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

Life Unavoidable

This day I will arise from sleep like the sun
from the ocean
I will climb into the day
with the sun under my arm
and the moon below me
we will dance oh bright happiness
oh deep beautiful you
we will swim in rivers of spring's last flowers
take my hand
come with me
listen
believe.

In all things we will allow the heart to wander
the child beside us
wonder-filled
open
holding all things
and nothing
willing to walk in pain
unafraid of falling
for to love is to risk all things
I have found loving you.
Wounded at times by compassion
the thought of losing you
the dark how it crowds in
just as floods carve away
at fields and mountains.

Yet, I would love you
in spite of all these things.
To be alive and to feel is the spirit's passion.
Unavoidable. Thrilling.
Real. Yes, real.

~~~

c2014 T.L. Stokes (all rights reserved)

New Poem at Stirring: "Reading Marvin Bell"
by T.L. Stokes

Click here:

Stirring - A Literary Collection

Beautiful photograph by Clay Wardlaw
and interesting new work this month at Stirring.
Enjoy!!