Sunrise

The next few poems will reflect my journaling during my short stay in Tanzania…

8CCCF62E-7D5A-4B3A-AC5E-7A98D34A1521.jpeg

The following was written as my plane came into the morning of 6/25/18 as we approached Ethiopia..

Sunrise

First glimpse of you
At the break of dawn
And you are present
In all your glory
Along the horizon line
You rainbow in
With zestful orange
Richer than I’ve ever seen before
Slithers of yellow streak
With warmth of amber
Depth of your beauty
Assures me of your welcome
The night’s blue darkness
Looms above you
And you both meet
With equal forces
But you, Sun, rise to the days call
And golden wings spread
Pushing the night’s navy
To pales aqua
Oh the Lord of every land
Oh mighty Sun
How to acknowledge you?
Salutations
Is all I have
To honor you

Wild Awakening

F29B939E-5F6A-48AA-A02D-2F7C5442D955.jpeg

Photograph compliments of Erin Elizabeth Young

Wild Awakening African Safari : Spear headed by abstract artist, Erin Elizabeth Young and founding member of Olasiti Orphanage and community center, Shelly Wolfe.

I am one of 4 excited San Joaquin women embarking on an adventure of yoga, art, Safari and community service.
Hope to bring you back writings from another continent! Leave you with my inner voice as I begin the journey.
Wild Awakening
Blazing sunlight
Thunderous wildebeest
Endless landscapes
Passive or passionate
Absent or present
Believing or knowing
Which is it to be?!
Inhaling deep
Exhale gratuitous delight
Reverberating life
Knowing my time, my existence, my gift
With thumping heart
Pulsating veins
Flushed and vibrant in face
See me alive, engaged and impassioned
Drawing the line
Striving to acknowledge the infinite
Embracing the finite
Do you know of the ‘coming’?
It is here
It is in you, in me!
No waiting
No deliverance
Opening the eyes
For the first time
To see
To look
To understand
No room for the half hearted
No room for the faint hearted
Coming emboldened
Coming impassioned
This day awaits
This life is here
Let’s not miss our time

Peony

0BEE2CE5-99DB-40BF-B48C-AD2D02842E94.jpeg

Impenetrable
With concentrated density
Tucked and tugged
Her tightness to a bud
Inspiring intrigue
What will become of her
Will she unfurl
Or forever remain insular
Slowly enticed
Her surroundings beckon
With the welcome of suns
By nurturing nutrients
She begins to emerge
Tender gingering
Her mass begins a swell
What lays in her depth
Is both her discovery and reveal
Unending layers
Uniform throughout
Rich with color for living
Graced with buoyant form
Wanting to give of herself
Her soft embrace
Her plentitude
Her deepest gratitude
Yet her bud-time hesitancy
Never too far
As some restraint
Still grounds her down
Tale of the Peony
Who is she to you
You’ve watched her from afar
But she knows you’ve always watered her ♥️

Africa Calling

4FEBC039-47CC-4DD0-807F-D2114798CD0B.jpeg

I hear you calling
I know your arms are wide open
There is no stepping
This must be a dive
Closing my eyes
I feel my free fall
As there is no fight
Against the draw of your call
From endless landscapes
With blistering deserts
Placid salt lakes
And daunting forests
Where Man is of no consequence
Where beast is the king
I will come as your guest
And leave as your subject
The Queen of this Earth
You give birth and house to the wild
You show how it was
You teach how it can still be
No matter the challenge
You survive feast and famine
Uprisings and peace
You uphold your regal name
And with reverence I say
She is Africa

Bird of Paradise

69FC3434-EF13-44A2-8581-41211293186E.jpeg

Distinctly present

With colors unadulterated

Definition unquestionable

With geometrical challenge

What creative precision

With beauty spectacular

As adorned with grand stature

Claiming humbled respect

Bird of Paradise

You inspire a freedom

Exotic and rich

Yet sprout amongst us

Feeding from shared sun and waters

What wise lesson you teach

That wherever you are

With whatever colors and form

We too can unfold

Majestic and magical

NOLA 300yrs and golden!

