“Prepare yourself for a soul journey into Nature’s heart and your own, from a masterful contemporary poet.”

– Francesca Ciancimino Howell, PhD

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Waterfall, Sounding

in this mountain stream, a pounding
fluent light—sleek, wet, curving—
pours ever new, never ending,
an insistent lustrous rush over
the dark rock drop.

It reveals itself as life does—
this and this, and then this and this—
emerging from primal fecundity
into tumult, into grace.

Its coursing braids together
reverence, dread, wonder.
How can I help but
bow in all directions?

Advice from the Last Loon

If you have ever heard my cry,
even once,
you still have not forgotten

that wild sweet yearning
for some indescribable paradise
shaken loose inside you.

I know what it is like to ride on a pillow
of blue water twinkling with sunstars,
with my youngster on my back
and my partner beside me.

I know the immutable dark green of the pines
and have seen stark winter branches
unfurl each spring their buds of green flame
into an amazement of foliage,
mad to sort the winds of any summer storm.

I know that joy takes many forms.

I know cold rain
and moody mornings
when the air hangs thick with mists.

I know the long dive in clear clean water
and the skill of the catch
and the satisfaction of feeding one’s constant companion,
hunger.

And in my many lives
I have known the closing of the eye
and have felt the teeth of fox
pierce my body.

I know the utter stillness of deep nights
far removed from human commotion.

And I have seen when colder days
splash burning reds and startling yellows
over my neighbors, the hills.

All of this, my life,
I put into my cry.

And, as I am the last of my kind,
I make this request:

Carry my cry with you
as you travel through desperate times
into the future,
as in your many stories of an ark
carrying life safely through a flood.

What my cry has touched in you
is the source of your gift.

Live my cry
when you work to heal the world.

What Could Be Better

than having your best beloved beside you
through the hours of hardship and delight
while holding on to each other’s hand
in that certain way
that says we’d do it all over again.

Getting Down to Work

(Inspired by wisdom from the Haudenosaunee people)

As we gather here together,
may we be mindful that we all
have limited life spans and energies,
that every one of us desires happiness
for ourselves and for those we love,
that despite our powers
we are utterly dependent on the well-being
of the earth, our home,
on her soils, her waters, her green life-forms,
and all her other creatures.

May the wisdom of the four directions
steady our thoughts.
May the inner light
of high promise inspire us.
May the work we engage in today
be worthy of blessing from our ancestors
and be a source of eternal gratitude
from our descendants

With full awareness of our imperfections,
we make our hearts and minds as one
to honor the web of trustful relationships
that holds us together as a people.

Now let us work to create
the simple beauty of what is needed.