Day rising
Sun wakens
Sky gets busy
Painting clouds
Northerly winds
Defer to gentle
Southern breezes
Dew hastens away
Grass becomes sprightly
Little birds learn their songs
Are you awake? Are you aware?
Can you hear?
Author: CM
Present
Words lose their meaning
Thoughts become intentions
Mind merges with heart
Silence is prayer
Each second a lifetime
Empty and full
Breath and spirit
Are the same
On the trees
On the mountains
On the seas
They are the same
A world lives and dies
On the breath of the wind
The spirit moves in all
Everything is one
Day of Wonder
It’s the day
ThenUnknown
In my temporary isolation
I find myself thinking, wondering,
the kind of thoughts
a child might have
about the state of things
and about nature
If I sniff my indoor plants and flowers
will they hold on to the virus?
Does the grass breathe?
If someone coughs or sneezes
nearby will it be affected?
What about the newly budding
leaves on the trees?
We’re given guidelines about
paper, cardboard, plastics, cotton
but nothing about the more organic things
Lying here I muse about this possible
“Worst case scenario” – what if:
the grasses, trees, rivers, seas,
the very earth itself were to receive,
harbour and hold this infection
would there then be an end
that is not inevitably final?
CM 2020
A Kind of Pass Over
A Kind of Pass Over
If I could only
always be
calm and stately
like a tree
standing strong
under the skies
so little birds
could nest in me;
and on the ground
against my trunk
those I love
would rest on me.
Here instead
I’m only me
a creature feeling
anxiety
about a storm
coming to be.
But if I was
like that strong tree
I’d simply stand
firm but free
and let the storm
pass over me
I see the tree
it stands unmoved
as if to prove
this thing to me:
if it comes
let it be
the storm will pass
the earth will calm;
and whether or no
It leaves some harm
in the afterglow
there will be peace
and as for me
in what is left
I’ll be at ease
A Scented Recollection
I’m not too fond of roses
but I have a memory
of the pale pink kind
growing near our kitchen door
and how, on a summer evening
when I took the dog out for
his last pee of the day
that pale pink scent would creep,
wisp-like, around the gable end,
carried on a soft breeze,
and enfold me; and it seemed
in the stillness of that moment,
that a corner of my heart
would be filled
with a sense of peace
We sleep
some may even rest
while others sleepless
lie thinking about
tomorrowWe listen
to the silent streets
proclaiming our lives
are indoors now, and now,
but not tomorrowWe live
in this, our moment,
as all we have,
our precious now, is now
not tomorrowWe open
to the what and how
our lives are this
knowing each day, today,
is not tomorrow
A Creative Response
Not since the last war
has the world faced such devastation
and I wonder, did we become
soft in our expectations
living in comfort
mostly, though not all of us
– But those others – we didn’t
have to look or see.Now our slice of life
crumbles like stale cake
and the stuff we relentlessly
threw away has become
precious. And we feel
the hardship of our fears
as we try out social distancing
and self isolating solitudeThe killer steals around unseen,
the murder weapon is in
our own hands. It has come to this
we must lock ourselves in
to stop spreading a disease
we don’t even know we have.
to protect ourselves and
all the people out there,
without discrimination.The distant past echoes, with cries of
Bring out your dead!
And the numbers rise
alarmingly, daily.
The streets are becoming
a kind of quiet wasteland
that starts to press against
our locked doorsYet, out of the gloom
the heroes are emerging.
Health workers, Volunteers,
Compassionate shopkeepers
of the old fashioned kind
Neighbours checking in,
online cheer leaders
and more.In a world become greedy
for more of everything
is this our call to waken up ,
to see why the roses no
longer smell so sweet?
All is changed. Now we wait
for another kind of change
not knowing in what form
it will come. But always,
yes, always, we must hope
,
Whom We Meet
of long nights
the emerging light.
Living
If I can
see the dawn
even in pain
then all is
well and I have
received a giftIf I can
go out
and feel the breeze
on my face
then I have received
a gracious giftIf someone
knocks
on my door
and is welcomed in
then for me this is
a wonderful giftIf I wake up
tomorrow
and I can breathe
then this
is the gift of life
to be cherished