A blank page of sand --
at the water's cutting edge
the pattern shaping.

In a sea creature's shell
flashing in waves of sunlight
--the waking of wings!

Half mocking the sea
the gulls dip within reach of
each exploding wave.

Ebb tide at sundown...
Now clouds of foam no longer
blur the bright mirror.

On wood returning
from a long sea journey
the deeper print of waves.

Musing on a gnarled tree root
my mind leaps
as a stallion rears up!

Sea rocks blown with fog...
Time locked in mist
long long forgotten.

The hand of a leaf
splitting and sifting the air
--The blueness of breath!

Egrets on their way south--
The water left with broken shadows
Trailing diamonds--

Green leaf dying...
What do they say, these inked letters
on yellow parchment?

Cold lick of the sea...
The birds fleeing from it
the grass flowing with it.

Gull with the starry prints
do you stand here and watch
these ballets in the sand?

The cooing murmurs of doves...
the blur of dreams
the scent of lost summers.

The book leaps the steep mountain
from every hollow
a swirl of new joy!

In the pool's shadowy
pocket lies autumn's plunder
of copper and gold.

Part of the growing pattern now
the tears of plants
no longer flowing.

Summer dying
in drying grasses
One last sun so slowly setting.

Summer in Eden
still hushed and hidden,
guarded by the flaming sword.

Through dripping branches
the woods and I are one
in the eyes of the rain.

On the tree's bright trunk
at day's end...its leaf, its life
written in shadow.