All Hallows

Bonfires burning high on a hill
Chanting and singing - voices then still
Hush child, no sound make,
Here - - or they'll see,
Silent among us is what we must be.
Mist lifting slowly, fluidly turns
Winding around the fires that burn
Look! Wide eyed in horror
See what is there!
High in the sky the spirits do stir
Shifting and moving down through the night
Quickly now! Gather here close to the light.
Fingers of fear reaching through and around
Twisting and turning and dancing aground
Flee for your lives, then someone does yell
Run fast my child 'for you end up in hell!
Fly like the wind, and the children do scream
Hope you all have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Footfalls

The fog rolled in this morning, thick, deep, comforting.
Shrouding the everyday sounds of life in a muffler
of gauzy mist swirling in the early morning light.
I hear footfalls
A gentle thud upon the fallen leaves, no longer crisp
from sun and wind and rain.
More feeling than sound, sightless in this cocoon of
earthbound cloud, I stop and listen.
No direction of vibration, nowhere to fix upon the coming
Footfalls
Gently, so gently, as though made by some ethereal being
bringing hope of sunrise……….
Breath held, senses awakening, mind reaching
for those unknown
Footfalls
I turn tentatively, and there, beneath the brush
yellow eyes glow in the mist.
In one swift, fluid movement she is gone.
Cougar has graced my path, leaving no sound
of footfalls.

Harmonic Convergence

Cougar

She comes in the early morning hours. This land is at the outer fringe of her territory. There is not enough rock, not enough cover for her comfort level. We have a truce, she and I. While she knows that I am no threat to her, she also knows that this is my territory. My scent is everywhere. Something in that scent tells her that I mean her no harm, and in return she graces me with a cat like blink and a playful huff, as she rolls in the grass a few yards away. I simply call her cougar. She never hunts the domestic fowl that roam the yard. She comes for the grain fattened rabbit that frolic here. I understand that she would never come unless she were hungry. I sit quietly on the deck or in a chair by the fish pond and smile at her antics. She is much like the barn cats in her mannerisms, and I look for the cues and postures I have learned from them, to see if I can predict what she is about. She likes to hear me sing softly in the early morning, and will turn expectantly if I become quiet. We have an easy relationship bourn of mutual respect. One day I hope to see her bring young ones to learn to hunt the rabbit, and grace me with the ability to observe and learn. Cougar. I have no doubt that were I in her territory and seen as a threat, she would attack. But here, where no threat exists we find a strange sort of friendship. There will come a time when she will no longer come. Her territory is far reaching, and I have no hold on her. I dread that day. Never knowing if I will see her again, my heart will become heavy with worry. My imagination runs wild at these times, and I always think the worse. The truth is, perhaps I need this constriction of heart and soul to teach me something. Nothing in this life is permanent. Even love changes from day to day. Perhaps she has been sent to teach me to accept. Not the inevitable parting, but the current joy. I find myself praying to that unknown God at these times. Let me feel what I have been given before it’s gone….before it’s a memory and I have only fragments to grasp at. Teach me to look beyond my self and accept the small joys given in the now. It’s a prayer not often answered with a yes. This lesson I must learn on my own. So I sit and watch. I let the morning sun rise quietly behind my shoulder, and no thought comes. Just let it be M………. Just be.

Autumn Fields

Desperate Balance

I can’t do this anymore
Walking the edge between the dark and the light
I can’t do this any more,
this constant battle. There is no more fight, no more light
just the shadows curling around my thoughts.
Just walk away, let it be ,let me go and find my way.
A dark gentle place to soothe my soul.
For a day, a month, a week, a year or a lifetime.
Promise me peace, promise me soothing words
Anything but those you can’t keep.
I can’t do this anymore.
Give it away and away and away with nothing coming back.
Find the words that will break the tie,
The way to make it count………..
The balance - there is none.

Silent Soundings

Soft sweet darkness of night, velvet texture surrounds me.
I close my eyes and feel the soundings of her heartbeat,
Touch the spirit of her fleeting time.
Ebb and flow of starlight arching across the sky
To begin and end in a single blink of the eye.
Wisps of chilling breeze touching the senses
Awakening the mind.
Moonrise drawing back the curtain of seeming blackness
And revealing the eyes of life within the brush
My heart leaps to the song of the nighthawk
Filling with the beauty of it’s call.
And all too soon it is done.
The morning sun demands his due,
As I retreat once more within.