A1DA9F43-68C6-4ED8-B9C5-242B34B01B9F

Defeated by none,
Not Yellow Fever or Smallpox
Not Betsy or Katrina
Not politics or social upheavals
300 bold and holding!
Town to natives
Close and far
French and Spanish
African and German.
Relentless history
Full of voodoo magic
With torturous pin dolls
To Catholicism
And communal graves.
With extremes of attraction
From plastic tub drummer boy
To sauve pianist in the Bombay bar
This city has a place for all.
Potted flowers and crawling vines
On wrought iron railings
Hang over the street.
Defined by New Orleanians
As their galleries.
With bourbon in hands
And string of beads
Viewer leans over
Sees passing parades,
Ole times revisited.
Each corner block
Defined so well
Be it praline store
Oyster bar
Or the Great Joan d’Arc!
Upstream, curvaceous Mississippi
Teams with steamboats
Cruisers, even tugboats.
Side line streets crawl with
Mule drawn buggies, rickshaws and trams.
All seen with coffee and beignets
From never closed, Du Mondes!
Perhaps this is
The city in the south
That never sleeps!
As the music, the art, the culture
The food
Has no time to wait
For those who cannot feel
The wind and string beats!

True Mothers

BB5D52E3-086E-4B37-A950-BE6277754872

Mother Earth
Mother Moon,
Mother Sun.
Mother Earth
You spin and rotate,
At velocity I can’t even fathom
Yet I stand steadfast and grounded.
Mother Moon
With no light of your own,
You care to grasp and reflect
Silver beams for my night to glow.
Mother Sun
You’re a blazing inferno
With constant ignition,
Yet for me
Gentle rays cascade.
With your nature to nurture
Your methods do conjure
My awe, my gratitude.
Yet at times forgetting
The magnitude of this precision
This perfection.
Taking life for granted,
You resort to sending lessons,
Sometimes
Too hard to swallow.
With platonic collisions
Come tsunamis, eruptions.
With meetings of high-low pressures
Dance hurricanes and twisters.
Despite the devastation,
The restructuring,
Over the many milline and Ages
With divine intervention,
The solar system has withstood
Test of time for my here entrance.
With what has been endured,
Allows me my time.
My day in the Sun
My nights with the Moon,
With feet upon this Earth.
True Mothers of life,
I promise to honor,
Respect and obey,
This glorious given life
In your kingdom,
This trifecta Heaven.
Photo curtesy of Kim Vallon posted on Pinterest.

Hands of Inspiration

87666FA3-555B-4E0A-AB0B-B89219C1A2E1.jpeg

Privileged
With movement
By the limbs
By the mind
New circuits await
Every moment, every day
Do we delve further out ?
Or converge deeper in?
Both at our disposal
Both are possible
Curtesy of creator’s design
So journey we must
No galaxy
To far
In the depths
Of your own soul
No kingdom escapes
While here
In this Heaven
On Earth
Beware the distractions
Or Mad Hatter you’ll be
Let love be your compass
Stay true to the course
Mark no destination
Judge not right or wrong
Let each step be a revelation
Let growth be the goal

Tapestry

Moment by moment

The scroll lengthens

The weave thickens

History in the making 

Each day an event

When comes the pivotal point

No one ever knows

Arrivals departures 

The stream goes on

Yet the accumulative effect

Undeniably shapes

The future to come

No reality ever

Quite as the dreamer intended 

So dive below the turmoil

Surface above the mundane 

And soar with the stars

To a place so sublime

Where never touched by the grime 

Unavoidably part of this here time

She II

C3A3AB47-800F-41EB-9452-446A8F41AB10

Embodiment of woman
Quietly she does not come.
Announced by her presence
As delivered by Mother Nature.
Curvaceously bold
Cool, calm the exterior,
Awaiting the unleashing
Of her beholden fire.
Lips do not to part
As her words never matter.
She speaks with a rhythm
Even nature can only but listen.
Gently she commands
Entwining her partner,
Inseparable, indistinguishable
One made for the other.
Allowing the forum
Her energy comes forth.
Her softness, her pains
Her fury, her surrender.
Each woman her own.
Yet mirror you do
That ‘she’ spirit of ours,
Dear sister of mine.