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With thanks to all my muses.

You know who you are.

Saying Yes

Oct 2018, The Thinking Garden, Andros, Greece

(Photograph - I took this on Onar Beach where this poem was written)

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Saying yes to you then,

is saying yes to all of life

is saying yes to all of death

       and every breath

                      is saying yes.

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In opening myself to you then

I open myself to all of life’s impossible beauty

with the devastation in my heart

that one day it will all be gone.

One day these beaches of blue perfection 

                      will be swallowed into darkness.

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Life then 

         is a tightrope

of daring yourself to be so in love with everything you see

that you will give your life for it

(and at some point you will)

and knowing that it’s all for nothing.

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              And in grieving its death

​

                                         We are free.

She calls

Witch Island, Jan 2019, The Azores

 

She comes to me as a rose falling tenderly open,

She comes to me.

She comes to me as the unbuttoning of a silk shirt.

She reminds me of all that is soft and fragile within my own soul.

She calls

She calls

 

She calls to that deep and forgotten place within

She calls me in to silence.

She calls

She calls me

And shows me what vulnerability means.

She calls

Witch Island, Jan 2019, The Azores

Photograph - Annabelle on Andros

 

She comes to me as a rose falling tenderly open,

She comes to me.

She comes to me as the unbuttoning of a silk shirt.

She reminds me of all that is soft and fragile within my own soul.

She calls

She calls

 

She calls to that deep and forgotten place within

She calls me in to silence.

She calls

She calls me

And shows me what vulnerability means.

Love is

Oct 2018, The Thinking Garden, Andros, Greece

Photograph - This is the exact location this poem was written listening to Now and Not Yet by Hammock

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Love is looking deep into your eyes and seeing all the way back to the dawn of creation

It is the breathtaking moment of reaching the hill summit and looking back over the valley

It is the journey you’ve taken to arrive exactly where you are 

It is the moment of terminal velocity

It is the shrub that clings to mountainside

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Love is what sits right at the back,

      that is revealed as each layer comes crashing down.

It is the waves fierce commitment to the cliffs

​

Love is giving a friend your shoes

Love is carrying on even when you know the doors are closed

​

Love is pausing to feel the warmth of the sun pressing upon your cheek.

         and your hair delicately dancing across you skin in the wind.

​

Love is the sound of a walnut breaking open.

​

Love is wishing you were here.

​

Love is the dedication of a path well worn

under feet reaching a destination unknown

in search of heights yet to be found.

​

Love is closing your eyes and trusting the hand that guides you.

It is the undivided attention to the detail of a rock

in which thousands of years of history is written

and as it crumbles in your fingertips

its golden flakes reveal to you

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The secrets of the universe.

Breathe

Jan 2019, Witch Island, The Azores

Photograph of me dancing by Katya Barton 

 

Breathe in the world through your fingertips

Stretched wide

Stretching to take it all in.

 

Breathe in through the skin on the nape of your neck rising to the tide

 

Breathe in through She

Who lays between your legs

Who begs to see the sun

Who runs with the bloodlines of buried bones

And speaks to the quiet alone

 

Breathe in through your tangled mane

Crashing down your spine

Alert to the whispering divine.

 

Breathe in.

 

Breathe out through your knees that crumble beneath you in awe

Breathe out your shame through breasts that swing freely in the breeze

 

Breathe out through the soles of your feet

Which meet the sand with thanks

And dance with wild abandon

To the beating of the drums.

 

Breathe out your loneliness through your heart

As you return from the ocean a free woman.

 

Breath out through your palms

Pressing a prayer to your lips

Silenced by the darkening cliffs.

 

Breathe out.

Kings of Ullswater

April 2019, Ullswater, The Lake District

Photograph - Taken at the Lake District at the end of our trip

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I have a gift for you,

my faith preserved in a fourteen pointed star

propelled us to the mountain-top

the map is laid before us

and the wind shakes loose the past,

blowing us free of form

to taste the stillness

of Gods

​

Who hear the lakes sweet song of joy

plucked by the spring sun’s strings.

Who cast shadows in order to savour warmth.

Whose beckoning ever higher brings

us nose to nose with the will of love

​

as the upward struggle leaves us panting

and fear beats in our hearts

and weary we are,

      Yes,

our legs are trembling.

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But we’ve made it.

At long last, the day that glimmers in our dreams

wraps itself around us so snuggly

we feel ourselves inside the pages of a memory well thumbed.

​

Red faced and weather beaten

the mountain races us to the shore,

where we dip our silvery bodies

into the sun’s last winking minutes,

emerging from the shallow grave



as newborn Kings of Ullswater

On Forgiveness

June 2019, West Lexham, Norfolk

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Let the tears of forgiveness

cleanse your breaking heart

and wash away the hardness

that you grew to protect yourself,

in the times that you had to,

when the pain was too hard to bear.

​

Build your home in the sacred valley of forgiveness.

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Come to know her as your beloved.

Sing to her. Bring her in close.

Confide in her your deepest shame.

The ones you won’t even tell yourself.

And feel her sweetness trickle through you

as spring water bursting your cracks

moistening your soil

for tomorrow's seeds to germinate.

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Nourish yourself on the fruit of this garden

and share your sacred food

with the ones who have wronged you most.

For it is you that is left outside

cold and starving

when you lock the garden gates.

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Find every crumb of resentment,

leave no stone unturned,

break them open with grace

to reveal jewels of peace as bright

as the starry sky.

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Make this your practice.

devote yourself to this cause,

and you will find yourself

bathing with angels

in the infinite lake of freedom.

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(Photograph - taken on Andros, Greece)

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