I pray you find freedom in your togetherness to express your truest self.
I pray you venture together with the courage to pay attention.
I pray you risk enough to always tell the truth.
I pray for full belly, snorting laughter and for a safe place to cry.
I pray you both never stop exploring; the wilderness within and without.
I pray you look into each other’s eyes every morning with gratitude for the opportunity to breathe together for one more day.
I pray you each follow the journey of your bliss and find the faith and trust in each other, your marriage, and all of us gathered here today to keep going even in fear or doubt.
I pray this beginning together be a symbol of the rapture of being alive. As an individual and now… forever, united as one, creating the experience of life together.

The Story

I am surrounded by solitude
I am the song of silence
The surrender of spring
The shadow of the sun.

I am the severance of self
I am the sliver of a star
The stillness of a storm
And subtle simplicity

I am the sorrow of a sunset
The salutation of a sunrise.

I am the seduction of the senses
I am the sound of singing
The softness of sight
And the sparrow in flight.

I am the sigh of settling
The face never forgetting
The secrets of a story.

I am the skeleton of soil,
I am the sea of skin
The separated soul
And the sense of the surreal

The saint and the sinner
The end and the beginner.

I am the spark of spontaneity
I am the space within stillness
The siren and the serpent
Sensuality and Sin
Everything is within

Such is the story.