River

You were probably a river
Babbling with mirth, bubbling with clarity.
You were probably a tree
Grounded and strong, drinking in the rain.
You were probably a star
Eyes twinkling when you smile as you divinate.
You were probably an ocean
I felt you buoy my soul as you held me.
I think you might be the wind
Stealing my breath and carrying dandelion seeds.
Were you that mountain
Immortal, immense, immovably sturdy?
Did you live as that sand dune
Just as transient as you were in this one?
You were probably a river
Moving steadily through every form.

Barbarism

Laughed at by the gods
Our losses just an elaborate prank
To entertain something more
If freedom and abandonment
Were not loud enough
To put a force in me
To search for my own exculpation
The way a dog subsidizes
Its household's decisions
In a world that is abjectly unfair
Imbued with free will
But forbidden from philosophy
To bring us into this world
Only to discharge us again
Inhuman and hence divine
This is how I know
God is a terrorist

Arroyo

Your love is a dry arroyo that for years sustained me 

And quenched my parched heart with your flashflood adoration

But now crumbles under the footsteps of my words

Greedy for traces of you.

An Offering

O Universe,
Here I am,
To service you and my fellows.
I offer devout service through myself as your instrument.
I open myself to creativity in my life
And surrender my old ideas in return for new.
I trust that you will unfold yourself before me,
That it is safe to walk,
That you will lead me.
I know I am your creation, a conduit for greater creativity.
I ask that you unfold my life accordingly.
Help me believe I am worthy and that it is not too late
That I am not too small or too flawed to be healed
By you and through each other -- and made whole again.
Help us love one another, to nurture each other's unfolding,
To encourage each other's growth,
And understand each other's fears.
Help us to know we are not alone,
That we are loved and lovable.
Help us to create as an act of worship to you.

The Bat

Creature of the night
I like you cannot see the light
I am comfortable in this darkness
Eating morsels of my sins
Upside down in my own identity
I slept for so long and like you
I have awoken without a dawn
And flown into the darkness

For Landscapes

Sometimes it hurts to be with you
I can never be close enough to you
All I want is to be undivided
For my body to be indistinguishable from yours
To be buried in your soils
To be your soils
To be part of you
The way you are a part of me

Forester

A forester's Bible in hand
I learn to mete and measure land.
Reading the good word
Statistical precision's always assured
Because sampling design and stochasticity
Are my foundation's chromaticity
Used to paint a plan for inventory
To record the forest in all its glory.
Cruising and traversing
The trees and I always conversing
Greeting trees with tape and recording
Always sampling enough to be rewarding
Then attributes and values are poured into excel
Regression and error are the stats I compel
To build tables and predictions
To tease out conviction from contradiction
And perhaps most importantly
To encourage forests' conservancy.

Domus

Gentle insect in the lichen
What harmony have you known
Nestled amid the ancient rocks,
Brightly caroling the soft roots of ferns?
Would it be the summer bluebird
Who rustles and perturbs your verdant world?
What warm secrets has the forest shared
Whispering to the moss and springs?
Your seasons are colored by intuition,
Never knowing a disturbed thought.
Of the many nights you've pondered,
Observing the dynamic dusk,
You have never withered.
You've always risen
like the earthen columns you call home.

Lucus

Behold, as I leave the mountain
Singing stone songs and
murmuring with the berries
Knowing the moist secrets of the moss
And the chores and errands of the insects
Strolling, wandering, living
in the lichenous sanctuary
Shading seeds and me alike
Every season bucolic and vivid
I could climb till dusk
And never have left Eden

Creature Comforts

Each breath is a creature
One with personality
Secrets and character
Each breath betrays its host
Divulging their thoughts
And answers without letter
A laugh, a sigh, a snort of derision
Each unmechanical and organic
Each different, unlike the last
Each only present for a moment
Reveling in its own transient existence
The breath is the most honest
Creature of all creations

A Radical Act

Don't you see?
To love nature is an act of self love;
She can love us better than we can.

On slicing bread:

Where does one slice end and the next begin?
It was but one loaf until the knife came, dividing yeasty nations.
Who am I to be declaring borders and destroying what was once whole in the name of sustenance?

Set

Ellipsoidal seeds
Each adorned with its own awn
Wheat's small pulchritude