Morning Shadows

A long tall shadow 

strode up behind me

a sunny smile greeted me

as the young man passed.

Trees, fences and buildings

threw long misshapen shadows,

the sunny smiles of flowers

greeting all who passed.

Morning shadows leaned ahead

to lead me up to wild and rocky

parkland heights then down

to graceful gardens I would pass.

Morning’s sun has climbed a bit ~

shadows shorten for awhile

til afternoon’s shadows stretch way back

as the glorious sun passes to the west.

“Fancies are like shadows….you can’t cage them, 

they’re such wayward, dancing things.”

~ L.M.Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

A Natural City

The rhythm of the city

tuned to motored thrum and swish merges politely with matching thrum and swish of

fountains circling water in 

the air settling over 

squabbling ducks as 

they pair to mate.

A different distant note of the ferry’s call counters the raucous cry of Great Blue herons nesting in tall Douglas fir trees, their wide winged swoop and swish as silent as a breeze in the trees.

Listening to this symphony ~

watching this opera

as I walk beneath spring green willows

is an added balm to my grateful soul.

“But a city is more than a place in space, it is a drama in time.”

~ Patrick Geddes

Winter Past

Stepping up into the park still feeling the cool of winter past ~

twittered on by tiny brown birds

that blend with bark and twigs.

greeted by new seeds,

sprinklings of daffodils

fronting the brown skeletons

of winter past,

welcomed by a cheerful blonde poodle

and her smiling owner ~

all signs of spring in Victoria.

“The deep roots never doubt 

spring will come.”

~ Marty Rubin

Transcendence

Glowing from the tips of our fingers to the soles of our feet ~ our souls imbue each task we undertake, 

each memory we share with our essence.

“Inside us there is something that has no name, 

that something is what we are.”

~ José Saramago, Blindness

Natural Lighting

Cool, clear air accompanied me on my morning walk at home, passing flowers and trees not quite shivering but opening their buds of flowers and leaves.

Some brave few in full bloom 

others still tucked against the cool.

Scant cloud suddenly parted

just as I lifted my camera ~ 

sunshine lit up beautiful pinks

as though I had requested good lighting.

Grateful, I kept my shadow out of the frame.

“In nature, light creates the colour. In the picture, colour creates the light.”

~ Hans Hofmann

Water Rush

Lynn Canyon Park, Suspension Bridge

Hearing a thundering rush of water 

from a road side echoing 

through tall pines thrills my heart

but to see that very water 

crashing, frothing and roiling

through deep cuts in the canyon 

below a suspension bridge

sends the thrills deep into my soul.

Walking the swaying, bouncing suspension bridge ~

just a value-added part of the adventure.

“What makes you think what happened to you on Earth wasn’t an adventure?”

~ Lev Grossman, The Magician King

Perspective ~ 4

John Hendry Park, Vancouver, BC

Perspective ~ 4

The old gate creaked above the distant thrum of traffic. Even early nesting crows calling to each other didn’t erase the sound. Barely coming from a deep sleep, the melodic squeak seemed almost like a meditation. Awakening into consciousness, I realized it had gone on too long to be a gate. No brush or rustle of wind, no slap of a gate closing as an insistent wind would have pushed it back an forth. Only stillness. Stillness like a breath being held. Listening. Then I remembered something an old farmer told me when I was a child. ‘You hear that noise that sounds like my front gate creakin’ every time I open it? I call it my weather bird - he’s tellin’ us that there’s rain on the way. Can’t say how far away or how much but that there bird is a rain bird tellin’ us to get our boots and umbrellas ready.' I had been in the city so long that until this quiet morning time, the memory had been buried. Later, taking my early morning walk, the sounds of nature as the city awakened, took on a refreshed meaning for me. 

“Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is 

a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.”

~ Douglas Coupland

A Second Perspective

Vancouver morning before

the curtains are drawn

the slush of cars and trucks

rumbling and pushing into

a day that feels grey through

patterned blue grey curtains

crows and gulls calling out 

‘Time to get up’

throwing back blankets,

pushing curtains open, 

I greet the new day

 - a wondrous family day

(accompanied by throngs of sightseers)

at Lynn Canyon park and Deep Cove!)

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

~ Henry Miller