Kealakekua Bay

A black and white bird with red feathers on his delicate head,
hops across the lawn,
The pale yellow and gold morning sun is dancing on the black lava wall ,
Strong solid stone, that once, not long ago, ran from the crater of the volcano
In incandescent streaks, red and alive, actual blood vessels of Mother Earth
Down the mountain into the ocean, hot and steaming from the fire like plasma.

Every living thing wants to live.
From earth and water rises bougainvillea, banana, papaya.
All night the sound of the ocean carries me to mysterious dream places,
Haunted by the rhythm of growing and dying, there is awe and ecstasy
What is dying is being transformed, fire into water. Water becomes fire.
Thoughts rise and rot in the caverns of my mind, thinking becomes suchness.

My soul dances with the molten lava and the salty wet ocean
Never to be grasped or stopped in its changing grace.
Fragile as a blade of grass, soaked by a single drop of rain
Powerful as an ocean wave shaping the rocks into sharp shoreline,
Resting in shallow pools,before returning to the sky as silvery clouds.

I am a flux of stillness, deafening sound and quiet fullness of life.
I am a bouquet of life arranged for a moment into a form that is me.
I am a creature amongst others, in this sacred kettle of creation.
I stand on the shoulders of my ancestors of all color and thought.
I am a shape shifter of the Universe, a traveling link in love with becoming.

July 2nd 2000