The Hummingbirds of December

 

Letters of December

A letter

before it starts to wander.

Two lips pressed in silence.

Ears bending to brain’s curious child

holding one finger up

to test for wind.

I have lost the bridge to you.

The landslide brings all trees

to their knees

opens in every which way

the body

yet somehow through many

great storms

you are the tree

that survives.

Your hair grew long

while you waited.

The lower portion of your face

hides behind a mask.

My fingers play with a strand,

there is music.

Surprisingly

the nursing home allows wolves.

I am kept outside on the patio.

Green eyes slowly turn toward the door.

Before we know it

two wolves sit beside each other.

I wonder have you forgotten me?

You remember, the light comes on.

Your face is a map my fingers like to trace.

Even this morning in the northlands

that warmth stays.

I carve out my heart between us.

I offer it to you but you are no longer hungry.

We both look at a shrouded sky

wishing for sun.

The fallen leaf originates a kind of trust

before it dies.

Enough of them

produces a body of light.

I lean towards you

willing my warmth

to pink you up.

We light candles

between us.

A song bird flies overhead.

You point to the red roof of the house

two blocks away. So we talk about it;

as if we have always known that place,

as if we know the man walking

to the intersection,

as if it is a woman you know

who is coming to see you.

We become friends

and lovers

again.

You remember and smile

and touch the card with fondness.

Laughter

is a party inside us.

I forget I have to leave again,

and hope you will forgive me.

I promise to come visit the next day

and the next day and wonder if you will

remember what that means.

That I will need to leave you

and a part of me wants you to forget.

But then of course

the soul knows

and understands

and remembers

and always always loves.

One day a northern wolf heard the southern wolf's song.

So many stories later they stand here.

Two wolves testing the air.

Contently between time.

Presence is the whole of it.

They do not need to eat

or be warm.

They read the weather together.

There are no promises

between two souls.

Hunger and not hunger is the love between them.

She turns to go.

He begins to crumple a little inside.

Glaciers melt blue

on the fringes.

He turns and walks through the doorway.

As if one light turns off

and another on.

The northern wolf feels snow coming.

It runs with wind in its fur,

tirelessly easing into a lope,

face pointing towards home.

The southern wolf lies down

easing back into the place that holds him.

The poetry and flute of her words

warm and escaping.

~~~

for J.

12.4.2021

Welcome to Flood Water Photography!

This blog began in 2010...and now suddenly here it is 2022. December just before Christmas with a couple inches of snow on the ground and trees. Time to start posting photographs and poetry again.

Welcome to my sitting room. Pull up a comfy chair, your favorite warm beverage, and with perhaps a friendly cat or dog on your lap or close to your feet. Life is beautiful and rugged at times. We have the honor of feeding our soul. Hopefully you'll find rest and happiness here.

warm regards,

T.L. Stokes

12.21.2022

Starbucks on Tuesday

Wig wagging
the yellow lab
looks up at his owner
who wears a white half cap
and maroon runner's jacket
chatting with her friend
over pink tea
it pants hoping
to catch her attention.

A scent of pastries
sneaks out the door.
Yellow coat is waved away.

Earlier two round babies
bloomed from nests
of colorful blankets
their busy mother
shook two bottles
then aimed each into
their flower mouths.

She said, Sometimes I cry
and my two older sons
5 and 8 are helpful
but I miss them
since school started.
I wave away the bee
listening. One baby opened
one planetary eye
so I was quiet.

Another young mother
pushes a stroller
with a pink bundle
and two delicate sisters
one holding her book
crowd around
the baby reaching
to feel cream skin
tuck the blanket in.

Older people
mostly men
ride bikes or walk
in quickly pausing
to admire a baby
then order a drink
smiling from
newspaper faces.

Two women get up to leave
yellow coat laps his wide tongue
into a water bowl.

Each table holds a galaxy
a meteor flashes past stars
and planets circle
while over the roof
a single sun blazes.

Songs of the Puget Sound

2.

Yesterday
hens carried their round flouncy bodies
up into the coup,
chittering and cooing their sunshine happiness.

Something then moved out of the blackberries.
Little gift of wildness,
a cup of warmth
in a baby's coat

content,
and hardly afraid.

The hens in bed told stories
soft so soft
to each other and the hidden moon.

So I sat on the porch of the hen house
glad songs welcoming ears,
and the rabbit,
no more than a few weeks old,
nibbled the tender grass.

There is a time at the end of the most perfect day,
when the sun has been your companion,
when the air lingers full of the first few days of summer,

when there could be no more perfection
and then comes a movement,
the brown innocence,
quicker beat of heart
so far from your own.

To rise up on tiny bones and wonder,
to grasp a green stalk
taller than your head,

with no hands. Yes, no hands.
And I imagine how small its ivory
grinding as the grass and seeds slip
down into that bit of darkness.

Imagine what may come later in the long night
of larger hungers. And I wonder if it lives in fear.
And if not is this called innocence.

The ears turn to gather from this way and that
a warning, yet the air is warm and heavy. Old moon
hasn't yet climbed into its fields of stars.

And the hens, fall silent.
I leave the seed eater as we have
both reached our satisfaction.

A day like that
one hardly knows
how to write about.

~~~

How the Boy Saved Dragons

What little voice
in darkness calls
from behind the stars
where once were walls.

From a far off land
of dragon dance
where wars were ended
and peace began.

I hail the silence
I hail the song
into crowds of hearts
the victory won.





for Tyler Robinson & Imagine Dragons

c2014 T.L. Stokes (all rights reserved)

Tyler Robinson Foundation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISpAgxW1vQw