My Name Is Not Mavis

Release

It doesn’t really matter now.
Besides the ache that remains
Beneath the reason.

Rise, Dear One

You don’t have to settle for less
Or replay those old songs.
Hum your own and stroke
New knowings while the flames of
Your past tickle your sweet toes
And tempt you. Just be,
Dear One, just be the rise within you
That has no mirrors, no what ifs,
Not one single drip of contempt
Or backslap of resentment.
Rise, Dear One, past your limits
To the sea of ease
In the wide open sky of awe.

Method of Being

There is a horizon
To where I point my feet
And walk. As if I will get there.

My heart understands this betrayal,
But my mind needs the faith
In what is just beyond and waiting.

Yet,
To rest on this low rock right here,
I’d arrive just the same.

Forgiveness is stored
On the highest shelf.
The one I can almost reach.

I Woke

I woke to the dark morning
When the moon was lost
And wandering in the mountain forests
Just beyond my reach.
On the valley floor there was no sound
In the hush before the day
Only the heat. Only the heartbeats
Of the sleeping. Only the waiting
Of the feral.

I woke to the calling of the coyotes.
Do they know I listen for them?
Do they know how I long to speak their language
But don’t make time to learn?
Just as I will meet you and you and you today
And will not have enough moments in my hand
To understand your heartbeat,
But I will still long to speak your language.