forgive me

forgive me
if i seem
obsessed

with silences
and forests
and snowy limbs….

entranced by visions
of trees
overarching….

forgive me if
grief and joy live side by side
in this altar, my heart….

forgive me if i forget
momentarily that mistletoe
festoons dying branches….

adorns them
with evergreenery
and white berries….

forgive me if i yearn
with all my heart
for this snowy silence….

for midnight
in the forest—
and i don’t know where the moon is….

•

though icy storms whistle
sometimes, through
night and forest --

every sparkling dawn
silence reigns,
powerful….

snow wraps the trees
in secret delight:
they dance invisibly….

here, the soul of
the world, unavoidable –
here, our insignificance….

here, our equality
with grub, with fallen log, with bear….
with eagle, with quivering leaf, with frozen stream….

here, powerless, hairless, weaponless,
the silence invites
our grief, fear --

welcome friend, to infinity….
to vastness unimaginable….
to love unmatchable….

this is the place
where god whispers….
and where i realize

that the answer
to all of my problems
is thank you….

•

forgive me friend,
if i go on about joy --
it’s all i can do
to keep dancing…..

________________
©2011
beth anne boardman





(header photo courtesy and ©2011 micheal gertje)

(footer photo ©2011 beth anne boardman)

juniper dreaming

scent of juniper
on the night wind –

velvet elk in the
near shadows….

rolling voices
distant

jingle of bells,
crack of gourds

grey dawn
on ceremony day….

•

juniper on my pillow
at the black

of midnight –
reawakening

reviving
retying me

to the past
the future….

messages crossing
time, distance, rocky bluffs….

•

recalling
scrub juniper

rocks and sand
my companions

mists and winds
my mantle –

•

never alone
with a lifetime

of miracles
memories

priests
shamans

poets
goddesses

children
ancestors

replete with images
adventures

alive
waiting….

juniper
calling….

i,
arriving….


___________________
© 2011
beth anne boardman

queen of the dark

i
am the queen
of darkness….


persephone’s thought
that first night in hades?

it must have been strange,
those first seasons….


i live forever
between the worlds….


married to the dark
honored and revered
as powerful and queenly
in the kingdom of the dead –

then months later
becoming the
daughter of earth again….


here
nor there
is my permanent home….


at her mother’s fertile side….
rolling in the sun,

unbelievably heavenly
perfumes
clamoring….


hermes
my trusted soulmate….
reunites me with those
i love


was midnight her favorite time
as it has become mine?

always en pointe
poised
between yesterday
and today?


oh
this mercurial spirit
this clever trickster
this herald of change

knows all of me


did she long
for his presence?

was he the one she told
of all her adventures,
above and below?


my light
and my shadow


of all the gods
they knew both worlds

saw loss and becoming,
the enlivened
the entombed….

each married to the cycle….


how i jump for joy
upon glimpsing his
wingéd feet…!


we ride this planet
as it whirls through space
spinning day to night
to day again….

certainly uncertain
season to season –


pain of parting
joy of love


our tenderly searching hearts
broken open
and closed
time and
again….


oh dear ones!
though you live in the between,
you are in divine territory!


perhaps
in our striving
we forget the unforgettable –

life contains all opposites
marries dark to light
dances and grieves


the only constant
is loss
and return….


we are the stone
and the light within the stone….
breaking and reforming
on the way to
ourselves….

___________________
© 2011
beth anne boardman