Monday, October 24, 2011

The Other Side


All week the threshing machine spat straw.
And then there it sat, a great yellow dome
begging to be climbed if you could do it.
I couldn’t.  Nobody could, not a straw pile -
a running start and a loud whoop gained you
a few feet but not the summit, ever.
It was the pigs, rubbing and burrowing
around the edges, who started the other game.
They’d thrust their shoulders against the stack,
then root and trench their way around the base.
Before long they had undercut the edge
and turned their crooked paths toward the center,
rambling pig-sized tunnels just right for a boy
on his knees, and there I was, crawling around
beneath who knows how many tons of straw
held up by pillars any runt could knock down.
Breathe deeply and ease in, grope your way along.
Follow the shoat trotting through the dark -
he grunts in fear of you, not of the path.
Hold your breath against the rot and something
that’s cramping your heart.  Let the shoulders glide
gently, so gently, along the walls.  Let it doze,
let it dream of quiet days in the sun
when a wren could light unnoticed.  Let it sleep
like a child till you reach the other side
and daylight: stained knees, manure up to your wrists,
but you’re out now, and no column fell.
And if it had, that great stack would have made no sound–
oh, a little sigh, perhaps, as it listed
a few degrees, exhaled a wisp or two,
and snuggled around me its gentle bulk.
© David Black, 2011

Haystack at Giverny, by Monet

Monday, October 17, 2011

Stained Glass

Washed in light, yet stained to screen
The light within, without.
I pray the Lord will wash me clean
Thru' death & darkest doubt.
I traced His love in a rainbow's curve;
I find it when I search.
I feel it when I'm made to serve,
A window to the church.
          © F. Carroll Harrison, 2011

Window, Canterbury Cathedral

Monday, October 3, 2011

What Will It Take

WHAT will it take...
For the world to know Itself as One?
Defiance of Unity?
Allegiance to Autonomy?
Separation as an Entity?
Confusion a Reality?
War as Eventuality?
STOP IT! Just Stop.
In terms of Being 
We are One in Spirit and Humanity
Environment lives and breathes
We aspire...
Let us be open to a vision
of differences proclaimed, 
as every flower we know
has got a name,
yet no inherent cause to blame another species grown beside.
Let us awake to a truth inside....
We are ONE
Yet, even in Nature's way 
we see that conflict lives....
The forest overtakes the field 
as saplings sprout amidst 
the grass which came to be 
after a fire which leveled all there was to see....
How do we manage our Destiny?
Seeking the Light that we all require, let's not mob the place.
Every flower needs some space 
to live and grow!
Understanding this is So, and giving each their Due, 
Unity will follow through.
© Gerry Sackett, 2011

Touch-me-not; photo by Tony Russell