the chanter

it begins with breath and

your hands upon its warmth

seeking the rise and fall

over the long smooth wasted form

each time reconnecting building

familiarity with heart and brain

those neural pathways defining newness—

union between heart and soul

breath in and out, a tantric rhythm

seducing with touch coaxing sweetly

melodic wales, haunting and taunting

spilling forth in sacred crescendo

you stand one cold fog-laden day

upon the ocean shore

her edges lap quietly at your feet

frothy and white, playfully so

and you, naked beneath the tartan

breathe into her—all rises

over ears catching the song

you rise beneath the heaviness of cloth

I wait for the day you tease and

coax the chanter to sing its songs

at the ocean edge where I will dance

in jubilation knowing you are free

and the notes coalesce in the misty brine

tears indistinguishable in the wetness

that envelope us all

in that moment we awaken

Kat

27 December 2017

Ric's Poetry Mic 2 January 2018

Hello fellow writers

In the spark of new expanding light, I nearly forgot to welcome everyone to our upcoming "Ric's Poetry Mic."    "Welcome!"

With the intention of celebrating in between the lines this holiday season, out cropped love and joy.  An expression of peace on earth, good will to men.  The outflowing of laughter, understanding, sharing, and hearts co-mingling while harmonic energies flowed abound.

Taking no extra resources to create this magic, the bells did ring on Christmas Day.  With skies clear and sun bright against the chill.  The ocean beaches shy of people and the Mother sang strong.  Her voice always there, her froth nipping at the edges of her incoming breath- spewing her foamy self.  Plump sea birds nimbly caught those wet edges toppling like ornaments on a Christmas tree in a light breeze.

Renewal present in every glimpse--blue, white, and all the shades between on Her waves forming walls of motion colliding in a festive square dance sallying forth and back.  The vastness, a Universe of will and surrender.  Of love, self-love.  Compassion.  The holiday came and went, and on its heels is a New Year.  To embrace mightily.  To sing it in with our heart's content.  This is it, fellow writers.  This is live time.  We are on air.

Wishing you a merry week and a Happy New Year celebration.


Come join us and share your creations at our 17th  "Ric's Poetry Mic".


Be well and inspired,


Kat

Ric's Poetry Open Mic 2 August 2016

Hi everyone,

With August nearly over, we are once again reminded of the passage of time--summer waxing into autumn, daylight dimming earlier, crinkled leaves and falling ripe apples amassing on parched grasses. We have thrived and survived another summertime.  And it has been heavenly.  Nothing short would be a loss for each and every one of us.  To celebrate this chaotic dance called life, we are holding our:

Third "Ric's Poetry Mic".  Please mark your calendars:
Date:   Tuesday, 2 August  2016


See you all soon.

Be well and inspired,
Kat

Ric's Poetry Open Mic 8 November 2016

Hello everyone,

The time period between our writer's readings from one month to the next has been feeling truncated with each passing month.  It is nearly November, and by the time we meet for the upcoming open mic, the "Day of the Dead--/Día de los Muertos/ " will be instilled within our global consciousness, the federal election will be at its fullest fury, and the winter solstice will be easing into our radars.

I have a sense that time is being commodified, hijacked, and it seems nearly impossible that so much living is passing before me since I last sat, listened, and read, at Winecraft just a short time ago.

At moments like this I like to recall my piano teacher's direction--"There is all the time in the world between two notes."  It calms my soul.  Deep belly-breathing does as well, and I have begun the practice, just to feel human at a time when our humanness seems under attack--under-valued, in the greatest of ways.

Yet, this past "Ric's Poetry Mic" offered some of the finest writings I have heard of late.  Thoughtful, rich, soulful pieces spun out of creative minds, truly representing how magic appears.  We are fortunate to have these writers who capture and share again, and again, and again.

Please join us for another evening of the magic created from the hearts, souls and minds of our fellow writers:

Our Fifth "Ric's Poetry Mic".

