On these things and more

When all about you is tornado

And despair

Think on the unrelenting scale of space

And the persistence of a seed

Think on those eyes shut melodic moments

On limbs everywhere responding to rhythm  

Think on those who share what they have

And when more room is made at the table

Count the ways we look beyond ourselves

When all about you is indifference

And cruelty

Dwell on ravished land restored

And moments of play and creation

Dwell on the glimmering touch of rain

And the vulnerability of honest communication

Live in the unfurling flourish of a fern

In that spiral eddy of a lazy river

Then measure the scale of our collective imaginations 

When all about you is shaking

And sorrow

Keep pace with the surging voices for fairness

And the flight path of a swift

Keep pace with roads blocked in the name of peace

And every night spent under an open sky

On taking a stand and being stood by

See the shape of smoke at fireside cooking

Weigh the immediate joy of gratuitous giving

When all about you is yawning

And broken

Meditate on our distance from the stars

And your footprint on the sand

On the expediency of a feather

Hear stillness and singing and laughter

Meditate on first smiles and last smiles

And a gaze returned

On lifting up another's voice, on pause, on listening

Sense the pleasure in logic and the art of intuition

Yes, ruminate on justice, purity and goodness

Know the quiet truth of your changing feelings

Know that people are taking risks for beauty

A Celebration (BC)

I cherish the imprint of that day at the beach when we gathered together

Before duty solidified and we understood our new reality

When the spread of disease was a tremor on another shore

Still we greeted each other awkwardly, the usual embraces blocked   

Our gaggle of friendship both bonded and stretched by uncertainty

Sense of time stalling, future oblique, for some work already lost

Walking in pairs there is speculation over what more will be lost

The footstep rhythm gives traction, we are drawing strength together

Learning from one another what our response can be to uncertainty

We have met to be held by the landscape, the ground of reality

Outside wide open, our community will not remain blocked

Tracing the glorious flourishes of a slow river to the shore

Shoes off now, warm soles, dirt turns to sand on the shore

Sunlight thrashes over a new horizon, it finds us lost

This global concern so intimate our collective future blocked

Radiating heat and truth the earth is holding us together

So many in danger of falling through the cracks, this is the reality

The fault lines were already there, let there be no uncertainty

Wind whips through my hair, clarity replaces uncertainty

The glance and drag pattern of the sea strokes a glistening shore

Ripples rush off packed sand, it is an iridescent reality

In a totally new way I am in this moment, lost

Our smiles touch and this fresh presence we all share together

Hushed conversation gives way to laughter we are no longer blocked

Somewhere certain elite scramble to profit from disaster, they are blocked

I have a fleeting hope they will change, or listen, or melt into uncertainty

Meanwhile clothes are abandoned, the gentle waves call us together

Swimming is life, we breathe in a cleansing, inhale the shore

Sand falling through time, a groaning system forever lost

Perhaps we are in the birth pains of a new reality

We dance to warm up, born is a playful reality

May this world wide tragedy flush out all that is blocked

Let us struggle and dream for what might be gained as well as lost

Where there is wisdom let it be claimed by submitting to uncertainty

We dash off dunes, rejoice in the sun, give thanks to a cartwheeling shore

Devising games, sharing and innovating this is how we are together

That day we were not lost but present with reality

In lockdown may we be alone together and not remain blocked

Remembering the stability of our shared uncertainty on the pristine shore