Sea Dreams

The ocean gets itself all whipped up
And carried by the wind inland
As a milky white mist
An opalescent incense
Of moisture and mystery

All through the night
They heard it in their homes asleep
The moaning and the meaning
Of the dreaming of the sea
They sank beneath the surface
And dissolved into the mist

In the morning I am watching
All the people on the beach
Moving in slow motion in the distance
From the ocean come the waves
They are lifted and illuminated in the milky light
That emanates from sea dreams
From beyond the veil of mist

She Dreams of Christmas

Never grieve the evergreen
We cut up from the earth
To make a moment's magic—
It's roots go deep
In the backyard
Where the little one dreams
And remembers

You gave her wonder in a story
Of a mystery of a star
With a gift of hope and memory
And a dream beneath a tree

She sees it now
In the snow-down
White bird
Soft as Christmas morning
And warm sweets and whispers
Of prayers and singing
In the gathering of family
The seen and the unseen

She feels them
Where she is
As she sleeps
When she dreams
Of Christmas

Sweetness Still Found

Today, we returned
To the place you were born
In a little red house
Hidden under the boughs
Down a road
You have to know
To find
On the day you died

The air was so sweet
With the blood of the tree
Rising up from below
In a fall of old snow
Inside was a man
Who kept alive a fire

"The wood is wet
Can't get it hot
And they just won't run
They're all out of sap
When it's time, she turns the tap
And that's it, we're done"

But we drove for miles
And we didn't care
That this season was meager
Compared to last year
Coz the water that bore you
In the snow and the steam
In the air and the earth
It was singing to me
Of the love that renews
And the life that returns
When the water will flow
And the wet wood will burn
And the blood will rise up
Through the roots in the ground
And the man will distill
All the sweetness still found
In the forest I first
Ran my hands
Through your hair

Two Lights

In a lonely lighthouse
At the land’s end, a lantern was burning
From the fall of the night
To the first fragile light of the morning
He flashed out a warning
To all the travelers of wind and waves
To save them from a wrecking on the rocks

O, the winter was cold
And the hunger would lead them to slaughter
It would come for the old
With the youngest succumbing soon after
So, they went to the water
With fire for the travelers of wind and waves
To draw them to a wrecking on the rocks

Would the hull splinter and split?
Would the throats be stripped and slit?
Would the ship belly be emptied in the blood-dark sea?
In the house, the lamp grew brighter
As the keeper tried to fight their dark deeds
By shining a light for all to see

All the captain could see:
Two lights in the night as it deepened
And he chose from the two
With the cargo and crew in his keeping
The men were all sleeping
So sure, the master of wind and waves
Would keep them from a wrecking on the rocks

The Flood Inside

The seekers and the lovers
Are the first ones to discover
They throw themselves completely in the deep
While all the others follow
Or shiver in shadows
The seekers and the lovers
See beneath

They say, give yourself over
To the flood inside
And never, never hide again

O, my soul, I see you
In the distance on the water
The wind and waves are breaking my heart

They say, give yourself over
To the flood inside
And never, never hide again

So many miles
Between me and home
I walked alone
Through so many nights
So lonely and so lost

But now, I can remember
The moment I surrendered
And gave myself completely to the sea

O, give yourself over
To the flood inside
And never, never hide again

Firefly

One night, I set off after the firefly
Night-light, glittering light in my eyes
Led like I was flying where the fly had flown
This was light like nothing that I’d ever known
It was too much to keep my eyes open wide
I was blinded by the light
Drawn from my house and home
Into the woods alone

I couldn’t see there
Though I was bathed in light
I couldn’t be there
But there in the night was I
A child chasing seemingly harmless lights
When I was burned by the firefly

Seven years in Elvin land
In service to the Elvin Queen
In hell in heaven, those seven years
Seemed like an eternity

Set free, I set off after a memory
Strange now, even to my family
It changed me, no one I knew recognized me
This was life like nothing that it used to be
It was too much to be alone with the ones I love
So, I set off on my own
Out of my house and home
Into the world alone

But I couldn’t be there
Although I was free at last
I wasn’t free there
I never outran the past
That magical night
Those tragical lights
Stole away sight
And left visions instead
On unquiet nights
Awake in my bed
Her face and that light
Running round in my head
I’m haunted by inescapable dread
A vision too painful to remember
Too precious ever to forget

After Winter

So this late night brings a spring rain
And it brings me back, brings me back…
It brings me back to the beginning
Back to the early morning

And in the drip of the drops
In the splashes and splatters

I hear…

The promise of a sprouting seed
The hope of a return to earth
The possibility of life after winter

And that winter made bears of us all
As we slumbered in those sleepy caves
We grumbled and growled at the cold
And we made a bed of our fat and fur

And we waited…

Now I listen to the March wind
Saying, something comes, something comes…
Something’s coming from the green ground
Something gone is on the rebound

And in the drip of the drops
In the splashes and splatters

I hear…

The promise of a sprouting seed
The hope of a return to earth
The possibility of life after winter