Year's End

Appetite

Pale gold and crumbling with crust 

mottled dark, almost bronze,

pieces of honeycomb lie on a plate.

Flecked with the pale paper

of hive, their hexagonal cells

leak into the deepening pool

of amber. On your lips,

against palate, tooth and tongue,

the viscous sugar squeezes

from its chambers, sears sweetness

into your throat until you chew

pulp and wax from a blue city

of bees. Between your teeth

is the blown flower and the flower's

seed. Passport pages stamped

and turning. Death's officious hum.

Both the candle and its anther

of flame. Your own yellow hunger.

Never say you can't take

this world into your mouth.

 

By Paulann Petersen        

 

Source: Poetry (July 2001).

California's Feather River

Bobelaine Audubon Sanctuary

A walk in a wildlife sanctuary alongside the Feather River just north of Sacramento yielded bird life and views. We saw a Great Blue Heron, raptors floating overhead in a clear winter sky, Turkey Vultures circling, and smaller birdlife in the brush and shrubs. California Oaks and stands of white barked trees reflected the sunlight. The air was dry and along the path there were deer and coyote tracks in the sandy loam. This 430 acre area is a small remnant of the riparian forests that once existed for miles on either side of the rivers in the Great Central Valley of California.   







Each Day

Morning Blessing

Every day look on the world with wide and grateful eyes.

Every day allow yourself to be touched with delight. 

Let go of what is harsh and harmful.

Remember each day's good.

Speak carefully and with kindness always.

Celebrate the particular mystery and intent of each day.

Offer your unique gifts. The world needs them.

Manifest the peace that is possible every day.

Love with awareness, wholeheartedly.

Each day bow and bless,

Forgive and love,

Surrender and praise.

Based on a reading by Mary Harrington

Pears

"Through All That Happens"  

Rilke

Letters to a Young Poet

As you unfold as an artist, just keep on, quietly and earnestly, growing through all that happens to you. You cannot disrupt this process more violently than by looking outside yourself for answers that may only be found by attending to your innermost feeling.