An Old Musician

How
Should
Those who know of God
Meet and
Part?

The way
An old musician
Greets his beloved
Instrument

And will take special care,
As a great artist always does,

To enhance the final note
Of each

Performance.

By Hafiz

You Came To Me

You came to me like you knew who I was,
You said my name like you had said it a hundred times,
You stood next to me as if there was no where left to stand,
You left without saying goodbye so many times,
but you said hello better than a thousand goodbyes.

You pulled me in,
Away from myself.
You left me swimming,
Searching amidst the waves for glances of you.
You always came back to me because I was always there,
a life preserver in uncharted waters.

Your eyes held me like the moon holds the tides
With ability to fill me so full I cannot swallow
or to take it all away,
thirsting for you and your next flood.

I stayed with the patience of stars,
Always there, shining
Rarely noticed from inside closed doors

I let you in,
Under the waves, under the covers of insecurities,
To let you sleep in my bed,
My place of safety,
My place of hope.

You listened to my dreams only to tell me of your own,
You touched my body to quiet your mind,
To find solace inside something soft,
if only for a moment,
An escape from the hardness of yourself.

You love with convenience, trust with anger,
Sleep with the restlessness of the ghosts you carry in your soul,
and live each day wishing for the end,
The great last cheap thrill to take you away
In some kind of blur, some kind of story, some kind of glorified lie.

You look at me like you know that there is more,
There is love,
There is God,
There is hope for you.

The River

Straight, solid, centered, safe.
I thought my path would be until I met the River.
A boat for a classroom, the lessons could be harsh,
Punishing a lack of attention or poor judgment,
Cold mountain currents pulled me from my craft and bounced me
Through rapids, pummeling against unyielding rocks.
When the volume is high, the obstacles change.
Maintaining my direction,
Committing to a course, proved more difficult than anticipated.
Whitewater rapids demanded all my focus, all my strength.
No changes to curriculum, I was informed the only way out is through.
As the River widened, gentler lessons were given: find the V,
The tongue, follow the bubble line to catch the deepest current;
Let the water push you forward with the least effort.
Golden eagles, blue herons, white pelicans,
Beavers were classroom monitors, witnessing my failures and progress.
Upon graduation I learned to follow the currents with grace and ease,
Not to push the river but move within it.
I found my path-
It was in the water.

~Diane Bergstrom

Dark Skies, Dark Eyes

Dark skies, dark eyes
Open to the light
Moving softly with the birth of daylight
Let me look into you
So I can remember everything I knew

Last night the oceans sang to me soft and slow
Giving me the gift to show
How things move with grace
Effecting the smallest place
Nestled deep inside
Where there is always so much to hide

So I ask you to open wide,
Dark skies, dark eyes
Show me what you see when you sleep
Below the waves buried in the deep
Undertow of fear
Let the currents draw you near

I hold the moon for you
Above the waves with muscle and sinew
Salt water tears to keep you afloat
My body as your boat
Stars in my eyes
I sing my song to make music with your cries

Do not disappear
Clouds are not forever and skies clear
Birds fly
Freedom in blue sky
Moon belly, heart of fire,
Soul of Earth that will never tire.

I offer this to you as my gift
No matter where we drift
On the back of the moon
Inside the silver spoon
Dark Skies, Dark Eyes

Electricity

I was driving myself crazy,
Thinking about how much energy I was using
Day in – Day out
Running frantically between light switches,
Plug-ins, televisions and the electronics appliances
Running our lives.

My family says I preach,
My bills say pay more money
My conscience says there is more than this.

I am just trying to help
To feel significant in this mass
Of energy that is my home.
Never does it seem good enough
No matter how hard I try to keep up
The ozone keeps melting
The forests keep disappearing
And the pollution steals my breath.

Some say there is hope
Some say it is the end of the world…
I say,
Turn off the lights.

Women of Water

We are the women of water.
We flow below you;
Bringing nutrients to grow roots,

and a place to leave your secrets.

We are shadows dancing in the caverns of the Earth,
Letting our voices rise through the depths,
Seeping through cracks in the floorboards, and
Traveling through rock to make music with moss.

