Spark the Way

Lightning bugs spark my way. There in the darkness but unseen in the light. Nature’s light, chaotic and beautiful. Temporary and divine in their definition of impermanence that defines all. Firefly flash in space bright and bold. Cold fire without heat. Advancing and exploring. Here then there but still showing “… the way, and the…

Untitled Poem

Who I am is always happening Always growing or shrinking like a flower Embodying my space, breathing myself into it I envision a sphere of protection around me But who I am and what I do comprise the universe And yet I am always melting into it And at the core of the wax Eternity…

Give Me Time

As the Prairiewoods artist-in-residence, I have the privilege of spending time at Prairiewoods in a variety of seasons, meandering through the prairie, visiting Grandmother Oak, slowly turning in circles as I walk the labyrinth. A little over a year ago, I waded into Dry Creek—not dry at all!—and perched on a rock with the water…

A Listening Ear

“To make a prairie, it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee, And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few.” —Emily Dickinson When I was a child, I was known for being able to fall asleep anywhere. Once I laid down on a busy sidewalk to snooze while…

The Wisdom of the Deep Silence

“The spiritual function of fierce terrain … is to bring us to the end of ourselves, to the abandonment of language and the relinquishment of ego. A vast expanse of jagged stone, desert sand, and towering thunderheads has a way of challenging all the mental constructs in which we are tempted to take comfort and…

Meeting New Trees

Pleased to meet you, Little Oak. I see you’re growing at an angle. Growing like you’re reaching. Like you’re stretching yourself. Like a pre-teen searching the sky. I’m rooting for you. Praying for you. Singing songs for you in your sleep. I’ll be thinking of you, dreaming of your future. And you may see me…

Interior Wildness & the Wider “We”

In last Monday’s blog (https://prairiewoods.org/interior-wilderness/), we offered an exercise to plunge deeper into our interior wilderness in the aftermath of loss. Whatever “storm” we have recently endured, environmental, communal or personal, the loss profoundly affects our sense of self, our identity. Once we have begun exploring our interior wild-scape after a loss, and we begin…