Incredible thanks to Joanna Macy, all her co-teachers, and the amazing women who took part in the the six-day retreat “Reclaiming the Wisdom of the Mother of All Buddhas” via Spirit Rock.
Please check out workthatreconnects.org or look on Facebook for Work that Reconnects.
I take refuge
in the whiteboard
in my body
the blank page
where I gently wipe clean
all the lovely thoughts
and painful stories
where the pastel shades
and violent hues
of sensation and emotion
show their colours
and leave no trace
where I trust
that even scintillating awe
and the wonder of star-song
will return in good time
and just now I can wipe their beauty away
there is freedom
moving through the eraser
and my choice
to keep tending
this empty space.
Have you heard the news?
Listen to the leaves,
they’ll tell you
– they’re excited
in their patient, rooted thrumming
they murmur in the night
whispering delight
over sleeping feathers
and all who stalk and scamper
under the moon.
Have you heard the news?
The planet is alive,
our cells
are full of love
for us
and all her kin.
Have you heard about the woman
who moved thousands of miles
from her home
to speak out
for our right to choose who to love?
Did you hear about the one
who travelled over tar sands
to scoop up music
out of the muck?
Did you hear of the woman
whose sorrow ran so deep
that only tears could save her?
Have you heard of the women
with grey in their hair
and bounce in their step
who generously bestow
fierce blessings?
Did you hear about the children
carried inside women
who will birth them soon
in a world
that will be different
from now?
Did you hear
about the thousand eyes
and ten thousand lifetimes
that swirl in your DNA
and propel you with infinite tenderness?
Did you hear the news, rustling?
Will you share news?
What will you make new?
Months since my last post… but there have been verdant moments. I was pleased to share my collection Grunt Work with friends and family in December. There is a new collection gradually gathering itself for release, the poems continue to flow and I am grateful. Have also been taking a few more steps towards building skills for honouring my craft. In springtime things can seem to be inert but there is much going on underneath.
There is a place
beyond doubt
where meaning speaks so clear
that purpose is obvious
even as it makes no sense
artists splashing their detritus on walls
hailed as beauty or junk
– opinion
so secondary
to the primacy of the call
urgency
of the life force rising
the kunda demanding allegiance
from pen or clay or spices
a flow beyond reason
like a dance mistress
thumping her stick
on the floor,
terrible and true
in making movement.
My poems are crawling along towards some unseen new place and I am posting this only as a way of marking movement… to say another manuscript will be birthed soon… and to say thanks to the folks at this link: http://northerncardinalreview.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/public-consultation-by-heather-finton/
Have had my mind ripped up and put back together in new shapes after reading Byron Katie’s “Loving What Is”… I know the book’s tone has some of that over-the-top California exuberance and I’m not sure I’d want to visit her mansion… But the core essentials of what she calls “the work” are vital and intriguing and are helping me wield my own scalpel… the “turnarounds” are humbling and very liberating.
I keep thinking I know
what you’re working on
or should be
especially when you tell me
you are lost
my list of maps
to helpful treasures
is inspiring
but the truth is,
I have no clue.
I see your flint and steel
and see your candle
sometimes lit
and wish you well
so deeply.