Every Day Ocean

The brine of this day's deep work
is fresh on my lips,
tingling and chapped
from the winds and cold
encountered in rough waters.

My mind billows with ideas
that always come as I chart the course
for a new year.
The certainty I'll see the stars
and know where to go next
is a blessing
if even for the moment.

Let the current of hope take me
into the wide open ocean
where love and kindness
are the leviathan we wait
to behold and follow
if we are steady
and strong enough.

First Day

On this first day
let the moon
carry you on her back
laughing at what the night
thought he could get away with.

Even children know
that magic sits
on the fingers
of each blessed flake
when the silver strands of love
drift to hearts, lonely and waiting
to sing.

On this first extraordinary moon
hold her tight as she runs
free and with the strength to make it
all the way home.

Shadow

This year
there was a shadow
that blocked the view
on some brilliant and usual days.

Even when the sun was bright
and the moon launched silver
into the night with mystical happiness,
the shadow, it seemed, was always there
like some sort of dark eclipse
no one wanted to see.

In the new year
we will find joy in all the right places,
around every corner;
a new shadow of light
over the corners where cobwebs
can't imagine crawling with their long
and invisible legs.

This sparkling blue snow
under flashing fireworks
and wide-eyed hope,
already shines unashamed on faces
that blush, smile and offer us
a kindness we almost forgot
when the shadow
distracted the seekers;

a passing cloud
and a storm we endured.