We are the women of water,
We flow above you;
Tears of angels, sweat of God, and breath of clouds.
We swallow the cold of winter,
Letting snowflakes melt on our tongues until
Our bellies swell and release with the grace of
Shifting glaciers, running rivers, and moist Earth.
We bring green to your spring,
And puddles for your children to laugh in.

We fill the depths of Earth with what we have,
and bleed freely to give back life.
We are movement supported by the volume of many,
United by the power of expression and gratitude, we flow as one;
Peaceful currents, carving ice, toiling rapids, and rolling seas.

We are the oasis, the source.
Animals bow their heads and tongues tickle.
We let our form change,
Surrendering our bodies to the contours of the Earth,
Bending, twisting, and turning throughout the land.
A long, slender silhouette of grace and serenity.

We are the women of water,
The maternal, the solvent.
Disappearing and reappearing without warning,
Causing destruction, present at all births.
Everywhere and nowhere all at once,
A constant, changing form.

Our bodies undulate with the waves,
Hips sway and bring in the tide,
Belly breathes and the moon rises.
Strong hands, grounded feet, beating heart and flowing hair
All in rhythm, all as one,
Creating, celebrating and singing…

We are the women of water,
Bright eyes reflecting clouds and the smiles of angels.
Fallen from the sky and collected from the inside,
We are the container and the liquid,
The power and the peace,
The place where earth meets sky,
Where the sun sleeps and the moon is born.
We are the women of water.


To the water we go, of water we are, and to the waves, belongs my heart.

My Celebration

I walk with wide hips
Because that is where I came from.

I move like the River because
That is where I grew strong.

I get my secrets from the ocean because
That is where I travel.

I let my hair grow long
So my roots grow back into the Earth.

I wear bright colors because
The butterflies showed me how.

I shine like the sun because
She is my Leo goddess.

My skin is brown like Earth because
That is what covers me while I dream.

I sparkle with dangling jewelry
So I can dance with the gypsies.

I walk with barefeet because
I have nothing to hide.

I watch with wide eyes because
Owl whispered in the night how much there is to see.

I sing as I bathe
So that whale can hear my memories.

I remember to look up because
The stars like to be noticed.

I am. What I am.
Because of these gifts.
I celebrate each day
How it all has come. To be.

Crucified

Who’s to say he was religious?
Why should he have been political?
Or trying to gain power?
He was simply a traveler following his spirit
To find himself judged and hung on a cross

It was a sunny day when the men came
With shackles, clubs and fear in their hearts
They hoisted his body upon the cross
But he did not cry out, or seem to mind
His face full of grace, he rose above it all

Nails pierced his hands
Spikes crushed his feet
Many wept, some cheered
Thorns punctured his scalp
A crown never asked for

There were others too, haunting the horizon with rotting crosses
Corpses flapping in the breeze
He spoke out, in search of a voice
Never getting any answer
Only the crack of bones surrendering to gravity

People came to visit him
He could see their eyes from his perch
He wondered how they could stand the smell
Dried blood, torture and death
Such a horrible aftertaste
Souring their breath and burning in their mouths and stories forever

There were days when he was alone
Sky blue and cold above swallowed his cries in vastness
Only the grass seemed to listen
He told the delicate green blades his dreams
Of travels far beyond

I know of a place, he’d say
Where people are friends with angels
There is peace without war
Love without condition
Life without fear

The grass only laughed in the breeze
For it had been trampled too many times
By merciless feet on the way to the grave
Trodden and stained blood red in times of war
The grass knew the pain of change

For him, the pain had gone away
Softly, quietly in the night
It floated upward to the cold, colorless moon
Leaving him empty, void of feeling
Crucified.

Time of Grace

“Grace tangled in a rapture with violence”
~ Anne Dillard

There are days when I question my faith
For humanity and the future of this world
So much grace tangled in a rapture with violence
Awaiting prophetic release from acquired guilt

For humanity and the future of this world
I hold my hands together, fingers toward the sky
Awaiting prophetic release from acquired guilt
Just one more prayer to get me through

I hold my hands together, fingers toward the sky
In a room full of electricity and plastic flowers
Just one more prayer to get me through and
Take me away from the things I fear

In a room full of electricity and plastic flowers
I break mirrors with a bare fist
To take me away from the things I fear
All reflected in me

I break mirrors with a bare fist
So much grace tangled in a rapture with violence
All reflected in me,
There are days when I question my faith.

