When I go out to the front porch in the morning, I am startled by enormous white wings of the great egret spreading out right in front of me. The stream in the wash dried out. We do not poison our yards with toxins. Egrets, hares, and a flotilla of birds come over to eat and drink, enjoy the mini-Eden... Did I mention that there are plenty of bees? Mason bees?
Mason Bees
I share my roses with the mason bees –
Iceberg leaves they like the best,
cutting
circles and ellipses from the edge,
inwards.
Iceberg roses, not iceberg lettuce,
mind you,
that’s far too crunchy to make soft
beds, wrapping
bee babies in green, white or pink
silkiness,
smooth and pliable like we ought to
be, smiling
under the merciless gale of time,
raging river
flowing backwards, always
backwards.
I used to get angry looking at my
mutilated
roses – white blossoms, a defense
against evil
guarding my front door like bee
soldiers in the hive
ready to sacrifice their lives –
just one sting
and the miniature fuzzy warrior’s
gone – having
lived just to protect and serve us,
the worker bees,
buzzing around our lives, cutting
circles and
ellipses in white roses. Bees and
humans, we are
all children of the Queen Bee,
Gaia, our Mother.
We make honey of our kindness,
virtues, character
wisdom, self-reliance. Attentive,
focused on the next
perfect circle, semicircle or
ellipsis – we breathe deeply,
delight in drinking nectar,
carrying pollen of emotions,
sights, impressions – flying back
home to make the sweetest
gold, translucent honey of our
poems, of our dreams.
Published in the California Quarterly 47 no 2
summer 2021
On Thursday Afternoon
Your voice outside my window –
deep, calm flowing inexorably like a river
towards the future we will not know until
we look back and the past and say:
So that’s what you meant. So, that’s what it was.
Understanding the whole of the whole
that encircles us in a glowing sphere of
emotions – forgiveness, radiance, joy
of the fleeting moment, The present.
The golden line of a mockingbird song
weaves in and out of time – I follow
its ornamental thread into the present –
space opened up by gratitude
blossoming in a smile.
Sparrows in the birdbath, jet planes
in the sky, hummingbird’s wings,
the dove’s shadow passing over the lawn
and chimes playing endless variations
of the same melody over and over
until all time ends and we are back
in that singularity beyond all spatiotemporal
emanations, back in One Love of One
Mind, One Will, One – Us.
On day trips to the beach, I see sea-gulls, pelicans and sand-pipers when I walk along the sandy expanse. It is the waves and the water that I'm most interested in, the endless soothing rhythm, the untamed energy. Life itself. The light that scatters on the surface, the play of the elements - earth, water, air, wind, fire...
The Glow of Forgiveness
Like a mountain stream over rocks,
wearing them out droplet by droplet,
forgiveness flows inexorably to its
dissolution in the blessed serenity
of living waters of the presence,
knowledge, charm.
Infinitely self aware and infinitely grateful,
you the forgiving one are also forgiven –
all limitations removed, all rubble of past
misfortunes cleared to reveal a smooth expanse
of sunlit ocean – gold and silver, topaz and jade
with a sprinkling of diamonds shimmering
on glass smoothness, scattering around you
as you float on the surface, resting beyond
sorrow, beyond pain, beyond time.
Aquamarine
lucid
lucent
translucent
waves of the Pacific
jade, turquoise, aqua
sea foam in the air
sea foam on my skin
I dance on the currents
floating with the relentless motion
to the shore
to the shore
to the shore
sea foam on my skin
sea foam in the air
Aphrodite comes up from the ocean
carried on a dazzling shell by dolphins
the wisest of creatures
lucid
lucent
translucent
fizzy bubbles on my tongue –
I swim in the champagne ocean
Salt of the Sol – sunshine of vitality
I praise the elemental power of Water –
Air – Wind – Earth – Fire
always Fire – ogieÅ„, Agni
eternal flames stir the waves
into dancing
to the shore
to the shore
on and on
to the shore
to the shore
to the shore
(c) 2020 by Maja Trochimczyk
Published in "Blue and the Blues" anthology edited by Carole Boyce
Very beautiful, Maja. Thank you!
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