....original photography except where noted....


Sunday, February 27, 2011

coalescence




lately i sense
something building
out in the ethers --

an extraordinary
jumbling of
improbably gorgeous
clouds....

a net of diamonds
coalescing
in the night sky....

a knitting together
of unspoken hopes
and spoken dreams....

it's happening in the silence
that infuses
acceptance
gratitude

confusion....

it's happening in the
mistakes i make....

the clumsy words that
spill out....

in my deepest unknowing....



what is required of me now
is no more
(and no less)
than to continue
living
exactly
as
i
am....

devoted
and sentenced
to learning --

to the irredeemable pain
and joy (like a mist)
that crowd each
conscious moment....

to stumbling through
my truth

and finding a way
to turn stumbling
into
dance



a gathering of guides
and angels
meet

to discuss our cases
when we are asleep,
exhausted from our efforts....

for a long time they
must watch us
sending only
dustings of
compassion

to drift over our saddened souls
and soften life's suffering turns....

and as we
hesitantly embark

across that sea
that both buoys us
and threatens our very keels....

as we learn to catch
the breath of love

in our own sails....

steering our lives by it,
allowing it to penetrate
the veils over our hearts....

as we feel ourselves stirred
and wakened
by the great
energies

the uncontrollable
motions
around
and under us....

as we give our lives over
to something we can't understand

and surrender gracefully to its lead --

as we travel bravely on into
the chill, unpromising wind,

the angels take note....

and begin kindling
our next
fire....


__________________

©2011
Beth Anne Boardman

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

under the western sky



on nights when life seems vast --

filled with space
and chilly

when a frisson of fright
hovers at the edge of
consciousness

like a wraith....

like a held breath....

when i am assailed
with wonder

but not the good kind --

on those nights

words whispered
long ago
well up

through depths of
memory:

walk to the window, daughter --
stand and gaze out
softly
into the
darkness....

you are all that you see
and all that you don't....


warmth suffuses
the silence:

stars and chemistry
are shared....

we are all
passengers
in this darkness



sometimes
on our rare
starry nights,

i pad quietly out

lift my face and heart up

to those silent
bluewhite
sparks

and feel the secret we share between us --

we burn
all alone

yet ensouled....

our very cells
atomic furnaces

knocking around in a vast microcosm....

i and the stars
differ not at all really --

sailing together
through infinity....

and that western star that always draws me --
lures my eyes upward and into
endless liquid
twilit depths....

into that elegant, embarrassing profusion
of starry riches....

we wink
and reassure each other....



here under the lights of the city

and the loft of the atmosphere

and the crazy zinging of microwaves
that net over my head --

i offer up my attention

to diamond barques in a velvet sea

silently signalling

here we all are --
together....




turning away,
a smile widens within....

a resilient glimmer
plays at the edge of my vision --

how those stars dance
down into the western sky!


_____________________
©2011
Beth Anne Boardman