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
Date: Tuesday, 8 Noveber, 2016

See you soon fellow writers.  Be well and inspired, and dry!!! :D

Cheers,
Kat
 

Ric's Poetry Open Mic 6 December 2016

Hello everyone,

The rains continue drenching my garden beds that lie naked in standing water. What grew in sunshine and warmth of longer daylight hours is absent now from the view through my window.  Alongside on the walkway, thick moss builds up in cushioned patterns--dense, low and vibrantly green.  The key to all golf course greens lies in the amount of water. I conclude.  No wonder there are some that look like deserts all year 'round and others, like my moss garden!

Another month of shorter days before we turn about at the Solstice towards the lengthening daylight.  We still have time, though, to settle deeply within, to search for something that this longer darkness might offer to those who pay attention to seasons, timing, relationship to themselves and others and to the context of life itself.

And the rain keeps giving.  In waves, like an oscillating sprinkler pelting rhythmically against my window. Its dependability has begun to center me with its consistency and intensity.  At times, with an urgency that suggests perhaps, just perhaps, it is time to write.

I wrote a poem about rain the first winter I lived here.  I had no idea of rain's constancy and volume until these last few days.  Perhaps more poems about rain will be born this week.  Someone told me recently that Scorpio's were Valentine creations.  "Ah," I said back.  And laughed.  All these years, I wondered about all the Scorpios in my family!  I might have another go at a rain poem if the monsoon pelting my windows doesn't give way a tad bit.

See you soon, fellow writers--inspired by whatever pushes you to your edge!

Our Sixth  "Ric's Poetry Mic".

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
Date: Tuesday, 6 December 2016

See you soon fellow writers.  Be well and inspired.

Cheers,

Kat  

RIc's Poetry Open Mic 3 January 2017

Hello everyone,

In keeping with the shorter days, seasonal and spiritual inward focus, I managed to become ill and sit, sleep and write--while a perfect prescription for my needs at the time.  I heard from Mary Lou, that I missed an exceptional evening of poetry this month.  Phooey.

Happy to say that I created a few inspirational pieces to share with you next year and am well and invigorated.

Nearly the Solstice, nearly Christmas, nearly the New Years.  All packed into a short space in time.  Wishing everyone merriment, good cheer and safe times as you make your way into and through these auspicious events.

See you soon, fellow writers--may your inspirations for creating beauty and richness, be forever happening in your world.  Let us make this coming new year the best poetry and prose-creating the world has ever seen at "Ric's Poetry Mic."

Our Seventh  "Ric's Poetry Mic":

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
DATE: Tuesday, 3 January 2017

See you soon fellow writers.  Be well and inspired.
 
Cheers,

Kat
 

RIc's Poetry Open Mic 7 February 2017

Hello fellow writers,

Do you notice?  Those longer days? And warmer ones, too?  Remarkably, we are emerging from the darkness into greater lightness. From the coldness into greater warmth.   About time, is it not?  Were you feeling some anxiousness about this, as I was?

I am told by a source whose brilliance meshes deeply into the metaphysical world, that this year, 2017, promises uplifting times--that we all endured 2016 and can revel in this new year.  I wonder if this means, as writers, we will realize some semblance of greatness, each and every one of us?  Hmmmmmmmm.  Nice story.

May your inspirations for creating beauty and richness, word by word, be forever happening for you.
Until our next poetry open mic.....:

Our eighth  "Ric's Poetry Mic":

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
DATE: Tuesday, 7 February  2017

See you soon fellow writers. Be well and inspired.

Cheers,

Kat
 

Ric's Poetry Open MIc 7 March 2017

Hello fellow writers,

The sun shines warmly today. My bones feel the heat and my heart is beating more 
closely towards the light--stronger against the wall of flesh and skeletal frame 
holding it contained. A winter of cold, grey, wet and darkness, slowly, albeit 
very slowly, is shifting, and my entire being tracks, hungrily, the days when 
sunshine and warmth appear.

Our human body and the environment must track each other continually or life 
would long ago have become extinct, said Richard Lewontin, American biologist, 
evolutionary geneticist. I sense this inside on a core level and understand how 
sensitive I am to all incoming data--electronic, environmental, emotional, 
physical and spiritual--minute shifts in light, warmth, and energy. "Because 
anything that touches it might destabilize it," says herbalist, author, poet, 
Stephen Buhner.

