If you ever lose heart and the earth seems as distant as stars fading into the noise of your busy mind, know this. That a tiny island exists in the blue hands of the ocean. That a tree grows upright into the salted clouds. That two eagles love each other enough to spend their lives greeting the morning sun together. That two eaglets stand in their nest, gazing at the heavens. Looking down to the forever ground. They eat and sleep and flap their wings. And one day in July, one by one, they will jump into the air. They will know the difference between existing and what is beyond. They will hold onto nothing. The hurricane will come, courage catching their pinions on fire, as they mount the wind, climbing ladders into realms of the invisible.


--T.L. Stokes






Tuesday, December 4, 2012




Water




I think God must love water
and perhaps is a water being
above all;

his laugh cascading over stones,
words floating like they do,
rising up on his elbows

in the morning
to be with me,

curious like a lake,
mirror turning down the bright flame
of his eyes,

and his mother heart
where did he pull that idea
from the void,

where in his endless body
did he reach into

carving off a chunk
and mold Adam and Eve's
lopsided muscle,

leaving space for the darkness,
for the empty seat

of rough glowing coal
sparked by rising words
God throws into the river

catching fire becomes the soul.