Just the way I AM

All those years of struggling, and striving
and searching for happiness
where it cannot be found...
leaves me
alone
in good company
with myself.
My camera has captured beauty
in a flower, a place, a smile
on a child's face
and I am
contented
having turned the lens inward
to see the beauty that lies
within.
Life's experience will continue
to change me, age me, and
turn pages on me
but for now
in this moment of reflection
I like this awakened
being, this homeland
of seeing, and I remain
grateful
that I am who I am
Just the way I AM.

An Ode to Oprah

Years of viewing the the show of the tell
from those who had stories or something to sell.
She who let voices speak, or spark a movement
or lead a commiserator's heart to denouement.
A gentle woman with a savvy for flair
gave millions a program to watch others share.
I saw many shows with an opened mind's eye
not all was comforting to a question of... why?
But that final show after all those years
awoke my senses and produced many tears.
The greatest message summing up human condition
was so humble coming from her exalted position.
People the world over really just want one thing,
the word is validation... a means to sing-
"I matter, I do, I came here for something..."
there is no one on Earth whose life means nothing.
Thank you dear Oprah for showing the way,
how to validate others who have something to say.

Quickening

A quick flash of flutter
goldfish in a womb
where life grows
placed, centered,
divine.
In heart, body, spirit, mind,
it is of no matter
what your love
or how its love
defines.
Nurture that creative nature
that you possess
caressing, expressing,
acquiescing
its right to be.
Quietly it quivers
awake as thought
or hunch, swimming
to share its exquisite
creation
from who and what
and where you've
been on that
journey of you,
co-creator
and quiescent
vessel of
birth.

Wrapped in Woods

Along a path of weaving wander
leaving the past as shedding of skin,
branches reach down to bramble below,
warmth of bark invites holy embrace
as rattling oak leaves whisper hello.

Spirited squirrels bound, scratch, and scamper,
a diverse flock of ducks float on a pond,
wingspan of buzzard dives in solo;
life force is flowing and giving us space
to feel and experience Winter's kind grace.

Unseemly balm of turquoise sky scene,
moss matched greenery shining below,
heady and giddy though walking alone.
Rushing of river smells of damp loam
while fringe of a feather, unwinged
floats merrily down a wet woodsy stream.