But this deep sort of communication, words, phrasing, posture, and physical 
relationship to the environment matter,and impact our internal dialogue on a 
cellular level. Which ultimately determines what we create and how we generate a 
response outwardly to the the world.

Let the sun shine, the skies open to their blueness, and the warmth penetrate 
into our souls.

May your inspirations for creating beauty and richness, word by word, be forever 
happening for you in this sunny blue-sky day. And just in time for the Fisher 
Poet Gathering 2017 in Astoria this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.......

Until our next poetry open mic.....:

 Our ninth "Ric's Poetry Mic":

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
DATE: Tuesday, 7 March 2017

See you soon fellow writers. 

Be well and inspired,

cheers, 

Kat
 

Ric's Poetry Open Mic 4 April 2017

Hello Fellow Writers,

Spring is here.  A welcomed Equinox for many.  Warmer temperatures, perhaps less rain now and to come.  Perhaps more poems and prose.

We will get to listen this coming April to all your creations.  No doubt they will be as powerful as the last month....perhaps more so.
Regardless, it will be another rousing evening at Winecraft with those moved by their muse this wet cold month of March.

Be prepared for sunshine, light and warmth.  It is bound to happen one day or another.  :D

Our Eighth "Ric's Poetry Mic":

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
DATE: Tuesday, 4 April  2017

See you soon fellow writers.  Be well and inspired.
 
Cheers,

 Kat

 

Ric's Poetry Open Mic 2 May 2017 #1

Hello Fellow Writers,

Spring has arrived along with flowering trees, humming bees on bulging pink blossoms backdropped by deep blue sky-scapes.  And yet, more rain mixed with a bit of my growing sunshine-obsession keep me riveted to daily weather forecasts. Not that tomorrow's weather truly matters--I have writing which cannot be done outside while planting garden seeds and starts, or bicycling the ocean promenade with a slight warm salt breeze in my face, cutting the tall sweet- scented grasses in my meadow, lying back relaxing against a warm tree trunk soaking up the rays, hiking those forest trail sunlit wonders discovering new leaf growth and cascading waterfalls or simply relaxing outside knowing that warmth comes from the big "O" in the sky and not the grid upon which I rely.

My present moments are nudged every-so-often when another sun ray sparkles the pink rhody blossom tips and then suddenly disappear behind a cloud which sends droplets of cool wetness upon my face.  The very yin and yang I am making peace with.  The balance of lack and the too muchness of the other.  Finding the Zen of life in the midst of dualities. Life can't get any better than this  :D

Come join us and share your creations at our Ninth "Ric's Poetry Mic".

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
DATE: Tuesday, 2 May  2017

See you soon fellow writers.  

Be well and inspired,
cheers,

Kat
 

Ric's Poetry Open Mic 2 May 2017 #2

Hello Fellow Writers,

Astrology presents clarity and light  even sunshine sometimes lacks.
I dare not speak too loudly, the sun shines this moment and might not last.

I wrote up May's Open Mic reminder sending it out a few days ago
only to find that it was lost in cyberspace while I pondered its flow.

When at yoga I overheard that Mercury was retrograde.
I well understood the planet's energy in spades.

Both human and electronic communication, subject to disruption of order
then only to receive Carol's helpful email yesterday to find in horror.........

I had sent out last month's announcement and not my May prose.
No sign of my first email's perfect composition, instead, this little springtime rose.

:D

Look forward to seeing you all and hearing your delightful creations at our Ninth  "Ric's Poetry Mic":

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
DATE: Tuesday, 2 May 2017

See you soon fellow writers. 

Be well and inspired.
cheers,

Kat

Ric's Poetry Open Mic 2 May 2017 #3

Hello Fellow Writers

Mercury retrograde is killing my emails...third's a charm?

