The Oceanic Abyss
Contributed by Mary Wessling
Water billows icy ripples against my shivering skin.
I peer through the misty fog beyond the gentle waves and into the faint abyss.
Air fills my lungs with every deepening breath, clear and crisp.
I gradually shift further through the sand as the ocean raises, drifts, and raises again.
The fear settles in.
My shadow fades into the darkness as the sun sets below my line of sight.
My eyes lavish the remains of the nearly imperceptible night.
My skin begins to numb from the tossing waves, sparkling blue beneath the moonlight.
My legs give in to the icy, unforgiving ripples and I sink into its cold embrace,
leaving behind my fear and spite.
The calm takes over my endless fight.
I awaken in a hammock of hopelessness,
swinging back and forth from worries to ignorance.
Questioning my indecisiveness,
I crawl, roll, tug, and fall to escape this metaphorical existence.
I drop to the rocky ground, with no intentions or attentiveness,
and feel the rippling waves soften my skin and pull me back to their embracing abyss once again
My Love
Contributed by V.M. Tackett
Like the flight of a butterfly, your hand softly caresses my face. Your touch fills my heart with thoughts of a warm and wonderful place my eyes cannot see, and my soul cannot feel. As you gently stare into my eyes, my dreams become reality. The anguish I felt for so long is now a fleeting memory as if it were never born. Your love has restored my spirit, my will, for you complete the missing piece in my life. As I gaze up at your beauty, remembering every line, every facet of your face, unable to look away, praying it will always be there. I realize the warm and wonderful place that has echoed through my thoughts is the heart that beats in you, a heart that fills the emptiness in mine. To me, the universe no longer has mysteries, for I have found my destiny in life, and in death.
Kicking Open the Cabin Door
Contributed by Robert Lyons
The green curtain arrives
The brown succumbs to growth
Life begins with the sun’s trip through a leaf
Sweet relief from loathsome frost
Messy birth as ditches fill
Anticipating open fields
Exhilarating rides over mount and brook
Hooking that fish, reeling it in
Becoming one with nature and friend
A camping fire set near the river
Stories delivering jovial bond
Paddling across glacial ponds
Haggling for the eternal trade
Twice the light to work all day!
The hours just rolling away
Enjoy your company!
The end will come suddenly
Stock your stores!
Winter will be back
Just like before...
The Art of Perception
Contributed by Nan Potts
Perception, such a simple thing,
we do consistently.
The drinking in of sights and sounds,
with palate and tactility,
Leaves one with sensibilities
at max capacity.
Yet, engaging brimful senses,
begins venality;
The mind draws a hypothesis,
to make reality.
Drawing from experiences,
depicts causality,
May lead one to misinterpret,
thus skew mentality.
The fine art of perception is
of summed plurality;
Not appearance or presumption
but perspicacity.
Iqvaviiput Qavartarluta (Berry Camp)
Contributed by Robert and Alexandria Lyons
Angyakun ayagluta yuillqumun
(boat ride to the pretty tundra)
Iqvaryarturluta ellaallugmi
(to pick berries, in the rain)
Qalltaput imirluki ellaakegtaarmi
(fill up buckets on sunny days)
Ellaalliqan qamai-i kamiiniaq aspiaq
(when it pours, indoors is a nice fiery roar)
Neqkaput Naunrat/akuutat ukusurpak!
(lots of salmon-berry delight all winter!)
