In the Garden

Photo by Charles Elliott

I watch you putter in your “Garden of Earthly Delights”

and feel grateful. Feel the years of emotion move

through me like the breeze moves through your

field of poppies, orange petals fluttering like

butterfly wings. Feel grounded like the

milkweed you grew from seed, strong

ready to feed caterpillars, ready to grow

back for more butterfly eggs. So many

growing things you nurture. So many

lives you help unfold as they were

meant to unfold.

©2020 Joanne Young Elliott

And then the Singing

First an ego, and then pain, and then the singing.

~ From Faint Music by Robert Hass

Ego

It towers over the landscape.

Casting its shadow even in darkness,

blocks all reason, leaves only fear.

Pain

It ripples through us until we

can’t breathe. Everything, said

Siddhartha, is burning, burning.

Singing

First the rise of the chest,

clear and sure. Then relief,

and then the singing.

©2020 Joanne Young Elliott

This Moment Is Full

Photo by Ron Smith on Unsplash

This moment is full.

Even as we overflow

with fear and uncertainty,

the fullness of hope

is felt as it rises

flows up from beneath

the fear. Its nourishment

rooted in evidence of

change that came before.

©2020 Joanne Young Elliott

The Alchemy of Love

Photo by Slava B on Unsplash

Love is not a commandment but an invitation.

It’s that still small voice, a gentle whisper within.

It reaches out to us, offers us a chance to see others

with our whole hearts.

And when we listen, hearts and minds are renewed.

Lead turns to gold in an alchemical moment.

All is revealed and we know there is only

one heart beating.

©2020 Joanne Young Elliott

Shadows in Moonlight

Image by Ralph Klein from Pixabay

I cast a shadow in moonlight.

White light angled

through blinds nearly

reaches the floor.

The moon’s gravity draws

up these words, pulls poetry

from the ocean within.

I am the shadow of a

deeper beingness.

I turn and realize all is shadow

until the poetry rises and casts

it’s light upon everything.

©2020 Joanne Young Elliott