Our Ninth "Ric's Poetry Mic":

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
DATE: Tuesday, 2 May 2017

See you soon fellow writers. Be well and inspired, 

Cheers,

Kat
 

RIc's Poetry Open Mic 4 May 2017 #4

Fellow writers,
 
This is my  fourth attempt at sending out an announcement to you'all over the last few days.   Mercury retrograde has me humbled by the magnificence of this planet energy's pull and push at communication snaggling.   In light of this tetra-conceived message, I will humbly keep this short and respectful.
 
Wishing you a delightful balance of your month and look forward to hearing your latest and best work at our upcoming open mic.
 
Please join us at our Ninth  "Ric's Poetry Mic" and mark your calendars for the upcoming week:
DATE: Tuesday, 4 April  2017

See you soon fellow writers.  Be well and inspired,
 
Cheers,
 
 Kat

RIc's Poetry Open Mic 6 June 2017

Hello Fellow Writers,

Not intending to impose any angst upon you, yet as writers, we do mark the time with metronomic perfection--capturing events through our senses, concreatizing them ultimately into story with our written words.  I must admit, I am tracking the summer solstice more due to my awareness of goosebumps from the generously cold  wet winter and spring that has befallen our coastal region this year.  And counting the months since this new year rang out festively. June 20th our summer begins.  And as I type this missive I am overly aware that the warm weather continues to be scanty and that the June solstice marks the mid month of this new year.

How can that be, I wonder?  Those books I plan on writing, the poetry and prose intended to prolifically flow when I sat quietly on the eve of this new year, remain quite nestled in my brain this day, nearing June.  Perhaps these cool days with interspersions of sunny delight will spark that flow of ink upon those crisp white pages before me.  And I, too, will be able to capture the time that has past, with some form of written expression just because it holds a story that tugs at my senses.   :D

Come join us and share your creations at our Tenth "Ric's Poetry Mic".

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
DATE: Tuesday, 6 June  2017

See you soon fellow writers.  Be well and inspired,
 
Cheers,

Kat  

RIc's Poetry Open Mic 11 July 2017

Hello fellow writers,
Our usual first Tuesday of the month gathering to read our writings to one another is changed to the second Tuesday of the month due to the conflict with the fourth of July celebrations.
If you are at all like me, I would rather spend the fourth of July quietly listening to poetry and prose, sitting on the edge of a mesa 8,000 feet above sea level watching lightning storms accompanied by thunder, or walk a deserted beach--my toes dipping into the cool foamy edges of the ocean. Quietly engaged in conversation, or listening to music.  Perhaps entwined with my lover.  A good book, a pen in hand with plenty of empty pages or a cat on my lap purring would be perfect, too.
Living in Seaside I will no doubt be a part of the volume fireworks present.  Inside my mind, I will seek peacefulness-- Zen, regardless how loud and loosened the bowels become in my outer world.  It is but a day for people to gather.  And what better way to bring humanity back to our humanness...than to gather.  To recognize our impact upon one another.
I will look forward to seeing you all a week later than usual, and until then, I wish you a happy and peaceful journey and fourth of July celebration.

Come join us and share your creations at our Eleventh "Ric's Poetry Mic".

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
DATE: Tuesday 11  July  2017

See you soon fellow writers.  Be well and inspired.

Cheers,

Kat  

RIc's Poetry Open Mic 1 August 2017

Hello Fellow Writers,

It is that time again.  To mark our calendars for the upcoming "Ric's Poetry Mic."

Summer often has unforeseen disruptions that breaks patterns otherwise solidly set by desire, habit, responsibility or a myriad other notions that make up our story.  Like myself, intentions to attend July's reading were stellar, only to be interrupted by camping and family and the joy of gathering with them.  I suppose it does not matter what our reason is to gather as long as we do-- to express ourselves in our fullest most exuberant way with others.  The way in which we matter most to ourself and therefore, shine our light most brightly outwardly in this world.

I must admit to you, yet another pondering, though.  Is the very fabric of this society, this culture, familiar to me in my lifetime, truly shifting away from interpersonal, inclusive interaction with my fellow human beings as strongly as I sense it is?  Is the true sense of meaningful "gathering," shifting?  There are days when the power of other folk's iphone's rings, bells and whistles keep me on edge, shoot cortisol into my system when their messages alert them of their incoming importance.  Reminding me of my silent phone and my lack of a gazillion Facebook friends, topped with my own sense of exclusivity.

