Poetry

I Love Coffee, and By That Very Fact, The World

Thomas Merton once wrote: “I love beer, and, by that very fact, the world.” This statement is at once whimsical and puzzling.  How does a fondness for pale ale stray into a confession of love for the world?  Perhaps Merton suggests a fundamental relationship between the mundane and the sublime, the miniscule and the cosmical.  Ask a brewer […]

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Nature and Mental Health: The Call to Come Home

I am standing by the harbour, peering past the sailboats and skycrapers into the mountains in the distance. A bar of sunlight lifts the hillside, cold and deep. Clouds curl into flakes and break over waters glistening with the starkness of light.  The nip of winter air, sharp and bristling. Black mountaintops dotted with snow.  The city

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Fire-Breathing (For Wildfires)

Inhale acrid smoke flying embers the bodies of trees particles of charred soil manic flames bourne of greed hazy blindness swirling confusion madness driven mad anguish multiplying anguish without beginning without end this searing pain. Exhale great vow immense oceans cool dharma rain showers of beneficence soothing balm poured from brokenness given from poverty unremitting

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On Faith

There may come a time when, Broken by false promises, Worn thin by stoked passions, You step through the threshold and feel yourself larger than what those walls can hold Leaving behind the raucous voices, the brazen amens and fervent hallelujahs. Perhaps in the darkened corners, Someone you respected shattered your innocence. The hands held

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