01 - MIRRORS TO THE SUN
One hand on the wheel: honey, can we stay this free?
Though we are not more certain together,
our love would make you believe
in the innocence of thieves.
Over your shoulder,
the hills go on forever.
Goldenrods and asters
Holding mirrors to the sun.
What is done is done and
what is still to come
is rising just beyond the
veil of a half moon,
blue in the autumn air.
I have known you now for a long while
and this is a road
that will remember us well.
For all the words that go unspoken,
I lean into the wind
and let it hold me there,
in the in-between:
Seeds of summer spinning on,
a thousand years beginning now.
What is done is done and
what is still to come
is rising just beyond the
veil of a half moon,
blue in the autumn air.
02 - HUMMINGBIRD
Salt in the air
where I felt my body disappear
into light, sound, color
buzzing, buzzing, buzzing
clear.
And it brought me to that dream again,
where the mountain meets the sea again
and I am a white wolf
running, running, running free.
Then I remember my heart started beating
to the sound of the universe.
And I leaned into the feeling
like a hummingbird
Leans into receiving sweet, sweet, nectar
When I fill my hands and drink it up, I think:
what are we made of?
Time is a river
and it’s just running, running, running forever.
Then I remember my heart started beating
to the sound of the universe.
And I leaned into the feeling
like a hummingbird
Leans into receiving sweet, sweet, nectar
03 - HOWL
I am an ocean:
constant emotion,
surfaces trembling.
Mockingbird singing
like a car alarm...
What will this love become?
A chorus of hounds?
Meet me where the sun goes down.
Howl.
Don't be dismissive.
If it goes,
you will miss it.
Purpose unfolds you.
Let it grow
like a forest
from a parking lot.
What will this love become?
A chorus of hounds?
Meet me where the sun goes down.
Howl.
What will this love become?
04- WHAT DID THE MUSIC SOUND LIKE
You were going to see
the city looking
for a “change”
-what a loaded word.
You would never be the same.
And your sighs were fogging up the window,
watching all the lights go
in and out of frame like
gold thread over
black velvet.
Did you hear it?
What did the music sound like?
What did the music sound like?
It’s been a long ride and
it’ll be a long ride still.
A little more than a microdose- you were wide awake.
Seems like the shadow work paid better than your day job.
And your eyes were burning through the ceiling:
the colors and the feelings
of endless surprise
when you see things
in a new light.
Did you hear it?
What did the music sound like?
What did the music sound like?
It’s been a long ride and
it’ll be a long ride.
Are you ready
for the break down?
It might not feel so heavy
if you listen to the sound.
Heart, hold steady.
Let the music bring you back around.
Just listen to the sound.
Listen to the sound.
What did the music sound like?
It’s been a long ride and
it’ll be a long ride still.
You were going to see
the city looking
for a “change”
-what a loaded word.
You would never be the same.
05 - HEAT KEEPS RISING
Soft and still ripening,
another early august morning.
I thought I’d wake up less restless ‘cause I
cut my hair when the sun and moon were eclipsing
- but I’m still here.
After all these years that I’ve been
coming and going,
I’m always coming back so uncertain:
pulling back the curtains,
hoping to see mountains.
Now, I’m leaning on the table.
I am an empty vessel.
trying to be thankful every
minute I am able
-a little aimless
But I am free.
Now, I take a walk and I’m
taking nothing with me
but the weight of my thoughts into the churning of the city
heading north along old fences
draped in yellow roses
hanging heavy in the heat
and even heavier with the wishes of
every stranger passing:
lovers in the thick of it,
a mother’s touch as time just slips-
their children growing up too quick and
asking their own questions-
Some that I’m still asking with
hands along the grasses like
the surface of a world I’ve yet to meet.
And the heat keeps rising.
The heat keeps rising
06 - MAGNOLIAS
Heart over mind,
I’m seeing it clearly for the first time in my life:
The great mystery of impermanence.
Have you ever mastered a moment-
then, just as you set all your plans on the table,
a light through your half-opened window
reminds you, you’ll never know when,
spring will bring magnolias?
In a way I’ve never felt freer:
I dance with my shadows, lean into my fears.
I can sit by a river and trust what I hear.
While I’m trying to be kinder, the world’s getting weird and
The roots and the leaves and the rocks and the flowers,
The mud on my fingers, the sound of the water
help me to remember
I am my own healer and
Maybe my softness is power--
I have power!
And isn’t it funny we still count the years
when we know well that time moves in all directions.
Familiar and strange,
I’ll see the faces of change
Now I’m holding on to nothing again.
I’m holding on to nothing again.
07 - HOW WOULD I DREAM
There are so many ways
to look at the same view
but when we laid out
in the dark
on the hood of your car,
the stars just out of reach,
all I could see was
true love...
Or whatever it was.
I knew then I should
not be fearful
of the dark,
for how would I dream, baby?
How would I dream?
08 - CLOSE TO ME
I trust my body when it tells me
that the work can wait till tomorrow.
Let the worries in my mind turn swift into sparrows,
find their rest among the pines again.
Like the winds that had raised me and carried me here,
I could drift for miles understanding nothing
but the freedom song of the grasses
as they whisper for no witnesses:
“Stay close to me.
Stay close to me.”
Oh, I could never tire
of the color green
When the sun weaves down through the canopy
and shines a little light on all of my uncertainties.
Bless them with forgiveness.
Stay close to me.
Love is a hummingbird in flight.
It is the burst of color before the night.
And as I find my place among life’s mysteries,
may I keep this love close to me.
Stay close to me.
Stay close to me.