With stranger's iphone messages clearly amping up my adrenaline, my own sense of isolation builds.  Over this last month I began leaving my phone at home.  Testing the waters, meditating more frequently, and checking in to see if my inner and outer wellbeing could be regained.  Finding center amidst the fracturing I sense within myself from the external digital noise.  This recent habitual shift appears to feed me well.  :D   A reminder that a good life is about change with acceptance.

I must say, while I missed July's gathering, my intention once again to see you all in August and listen with sharpened ears to your poetry and prose readings motivates me strongly. I look forward to seeing you.  To participate again in the historical gathering of poets whose readings have lifted hearts, opened minds, and given human kind a purpose and reason to gather--to  pause for the beauty and meaning in the written creation.

This gift of inclusivity, of old world creativity, comes from our desire to gather and share.  What greater gift can we bring to one another and the world?

Come join us and share your creations at our Twelfth  "Ric's Poetry Mic".

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
DATE: Tuesday, 1 August 2017

See you soon fellow writers.   

Be well and inspired,
cheers,

Kat  

RIc's Poetry Open Mic 3 October 2017

Hello Fellow Writers,

My wonderment about the speed by which time passes strikes me with a puzzlement 
each month when I send out this notice for our upcoming open mic. Is it possible 
that we gathered together to share our writing that long ago? And when I 
double-check my calendar, I am always taken aback that time marches solidly, 
metronomically onward even though my own inner clock might falter and miss a 
couple beats now and again.

Last week on the warm autumn afternoon that marked the transition from summer to 
fall, I could feel the time shifting in my bones. My body felt the warmth of the 
September sun that spoke to me of this change. Telling me to sit, to bask, enjoy 
the moment of this wondrous transition. There was a stillness in the air. A 
clarity that held my mind and heart at ease. Joy blushed across my entire being 
and I smiled at the familiar place I had been longing to visit again. Time 
passed in those moments with a suspension that defied external business.

A few autumn thunder rolls and lightning bursts brought me back to the reality 
that we have weather before us......the rain gods speak. And bless us with their 
rainfall. Soon it will be time again to share words together. I look forward to 
our next gathering where we come together to tell our stories.

Come join us and share your creations at our Fourteenth "Ric's Poetry Mic".

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
DATE: Tuesday, 3 October 2017

See you soon fellow writers.  Be well and inspired.

Cheers,

Kat


 

RIc's Poetry Open Mic 7 November 2017

Hello fellow writers,

Our next open mic will be on 7 November 2017, election day. Is it possible 
that we will have journeyed through an entire year of a new presidency? 
Survived in part a bit more angst outrage perhaps compassion and maybe 
forgiveness, depending upon one's personal journey.

Regardless the details, this past year has been phenomenal for me and no 
doubt for each and every one of you. If not I wish it for you--every year 
every moment chalked full of all your desired manifestations. Make it so and  enjoy the delights before us. Who knows the future. This very moment holds 
richness. Waiting to discover outcomes puts joy on hold.

Until our upcoming open mic session, count the ways you manifest your desires 
between now and then. I hear said it is all about removing resistance--asking, 
preparing, and discovering, accepting. 

 So very cool and a playful way to live in our adult beings. :D

Come join us and share your creations at our Fifteenth "Ric's Poetry Mic".

DATE: Tuesday, 7 November 2017 

See you soon fellow writers. Be well and inspired.

Cheers,

 Kat

RIc's Poetry Open Mic 5 December 2017

 Hello fellow writers,

We are promised another month with fewer bright hours in the day until the winter equinox turns us toward the light. For those with writer's deadlines that feed off these darkened fall/winter cycles, have-at-it. These shorter windy rainy days are a perfect mix for writer's delight.  The blank white page never looked as compelling.  Always a story to capture. If not yours, someone else no doubt made an indelible impression on your heart, mind, body or spirit drawing you to say what must be said.