Moon in Pegasus

The Moon was in the constellation Pegasus tonight.
Silvery smile sparkling as she sat upon mythic horse wings.
They hovered over the River and
Told me to dream.
The River spoke as she always does.
Deep, graceful gurgling, and sing-song waves of wisdom.
I listened as I always do,
Full of water, aftertaste of Earth and swallowing it all.
I watched the night pass as the Moon straddled Pegasus.
They seemed to laugh together,
Wide horse smile and Moon mouth open.
Laughing a deep belly laugh,
Moon sat with her head tilted back.
Spilling moonbeams onto mountains,
Flooding out of wide River mouth,
Over boulders of bones and muscle mass of Earth.
I dreamed the Moon in my belly and the River in my mouth,
So that I could laugh too and
Feel the strong back of Pegasus between my legs while we
Glide across the river of dark sky.
Wide horse smile, Moon mouth open and full of River song,
Head tilted back.

River Ecstasy

Long ago I bathed in your waters.
I let my body open to your touch.
Spread my legs wide to the currents
And felt you flow inside of me.
Such is the feeling of ecstasy.

I touched smooth stones with my fingers,
Gripped them.
Desiring to know their edges
As I know yours.

I cupped my hands.
Brought your taste to my lips.
Held you on my tongue so as not to spill,
Not one drop of all that you are.

I swallowed you whole.
Currents, rapids and whitewater.
Traveling deep into my cavernous canyons,
Roaring with the excitement.

I shuddered with the thrill of it all,
How you filled me up.
I began to overflow.
Pouring out like lovers do,
Onto snowy blankets of hillsides
And a bed of earth so long been dry it cannot hold.

It all came;
Tumbling, fumbling towards ecstasy.
All twisted up in the waves that wash
Away and into, away and into.
Waves that crash deep into me.
Crash into me,
Again, again and again.

Endangered Specied

I am an endangered species,
An individual among the masses,
Bright plumage under my wings
Awaiting the breath of fresh wind to
Ruffle the feathers, show the world true colors.

I am an endangered woman,
Deep green river eyes,
Hair flowing in sunlight kissed waves.
An exotic style derived from
The source of my birth,
My Mother, the Moon, the Earth.

I am an endangered soul,
Living in a temple of changing form,
Praying for peace with small hands.
Celebrating freedom in a world building trenches
Standing tall under a falling sky.

I am an endangered light,
Perched precariously upon cliff edge,
Shining as far as I can reach
Across the expansive darkness
For all who choose this passage.

I am an endangered heart,
Bleeding freely into open vessels.
Circulating love within the walls
Strong enough to carry the energy
Willing enough to drink freely
And take me in.

Take me in
Away from the danger of being extinct
Of disappearing in the night
Out of sight,
Traveling in memories
And the ambiguity of words.

What The World Told Me

One day I sat alone, closed my eyes and listened…

I heard the Earth tell me to stand tall,
For she will support me

I heard the river say to let go of my tears,
For she will carry them away

I heard the stars sparkle to keep dreaming,
For their light will always be somewhere in the darkness

I heard the ocean whisper for me to sing my song,
For her waves will be my rhythm

I heard the moon smile,
Reminding me to fill my belly with her full-sky laughter

I heard the mountains rumble,
To have courage for they will protect me

I heard my own heartbeat with the wings of the sparrow,
My own breath with the wind,
My own spirit traveling with shape-shifting clouds,
And the world told me;

The colors of this world are your own.
Paint your masterpiece upon this canvas,
Let your brush move with the freedom of your heart
Guided by the knowledge that all things are One.
Be at peace with what is.
Let the colors dance with your eyes as the light fades…

Then I heard the sun;
Relax now. Rest dear one,
For I will always come back for another day.