UNCAGED by Jane Beal

My new collection of poems
about birding and the spiritual life:

UNCAGED
hard-copy * read online

WHAT NEVER FAILS

We went to the water
to see the Pelican –

the one, they say, who stabs her breast
and feeds her young with blood (like Christ),

but there was no bird like that
on the little islands by the pier.

There were Western Gulls instead,
crying out like Alcyone for Ceys,

flying over us like the ragged mists
of dreams we dream at dawn

and, waking, find
have told us the truth.

We were standing close together, just above
the water, like the Light Princess and her Prince,

when I noticed the cliff swallows
darting over the waves, under the pier

where they have hidden their nests
and are feeding the future

with a constant love
that never fails.

jb

 

Read Full Post »

Three Poems from the Westmont College Choir Concert – May 2016

“the joy of our spirit is uncaged”
~ Walt Whitman

“Tu Voz”

Singing unto the sun and sky with your song,
your voice threshes the grain of the day,
the pines speak with their green tongues,
as the birds of winter trill.
The sea fills its cellars with footsteps,
with bells, chains, and groans —
metal and tools jangle,
wheels of the caravan creak.

But I hear only your voice —
Your voice rising with the flight and
precision of an arrow,
your voice falling with the gravity of rain,
your voice scattering the highest swords,
and returning, laden with violets —
accompanying me through the heavens.

Shawn Kichner

“I am not Yours”

I am not yours, not lost in you,
Not lost, although I long to be
Lost as a candle lit at noon,
Lost as a snowflake in the sea.

You love me, and I find you still
A spirit beautiful and bright,
Yet I am I, who long to be
Lost as a light is lost in light.

Oh plunge me deep in love – put out
My senses, leave me deaf and blind,
Swept by the tempest of your love,
A taper in a rushing wind.

Sarah Teasdale

Read Full Post »