I seem to be preparing for December to give me the "go ahead" to plunge into my epic.  While the outline grows well beyond an outline, I sense that the editing will be my greatest task.  Curiously, I  ponder whether it will be one book or four.  Only through time, during these long slow mornings that snake quietly into early darkened afternoons when the wind rages and the rain pelts hard as needles against my window panes, will I know the outcome of this wonderment. Either way, one or four, the truth be told.

Is this time capturing your imagination and drawing your quill to paper, too?  Has your muse awoken you at the strangest times forcing you to flow a bit of ink on paper?  It is a curious creative art, how and what writers do---that going within and drawing out what only exists inside you.   The magic of this process.  Creating from an idea--sentences, lines, poetry, prose.  All which at one time dwelled inside untapped, requiring your focus and resulting in your genius birthing your ideas onto paper.

 Come join us and share your creations at our 16th  "Ric's Poetry Mic".

Please mark your calendars for the coming week:
DATE: Tuesday, 5 December 2017

See you soon fellow writers. 

Be well and inspired,

cheers,

 Kat

 

Humanness

His hand loosened from mine and I fell into the darkness plunging without warning—without foot or handholds to lessen the depths I plummeted.

Free-fall in space tracks no time—no distance. Memory lies suspended, framing familiar remembrances with little use, at a moment when unfamiliarity of the moment shoots cortisol through 240,000 miles of blood vessels.

Suspended in time and space, altered by fear-induced hormonal hits, the eventual clearing begins. Blurred eyes find moments of focus and an ascent, possible.

The bowels of the pit of anything hold a stench, putridity, a decomposing to which we become a part without the light of day, a hint of joy, a glimmer of hope.  Or we reject and find release from its grips, seeking the light and drawing ourselves upwards and away from its gravitational pull. 

My path, which promises completeness in time, tosses me like a Roman to the lions in their Coliseum—bare handed and courageous against the might of the odds.

In time, each time, I chisel another foothold, handhold and grasp when flung into the depths with fingers stretched to their optimum, catching, holding, and dropping less deeply into free-fall.

The climb up, and out less impossible each repetitive time.

I weave and place new nets secured to soften, to catch me, and in time, the pattern and rhythm of the hand letting my hand go, becomes familiar and less jarring to my tender soul.

Kat

14 November 2016

Beyond the Field of Right-Doing

Their voices had not yet spoken, but perhaps it was unnecessary given that their eyes had already met, their scents coalesced, and the love in their hearts embraced, well before the physical outward movement.

Green effervescence fizzed and sparkled about their faces—a synergy of water molecules reaching, entwining in the molecular ocean —from the core of nature’s majesty—in love and connection to the heartbeat of life.

To recognize oneness, soul love, and divine meaning of connection in relationship to oneself and others speaks to our humanness and to our capacity as human beings.

If ever the human species could weather and endure the malfeasance of contemporary times, it is through recognizing one another and honouring such sacredness.

Kat

8-29-16

Stillness

Pregnant pauses between two lovers

whose words bear weighted sounds

hold silence—
hanging slipping

as a glue of liquid pulls
and gives at its breaking point,

then surrenders
to the next moment—

words which hold capacity
to heal or shred.

Awakening to snow falling on snow 

upon brittle yellowed stalks—

meadow grasses, upright

askew and tilted in harsh winds

every seed and bur rocked

dislodged into flight—silent flight

empty pockets of
seedless and burless grasses
poke through snow until tips
are but memories—silent memories.

Deeply housed in lofty snowy banks

where silence lives
in snow soft and deep
as New Mexico cumulus clouds

in the vastness, stilling all sound—
as above and below,

deep silence 

then sunshine and that beauty
when snow wanes and grows into drips

lovers lie still bearing witness.

Kat

1 May 2017 revised

Visible Oxymoron

There is an invisible plane of existence beyond the one we can see.  Much of how people experience and live life is limited to the tangible—created through the stories a society presents, schools teach by, parents rule with and consequently anchored in the people’s fabrications in response to the incoming dictates.  These tangibles define our vision.

