joint tenancy

"Love consists in this...
 that two solitudes
 protect and touch and greet each other."

~Rainer Maria Rilke~

Sky Song

SKY SONG

I use to dream that
I could fly.
The sky would lift
myself so high.
The blue air, white cloud sky
would ask if
I were bird.., or cloud,
or leaf,
and I would laugh.

Brightness,
blinding sight from seeing;
I would lift my winged arm
and catch some passing cloud.
The sun would play her scattered light
Upon the edges
of my eyes..,
and I would laugh.

Color,
prismed, passing
air to air,
would move reflecting fragments
through the air.

Sun, God, star cloud, blue white sky;
Why did I dream that I could fly?

C.C. 1984

(An old poem I wrote many years ago. A friend's post, today, reminded me of it. Thanks Julie.)

Wordless Wednesday: This is My Chair

Why I love this poet.

Black Swallowtail

The caterpillar,
interesting but now exactly lovely,
humped along among the parsley leaves
eating, always eating. Then
one night it was gone and in its place
a small green confinement hung by two silk threads
on a parsley stem. I think it took nothing with it
except faith, and patience. And then one morning

it expressed itself into the most beautiful being.

( for Nina )

Do you ever feel this way?

A noiseless patient spider,
I mark’d where on a little promontory
it stood, isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my Soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my Soul.

~Walt Whitman~

Why did I put this photo and this poem together in the same post? Through the spider ,the speaker relates his point of view about human souls. When the speaker says that the spider “launched forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself” he is saying something about a spider making a web..., but also about man trying to make connections with the world, to feel a part of something, or find its place in the universe.
I would like to know what you feel when you see this photo and read this poem....

Almost Wordless Wednesday; The Great Mother Lode Pet Photo Contest

Carl won 3rd place in the local newspaper photo contest (out of 500 entries).



"Yes Carl, you're a handsome dude... congratulations little man."

Wishing on a Poem

This Morning I Watched the Deer

This morning I watched the deer
with beautiful lips touching the tips
of the cranberries, setting their hooves down
in the dampness carelessly, isn't it after all
the carpet of their house, their home, whose roof
is the sky?

Why, then, was I suddenly miserable?


Well, this is nothing much.
This is the heaviness of the body watching the swallows
gliding just under that roof.


This is the wish that the deer would not lift their heads
and leap away, leaving me there alone.
This is the wish to touch their faces, their brown wrists---
to sing some sparkling poem into
the folds of their ears,


then walk with them,
over the hills
and over the hills

and into the impossible trees.

~Mary Oliver~

A small bird found dead

I found you lying on my workbench
dead.... in desperate, peaceful stillness.
Then asked who listens.., why is this?
And,in my heart,no answer came.

I found you lying on my workbench
dead..... with wings in flight and open eyes.
I lifted you up, so cold, so stiff...
buried you and said a prayer.

I found you lying on my workbench
dead.... a lovely, brown and feathered bird
and once again I wondered, with regret,
If life is all we know and yet.....

The Edge, a poem

The Edge

This sky pulls me
From the comfort of shelter
To stand on the edge
Of my garden.

Before me
Darkening clouds move,
as dust storms billow,
completely filled with rivers.

Darker, it comes

Bringing rain closer.

What calls out as wind,
a voice, shouting.
Nature's absolute spirit
swelling the air with drizzle, splash, flow
As I watch from the edge.

~~~

c.c. 2009

Vailed Ghosts

Vailed Ghosts, watching
Transient Life, at warp speed,
passing Grace blindly.

~haiku- c. collins~

Seeing Light

I've been alone all morning.
Puccini is playing softly, from the corner of the room.
Outside the fog wraps itself around the canyons below the house. I'm safe and quiet..., I will leave some footprints on paper....

Seeing light

Peace and time are candlesticks
On my windowsill.
I know my ebbing candle shines,
But now I watch it's glow
And know it will not last forever.
I see it's beauty in the flame
And form of melting wax
As it slowly disappears.

I understand, now,
That only my thoughts are forever
And what comes is the Wind.
I wrap my hand around the flame
Because the Robin is at my window
And spring is coming soon.

Almost Wordless

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money." ~Cree Indian Proverb~

FULL MOON;We are here and it is now. Further than that,all human knowledge is moonshine. H.L. Mencken