The stars are pinpricks
In the rolling blanket
Of cloud
Between me
And a thousand suns
One sunk in the West
And glows
Beneath an ocean
Whilst fish dart
Across it
In black brushstrokes
My world is smaller
Than the blink
Of an eye
And as soft
As the curves in the cloud
I see you from far, so tall, watching over all the rest. For moons and moons you’ve stood here at water’s edge. I’ll follow it to meet you, slowly, gently tread. Your roots reach out, moving waves weaved amongst eachother, flowing. Flowing from you, rippling huge, then smaller, smaller. Thin your waves, and tall as I – whole living walls of moss-lit green, droplet-glowing with secret light amongst the shadows. I reach out and touch you on reddish ridges, can I climb? Slowly stepping, holding, held, I climb into your tresses. Up towards your trunk so solid twisting, graceful-curving up to Sky. Leaves caught in flight fill the nooks of your lacing limbs, these roots. New plants shooting here, whole palm trees grow from gaps so rich. Vines surge and wind, helical swirling, swooping to Above. Or curling snake-like, lace-like hanging, binding, lifting. Living, they let me climb. Giant understory leaves shelter crowds of thousand-clustered golden flies. One breath of wind and clouds pour out to thicken shafts of sunlight silently breaching white February-skies. And great green canopy’s shady eyes. I move just as you curve, so slowly almost still. Moving silence, breathing giant, I stretch and step from root to root. Your Northern side is wide waters full of forest, flowing flood of silent ripples flashing. Eastern side is swamp-edge shallows, and I’m up and down in hidden hallows, hollows, living caverns between your roots. Swung by a hung vine, I descend and see your centre, dry and protected, secret heart. Leaning in to where bats squeak unseen, below me you’ve a dark pool shining. Looking down at light above its like seeing through the underside, otherworld, heart of gold. Crystal centre glancing, dancing. And here in this dry shelter, cave of wood, there hangs a thread. Dangling fragile a wispy cloud cocoon protruding spikes of enwrapped caterpillar in his Stillness. Silken secrets of transformation. When will it be he flies? Climbing out, back onto rolling waves of root and web of vine, I step slow and sure and gently held though so high up. Notice moss grows on your moss; algal mists caught amidst stands of green strands, tiny tendril hands stretching to comb the cool wet air. White filaments feel their delicate way across wide walls, glowing on patchy painted rough-smoothness of your bark. And tiny heart-shaped leaves bloom across your flank, veined themselves with networks of a vitality pulsing. One heartleaf snailed with a winding white trail, details a journey lived and left behind. How many, the layers of life you align, Great Mother? I climb down in reverent thanks, soaked through with a wonder not my own. Colossal being, nurturing womb, unconditional platform of this Life, Great Mother.
Quiet dawn
City hum
Wash of so much life
Seaweed steady in the high tide
Tendril castle
Seeking sky
Mindful moments move in flood
Where am I?
Under a rainbow sky
Looking east at sunset
Watching where the light falls
Holy, wholly
The arc of your iris
Nothing is bliss
For bliss can bend
A nothing
Into everything
And all, in all
Vibrates
I am the sunrise and the sunset
Over Pacific swells
I am the distant rising mountains
The dense clouds that shade our eyes
I am the rain that will pour
And give life to this coast
I am the near and far forest
In leaf, feather, scale,
Tooth and claw
I am these flies that are biting
This ownerless dog by my side
This sand beneath my feet
I am all of these pebbles
This rock and that
I am these people behind me
The mass at my back
Grasping for truth, seeking and sighing
I am all that they do
I am their living and dying
I am this fallen giant that lies on the beach
Caressed by the waves
As we roll on and on
I am this footprint just here
This moment in time
I am this earth
And the heavenly bodies reside,
Revolve, inside me
I am that which moves in such things
And they are that movement in me
This, I, We are God
(Ajo – Colossal tree endemic to the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica – Caryocar costarricense)
Shadows fade in the half-light
Jungle moves around black tower of light
Pillar of twisted wood so tall
So still, still moving all
I fade to half-light
Fade from half-life into living night
Tower of fizzing light
‘I’ sparks the foresight that sees this wonder
Look up, Ajo!
Still night, still life, momentary silence
But all moves the same
Stable tablet shaking new words
Into being, as it trembles
Tell the story, read the story
Feel the story
Breathe the tower.
Dark Ajo, breathe dark tower
Breathe dark night, dark life of jungle half-light
(Felis pardalis – ocelot)
Felis Pardalis moves
In the milky light of Mother Moon
Flash!
A face with thoughts
Where are you going?
My body bathes in the bed of shelter
Warm with life
Whilst outside it rains
Sweet is the soft light of sound and sleep
Where the wax axe melts in the palm
To cheat the world of mystery,
And there we learn of life
Sweet is the world of the mind as it rains
And sweet is the world of the rain
That falls and falls
Sweet is the world of Felis Pardalis
Moving in light of the moon
I move in a green mist
A million shades
Flexing
Deep as shadows in an ocean
Yet oceans we are not
Forest ascends, descends, surrounds me
Tastes, touches, sees and sounds me
Where is the centre?
I hunt
Hush
A word in wordless wonder
Timeless history lies unravelled
The people are gone but the spirits are moving
And everything
Moves on
Touch the green dream
A world is happening
Life unseen
Unheard, untouched
How is it the river knows the rush of my heart?
How is it my heart feels this river of rain?
Though two things distinct they are one and the same
Two firing synapses in a giant Earth-brain
Heart feels river’s rush, a cacophonous haste
Joyful tumult, freedom’s impatient embrace
Though sat on this bank my whole being is moving
Surging expression of pure life: ‘thus’
Take me, deep river, while I sit and be here now
Take me, show me, flow, for you know me
We share the same source, same course, ever onward
I am with you, deep river, by this earth we are bonded
Kester Reid 