Christmas
is in the simple joys of living
It’s in reading a story to the kids at bedtime
and having your neighbors over for dinner
It’s in a good bottle of wine
and a mug of hot cider after two hours of shoveling
and eggnog in the morning while still in your robe
It’s in black and white [...]

I appeared
eyebrows frozen
radiator red ears
only to be surprised by you
again.
Again your eyes
crystallized
their tundra beauty
warmed my face into a smile
ear-wide.
But you surprised me
again
with your sparkle and snap
of cold command
to freeze my eyes upon you.

Innocence

Capture the winds of innocence
shades on the moon
glowing soft in the distance

The swaying trees sing and dance
among the rustling leaves
and send their love about in soft pastels

Experience

Exuberant, they raise and dash the waves
Ireful in their stormy rage
Whether fading or growing
They shape all with experience

Wisdom

Through cavern and gorge
whisk the winds of wisdom
whistling of civilizations past
and dancing [...]

A voice rose once, to greet me in the forest
as if it came from nowhere
It seemed to surround me
pervading everything
It echoed
in the twigs crackling beneath my feet
the leaves rustling in the sunlit trees above me
and the rumbling brook by my side
It came from the meadows
the animals
the sky
and the Earth
It rose from the chasm of my [...]

An old cottonwood stands jauntily outside my window
I sometimes watch it as I lie in bed
when the cool smell of rain is on the air
I can hear the wind in the distance
but the tree stays quiet
while I speak to it
Later, I will watch the rain drip from the leaves
and listen for its response

This morning I [...]

Leaves moving like waves on the wind
and the sunshine filtering through on the breeze
to spin the spectrum on a multitude of greens.
The trunks stoic and brown and still
tower over the stairs diving down to the wide
waterfront with whispering laughter
over the shifting breeze.
A mast passes slowly beyond and beyond
the distant tree line the blue reaches beyond
the [...]

Earth Spirit
nakai
i float
on your flute

you, Shaman, call
the canyon mouth
opens
to breathe
to sing

fly
ancient arms
open
wind high
canyon breath
star chant

nakai
i float
on your flute

high

Eagles Feather

you sing
in air
and float
in notes
to dance on my heart

you dress
my head
to bring me
strength
of talons and flight

Earth Mother

eagles call
“mother”
echoes
on the plateau

coyote whistle
strains
across the canyon
tan

ancient chant
long
across the night
in starlight

eagles call
“mother”
reaches
from earth to sky

Shaman’s Call

Like an orange note
of a
plaid youth
carried on the low hang
of mist
rolling across the veiled
lake,
wakefulness returns.

An owl swoons.

A high swell
peirces the bedreamed veil
of morning
of fall
of home.