In the unconscious and spiritual realm where energy kinetics freely flow as diversely and abundantly as our lymphatic system to our physical body, what might be construed to many as an invisible plane, there exist intangibles.  All capable of sating the senses, fully opening hearts, minds and easing physical bodies into relaxation and harmonious alignment.

Invisibility is an arguable sense given that seers experience all planes of existence with heightened clarity.  Perhaps blindness to invisible planes is more appropriately an oxymoron.  Consciousness and stillness open our human capacity to “see,” which keep our gaze brilliant and focused when practiced routinely with correct intent.

Kat

10 April 2017

As Far as One Can See

Infinity holds a mirror in our psyche—opening up the past, concretizing the present and flirting unabashedly with the future.  Vision into the earthly and metaphysical dimensions presents unlimited perspectives defined by the imagination—expanded and shaped by our nature.  It is the love within that holds these apertures wide, taking in foreign and familiar vistas otherwise veiled from our view.

The heart, as central to the body’s physical  existence, holds fast to our emotional capacity—entwining each thought and emotion in its love potion, aligning past, near and far-beyond visions, imaginary wonderment and yearnings with our curiosity to go beyond.

Kat

8 May 2017

Memorial Day

a chill blankets the landscape—

inner and outer sunshine devoid

terrains dulled by absent sparkling rays

shut down receptors, all awaiting warmth

in the gut a knot holds tightly wound

interior noise churning—rings my ears

fingertips chilled, cold to my lip’s touch

goosebumps rise beneath sweatered arms

monday’s skies encased in drizzly gray

songbirds seeking warmer shelter

in misted breezy full-leafed canopy

rhody blooms half-spent in the mono-lit scapes

two orange tabbies curl head to head

warmth shared, breath deep and soft

a Buddha sits amidst lotus petals

stillness mutes senses at midday

as if the sun itself was a king

bearing gifts yearned for in a lifetime—

warmth, inner peace, joy and grace,

but yet other dreams to wish upon.

Kat

29 May 2017

Free Flight

Can people be the sustenance of our life,
the very rocks upon which we stand and climb
the soil into which we dig and sow our gardens,
the shared air we breathe, in and out, in and out—
ether onto which we gaze and wonder

hearts openly sharing joy and happiness?

Can people be the sustenance of our life,

or must we cultivate our own grounding
rooted in self-love that ekes from within

our core, sprouting happiness outwardly
sustained in fertile seeds we plant and reap
toiling with vigilance the lone hours?

Can people be the sustenance of our life
or must we satiate our soul's desires alone
on our paths separately searching
or perhaps, just perhaps, along side
hand-in-hand with our beloved seeking theirs—
our paths converging in free-flight?

  Kat
25 January 2016

Personification of Trust

Leaping over field fences, running along side babbling creeks in the sun speckled coolness of summer canopy under-story, this child nymph whistles and plays music in concert with her soul.  Lightly clad in loose cloth, she lives one foot in the aether, balancing firmly, yet tenderly rooted with the other on moss-drenched earthiness.  A leader, a piper, a cheerer, a lighthouse, a champion, a warrior, a sentinel, a star, Trust shines, attracts and comforts, boosts and nudges worn-torn travelers on their paths whose exhaustion and hunger dims ever-so-little—back to their brightness.

 Kat

14 November 2016

Love Changes Us

and when he left

and I held the balance

of living in my hands alone

in a box canyon

where the meadow met the forest

at the base of the mesa

miles from nowhere

where mountain lion screamed

elk bugling while

hawk soared

coyote howled in the llano

and the wind blew with certainty

in forests, on mountains

and in thick creek understory

I stood at night

beneath the starlit dome

and held onto the moon

for her constancy, until

I found my own

while all before me

shape-shifted and transformed

salt tears aligned me

with my truth, fearsome

courage held me fast

to face myself as ruthless

honesty and authenticity

arose like cream to the top of the milk

thick and rich

fattening my starved wild woman’s soul

this new journey as certain as I knew –

the moon waxes and wanes,

the stars hang in the heavens,

the seasons come and go.

Kat

27 February 2017