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.

Whale Song

They say to know the song of the whale,
The storyteller, record keeper of the deep,
There must be true desire to want to know it,
To hold it inside and sing it out for the world.

So I say,
Cry out the words of the song,
Release the notes on wings, feather soft and hollow.
Empty like the weight of rock in the canyon,
Empty like the shadow of a new moon.
Fullness hidden by tricks of light
Points of perception and the travels of time.

Let it move
The way Aurora dances on silhouette horizons.
Let the voice sing out,
A deep belly laugh from children at play,
A bird song ringing through the winter air.

Bring the music to my heart.
An arrow released true,
To draw blood,
To feel sacrificial vulnerability and
The power of pain.

Release the notes from the page
From within my body.
There is no skin to contain this sound.
The rhythm comes from within my skeleton.
The marrow of my bones fills the notes and
Hardened calcium finds its place among the
CREAK, POP, BANG, BOOM
Of the body dancing with life.

Let the waves of this song
Flow through my being
With the courage to re-emerge like the whale.
From the depths
Into sunlit sky and fresh air
To take a deep breath
Of new music, of new stories
And release what has traveled so long
In the belly.