FIFTH SENDING

Casa de Milagros, Peru

i hesitate to even attempt to drape the gossamer of language upon such winds sweeping through the valley like a whisper’s dream of howling at the rising moon they called me outside into the twilight and as i stood upon the stump leaning my body into it learning to speak the language of mountains those winds picked up and i rose with them like the wild sighs of a lovestruck planet that breath filled me only full surrender could welcome the force of it through the core of me

there i was filled to bursting with this largest breath, all of life’s unfettered curiosity, mad glee and undeniable subtlety whipping past me stirring up my senses rising up my spine

time doesn’t move in a straight line the way words sometimes just happen to rhyme

time moves in cycles and those cycles move

i would be telling half-truths if i said my eyes were the only thing that was wet

my own ecstatic nature burst through me, riding the wind up over the jagged burnt sienna faces of the mountain, skimming along the surface of the river, stealing kisses from the glowing trumpets of brugmancia blooms and then rushing back into me, overwhelming in its expanded state forcing my self to expand just to catch my breath

in exchange for everything, i offer everything

giving my breath to the wind not unlike giving tears to the ocean I gave my self up to the frenzy lost myself in the sinking light letting go was never so graceful

when you give yourself back to the mountain to the river to the river’s stones when you give your self up to the rushing winds what remains?

(i move in cycles and those cycles move)

what remains?

what holds meaning in the center of the wind?

(whatever it is, for a moment i became that container and lived to tell the tale)

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by monday i will be in america where even from here the distant celebratory cacophony of “change we can believe in” is heard. i wonder what i am returning to, just as i am beginning to know this place. many people are feeling more optimistic about the general state of affairs than anything i have seen in my lifetime, that in itself is a powerful force.

for now, i am here, learning from children without parents how to craft a family.

learning from a life how story flows.

learning from the wind how to let go.

learning from my memories of you how to return.

fruta y alas

eve