Happy Birthday Dad

Leave and Return

For the taste of salt on the air

For the cry of the gull on the wing

For the lull of the waves as they roll

I shall return to the sea,

For the freedom of flight by sail

For the chuckle of the water on the hull

For the hum of the jib in a puff

I shall sail again,

For a clock that runs by the tide

For a day that ends with the sun

For a tomorrow of new beginnings

I shall leave this land,

For sunsets that glimmer on the waves

For phosphorescence that dances in the night

For stars that shine in an open sky

I shall sleep no more beneath this roof,

For the changing of the seasons

For the phasing of the moon

For the lingering of the sun

I shall leave and return.

Perspective from Spring

Burbling softly through my dreams

Soothing water over stones

Wash not away my cares

But carry peace into my mind

Lend me the clarity of your waters

From a state of peace to consider

My life in the green filtered light

Of a forest primeval full of new growth

The heart of spring on the sleeve of the forest

Flowers and ferns on the moss clad boughs

Pooling on the forest floor

Shining in rays of sun

Filling shadows with their fragrance

Ephemeral glory of the lengthening light

As the world revolves towards summer

Not yet to parch as in heat whose mercy

Is found in the cold waters of sea and river

Tis by the grace of summer that I might swim therein

And linger and play where night is so far

Without hearing the music of my dance with Death

In the chill of the ocean that would settle in my bones

A form of peace found in the cold and the waters buoying embrace

In which I might sink when Summer’s heat is high in the air

Without courting the final proof of mortality

Without sinking further into the embrace of Death

The murmur of the ocean calls to me from dreams.

Sun's Gift

Time changes the world turns

Flowers grow  by the sun that burns

Blazing glory of death and life

Originator of photons and solar wind rife

Rife with possibilities of creation and destruction

Progenitor of growth and reduction

Giver of energy and power that sweeps

Away the atmospheres planets can’t keep

Try though they may and try though they might

Without a magnetic shield they suffer the same plight

But with a magnetic shield an atmosphere may last

A bubble in space blown by the sun’s fierce blast

A greater median for life to grow

Allowing us to develop and know

Of the packets of energy sent by our sun

Who is among celestial objects just one

That the sun still shines when we are enveloped by night

Another longitude on Earth is receiving light

While we may rest in darkness sleep

Whilst the atmosphere our heat doth keep

And in the time between the temporal gloaming

There are those who seek in shadow roaming

In the world born of light forests flourish and currents mime

The powerful flow of the solar wind sparking aurora sublime

Rippling curtains against the stars siblings of our home sun

And in the gift of the Sun’s making we for our part, dance, and run.

Mother's Day 2018

Sunshine on the Mountain

Ælfhild Wiklund

High in the clouds the mountain rises

Up above bird flight and the rustling forests

Into the sunshine and out of the clouds

Looking down upon a transmuting sea

A fluffy sea of water droplets

A tumultuous sea tossed by the wind

Tumbled about the peaks and ridges

Down the slopes of the mountain’s sides

But here the sun shines warm and golden

Warm as love upon the stone

Thawing the lonely night touched mountain

Painting the meadows with blossoms bright

Awakening hope in the spring of the summer

To touch the hearts of those who be

To wrap them in the embrace of the Sun

And the blessing of the Sun upon the Mountain

Fragrance of the flowers and the sweet spice of the trees

Touch of the wind and the sun

Hearken to the birdsong and the whispers of the meadow

See the colors bright here and the clouds that cast illusions

Illusions that we float here on an island in the sky

Up where the rocks shine in the light and in the heat

Basalt that shimmers with dark warmth

Quartz that sparks and catches the eye

Deep greens and purples tint the grays

Malachite spires twist and turn

Rising from the mountain’s peak

Sapphire crystals ring the boulder

Snowflake obsidian dark and sleek

Gleaming in the sun and shimmering in the heat

The heart and blood of the mountain gathered

In unlikely formation at the pinnacle of its height

Embracing the gift of the Sun

Amid the ephemeral joy of summer

Stand the stones that are the mountain.

Party on the Airwaves

The color of spring is a rainbow of life
The wind with fragrant beginnings is rife
Streams are burbling and rain doth fall
The world is waking and its creatures call
Invitations and warnings by scent, sight, and sound
All through the air communication rebounds
Particles and photons and compressive waves
In the medium of air a veritable rave
Reflection and echo of the vernal essence
The biosphere enlivens our every sense.

There's a party on the airwaves
That the radio can't catch
Its frequency is much to high
It's up above the thatch
Up where birds are winging now
We have not seen for moons
Pigments in their feathers
That cost them gold doubloons
In energy not metal
Though I dare say there are those
Who'd trade their dulled coins
For such brilliance in their clothes
As the plumage of the show bird
Of the rainbow in the sky
Of the flowers from the ground
Though such fades by and by
But now there's a party on the airwaves
Welcome one and welcome all
It's a busy frenetic riot
This impromptu springtide ball!

Happy Easter

Clad all in purple, ruffled dragon

Calypso orchid shy in the forest

Merry thy grow loveliest flower

Bring joy to our quest.

Grace upon the air

Sky dragon soar in a young blue sky

Tilt the wind to your wings

Merry the blue where you dance on high.

Blue are the dreams of freedom

Of the sun-touched joy of flight

Of the ocean that ripples wide in the breeze

Of the soul of the ocean day and night.

The salt breeze has wandered into shadow

Where hyacinth bloom by fox-fire glow

The same hue cast as the phosphorescence

That the wind of late did know.

Blazing in petals lit by the dawning sun

Fires of youth unfurl blossoms and leaves

Ever towards light and new beginnings

The fire of Spring does cleave!

Eagle's Journey

From the dark of the night to which we are born

That envelops and conceals as the hours grow long

To the pale blue of dawn as light casts forth its veils

In layers of color across the land,

From his perch in the great firs of age and strength

An eagle ruffles his feathers and takes flight

Stretching his wings in the fresh breeze of morning

Swooping between shadow and light,

Up past the mountains and into the sky

Into the clouds that gather and transform

Shifting phenomena of water drops that gather

Into a burgeoning storm,

And the winds band together and twisted howl

Churning the clouds and the currents in the sky

Throwing hail and sleet and rain in the muddling mist

Through which the eagle does fly,

Battered and tumbled and indubitably ruffled

Sodden and soaked with chill in the hollows of his bones

Buffeted by the storm he nonetheless perseveres

In the sky that has ever been his home,

When the storm has passed and the winds’ flow untangled

The eagle spirals down towards the mountains far below

Towards a gleaming turquoise lake that rose to lap the valleys

While the thunder roared in the lightning’s glow,

There are glints in the lake: silver flashes in the depths

The eagle tucks his wings in and dives

Through the sparkling surface gay and bright

Towards that for which he strives,

As light is scattered away the blue is deeper and darker

Til the color has given way to eternal night within the depths

Touched by the blood of fish and feather of the eagle

All on a single breath,

Up the eagle rises leaving the cold peace of the lake’s dark

For the joy of air and warm sunshine and the tumultuous sky

Beating his wings against the water from darkness into light

Hoisting his goal up high,

Upon a sturdy fir bough on a lake’s lately sunny shore

The eagle feasts on fish and surveys the mountain vale

And the pure blue sky with its white puffs of clouds

Realms of water and air in which he doth prevail.