Facing Leviathans

When I was five I faced
Alligators at Okefenokee Swamp.
When I was fifty I faced
Whales in the wild at Depoe Bay.

What is this fearful fascination I have
With leviathans?

Maybe it's a God thing.

And even though my whole body
Wanted to barf or faint,
I peered around the corner
To glimpse the divine
As long as there was somebody
Holding my hand.

It's good to remember
What it's like
To feel small
And survive.

A Teacher's Morning

Photo by Sam A. Mowry

I want to harvest sunrise
And plant it in their hearts -
Winter trees lit by white,
A sky on fire with dragon treasure,
Melting pink edged in blue,
A lone bird soaring across
The glowing face of daybreak.

Against Despair

I despair of the world and then I see
The blossoms on an apple tree,
The leaf-topped tips of a lilac bush,
A smudge of green, spring's frosted push
Born from winter's cold remains,
Dots of life on pale gray frames.
If such bare bones are still alive,
Then hope, perhaps, can be revived.

The Bully

No one cares who started it,
The words they hurled like rocks -
Loser, lard-ass, fatso, faggot
Retard, lame-ass, homo, maggot.

Every living thing has voices -
To mock, to pity, to howl.
Every living thing makes choices -
The victim, the teacher, the crowd.

He stands alone in his power.
Alone, alone in his might.
Alone on the playground.
Alone in the tower.
Alone, alone, alone in the night.

Pariah, excluded, unwanted,
He carries his need in his eyes.
He muscles through their close-knit walls
Wearing his armor of lies.

His fists command attention
Demanding a change of course -
Demanding to play -
Demanding your heart -
Demanding the world by force.

Apologia de Religio

Tentative tentacles reaching out -
Remember me?

Unwind
Rewind
The lost lines
Submerged in the lake of the past.

I wish ...
I regret ...
Didn't think -
Didn't mean -
Mis-spoke -
Mis-thought -
Mistook -
Misled
    you
        them
             him.

The soul is no trifling thing
And I am not a prophet.

Will you sit with me?
Can you bear it -
Breaking bread together,
Remembering my arrogance?

Will I look you in the eye?
Can I bear it -
Your soft lamb's gaze that says
"I learned"?

An Ode to the Belly

Belly, belly,
Beast of burden
Bearing brute rebellion,
Belching beatitudes,
Bulging and bloating,
Bleating, bursting, and bellowing,

Reckless, recalcitrant,
Rolling and rounded,
You are an ocean's tide,
A moon-borne ebb and flow,
Ring of fire,
Volcano,
Seething with unspent fury,
Swelling and surging and swallowing,
Shape-shifting as the soul,

Unbound and unbreakable,
The gauge of age,
The seat of truth.

Feel, and be filled.

Floating In Benson Lake

In this submerged and muted world
Only birdsong is permitted
   Birdsong
        and heartbeat
             and the low rush of pumping blood.

In this liquid body
Only flesh is permitted
    Swim-soaked skin
          pond-filled pores
And birdsong
     and heartbeat
          and the pumping of blood.

In this spirit pool
Only inner shadows gain entrance -
An island of dreams lost in midnight -
    and birdsong
          and heartbeat
               the pumping of blood
                    the liquid flesh
 And you.