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)
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Make this your practice.
devote yourself to this cause,
and you will find yourself
bathing with angels
in the infinite lake of freedom.
(Photograph - taken on Andros, Greece)