Mother Maui
Has a heart
Laid along
The soul’s path,
That steps upon their way.
And as she lets you
She cries;
Wind amidst your hair,
Wary of the damage
Unbridled tarry will snare.
Tag: path
Midnight Fire (day 2267)
As a fire I torch the way
Alight into this night
Burning each timber
Aflame, aglow
Amber lays my path behind.
I take apart
Each sliver of wood
Placed into my path
Charring black
Exposing bark
I bite and lick each crack.
But as wind doth die down
As kindling wanes at the hearth
Gentle doth my folly go
Slowing each flicker
Embers glow
And midnight’s roe fares well.
Mind (day 2235)
My mind does not equal out
What words I’ve had to say
So I, ashamed, shall walk away
Meditate again for a strong vision.
For in the land of hesitation
I cannot succumb to temptation
That leads my heart down a well tread path
Far away from where I want to roam.
Does gloom ever overcome you?
Locked ten thousand dreams away
We shall hold our minds to answer
We shall bow down deep forever.
Awoke (day 2232)
I awoke into a dream so real
As dancing all around
Were voices of ten thousand wisemen
Telling me to humble down.
Yet inside I heard another loud
That beat ten thousand times more
Leading me into sweet heart’s embrace,
A path none can truly ignore.
There I stood in reverie
What’s inside came and spoke to me
And just as my dream came to me
I woke to your sweet grace.
Broken Path (day 2224)
When out walking amidst trees today
I found a broken path
That led me around a big ol’ fir
Three houndred years or more
I scrambled over wild roses
And a patch of red clover
To find myself face to face
With bark of an ancient race
Here I stood wondering about
All the years that have gone past
What have I touched
What have I called
Who have I known before
To which I instantly knew more
That deep inside my soul
The answer lay awaiting me
For not was I of anything
Held back was I to guilt
But for a speed at which I flew
That kept my needles dry
So each and every day I knew
I’d be challenged by the race
And my greatest test
Of each my time
Lay finding just one slow breath.
Wildflower (day 2116)
Dancing through the Kingdom of Joy
Alone, the rupture had a sentence
A package of unexpected buoyancy
Laid about thy path.
Oh, shame shame the clouds have come
Accept thy fate and look back no more
Forgive each breath you once deplored
Let run deep thy river’s mane.
Stepping aside, a willow tree
Called thy name twice in vain
But on the third day, as time began
A shift in conscience pulled at thee.
Then with a rod of sixfold and reel
Twang at last, the pauper’s gold
Gifting all that had been told
Left alone in a field of wildflowers.
Windy Winter in the Forest (day 2049)
Green branches and
New logs
Across my path
Moon at Midnight – Part XXXXV (day 2019)
The Winter season is a time of slowing down
Snow comes and one can no longer roam freely
Through the forests
Paths are easily identified,
Packed down by the feet that use them
If you venture off the path
One can expect a mukluk full of snow
However, in thick forest
The trees can stop a lot of snow from coming down
Even in the middle of Winter
One can find fairly shallow snow.
Upon the snowscapes
It just takes a few days of no snow
For tracks to criss-cross the land
It’s a trackers dream to see
Little paw prints going from here to there
Rabbits are usually the first to show up
And deer are always there too
It goes a long way to track in the Winter
Even if just for fun
To learn the patterns of the animal you’re tracking.
By mid Winter we had found our routines once again
In the village footpaths would go
From teepee to teepee
Making an elaborate maze of singletracks
My structured mind actually enjoyed
Seeing the perfectly followed and stamped down footpaths
Destroyed by some shenanigans
Most likely two kids playing rough
One getting thrown into the snow
Or sidestepping and falling as they let
An elder pass along the trail.
On the warmer days
Willow and I would sit outside our teepee
Drinking tea we had collected
From the root of the burdock plant
And the nettle that stings,
Both plants abundant in forests here
We shared a lot of information
About our past, about our knowledge of the land
She learned a lot of English in these days
And I learned Pikanii
We would point to things
And then try to remember before the other would,
Sometimes Lily would sit with us
She knew it was important for her to know English
The more white man like myself settled into the territory
There was no use trying to fight that
Even Mountain Chief knew this
Moon Cow, being fairly fluent in English
Had already been teaching Lily
Before I had arrived.
Moon at Midnight – Part XIII (day 1987)
(part XII)
I could feel them before I saw them
When you walk through the forest
As much as I do
You know when something is a bit off
You look around searching for what it is
But keep walking as If nothing is wrong
As if you don’t suspect a thing
And don’t want it, whatever it is,
To know you’re on to it
It’s during these few steps
That you grow eyes on every part of your body
Listening and sensing and feeling and seeing
I always hope that whatever it is
Sees me and gets scared off
Because you know whatever it is
Means business if it doesn’t.
I put my palms to the front of me, open,
And stayed my path
But before to long I was forced to stop
By a native man standing in front of me
He had yellow paint across his eyes
And dots in red everywhere else
Yellow lines covering exposed skin on his body
His gun, resting on the ground
Was taller then him
I knew if push came to shove
I would be quicker then him at getting my gun
But I could see he’d be quicker with his knife.
As I came near I began to see
More and more of his brothers
Floating in and out of my vision
Playing havoc with my mind
There was no point in resisting
So I slowly pulled from my pocket
A large piece of moose meat
Amy and Frank had given me
And bowed before him with it in my hand, raised
He stood there without saying a word
Me bowed in front of him
For several minutes
Until finally he took the offering and ate it
And I stood up looking him in the eye
He said: “Frank. Amy.” and smiled
And patted me on the shoulder
I guess he knew the special flavor
They put on their jerky,
It was unique I had already admitted.
He pointed at me, and I said: Joe
With this he stopped dead in his animation
And stared directly into my soul
I saw him lose sight with far away eyes
And a vision come over him
Before I knew what was happening we were surrounded.
I had no choice in the matter and was led back to their camp
What hurry was I in?
They were friendly and had offered
To carry some of my things
Had offered me a horse
But I had said no
And their fast pace was slowed
To accommodate my slower, heavier footsteps
The trail was clearly used
And not hard to follow
Though we were walking south for three hours
I came to learn through one of the men
A bit about who I was with.
Path (day 1945)
Every breath that I hold me to take
How it is my strength, oh strength,
That lifts me to the divine
For watching is exposed my soul
Walking the path I only know how
Say that you’re calling out loud
How it is my strength, my strength,
My ears are bound tight
To megaphones singing Lord’s prayer
Walking the path I only know how
Can sunshine ever know it’s truth
How it is my strength, oh strength,
And my wide eyes undoing my load
A burden so many shall run
Walking the path I only know how