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, November 15, 2011



Standing Under the Blue Bridge
by T.L. Stokes





If you must take me away
in the blue heron's gray coat.

He always comes above me,
surprisingly uninvited,

makes my loneliness jump and quiver
to see him again.

He is my totem I never asked for,
never was assigned.

I just know with glory
and a certainty

he is my great, great grandfather,

he is a piece of God,

he is the inside lid of the omen-maker.

When he claps
those great bridges together,

I am dead,

I am born.

If you must, take me away
this way,

when evening is still virgin and silent.






first published in Snow Monkey,
by Ravena Press

c2011 T.L. Stokes (all rights reserved)
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 17, 2011 at 11:27 AM

    I wish he would take me too under his gray coat, and show me, just a small piece of God.

    ReplyDelete
  2. flood water photographyDecember 1, 2011 at 8:52 AM

    Beautiful. This is like a whisper, after reading the poem...you hear someone in the back of the room say these words.

    Thank you for posting this. Can I add your words to the poem with credit to you? Email and let me know: Floodwaterphotography@gmail.com.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 5, 2011 at 12:47 AM

    You can use my words, for they are true and I trust they will be in like company? 'Ere a small piece of God is all, just to know Her.

    ReplyDelete

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