Freedom

A taste of freedom settled on the pallet of my mind.
There was nothing to spit out in order to appreciate the taste.
There was just consumption.

It did beg the question, why?
Why today? What’s different?

I know of this taste.
I read of it in books.
Witnessed it in movies.
Like a starving child, I watched a fleeting banquet.

It is a simplicity of the mind,
A peacefulness of the heart,
A richness of the soul,
A contentment with oneself, one’s life.
It is without striving.
It is moving gracefully towards a goal,
Or many goals,
Or no goal.
It is being on one’s path.

Each step is unknown,
Each movement, an act of faith,
Each gesture supported by light, by air, by magnetism and electricity.
It is quantum.

Before reaching this fragile state,
I lived in my brain.
Logic mixed with violent urges dictated my mode of transportation
Through the landscape of reality.
Now I use light.
The yellow orange ether that rises behind the rooftops,
framed by my bedroom window,
Greets me with a smile too early in the morning,
And summons me to rise, to meditate, to breath, to stretch.

What changed?
When did I stop being hurt and upset?
When did I stop trying to fix the world and myself?
When did I begin to envelope my loved ones with empathy for their tiny woes?
Before, they sucked dry the energy I needed to make life better.
Now, I cry with them, laugh with them, hurt with them.

Now, I am free.

Be my Lover!

Be my lover!

Slide all over my body,
Cover me with your skin and your soul.
Let us laugh and look deeply into each other.
Let us be quiet together
Listening to life in our stillness.
Let me lie on your breath,
Soothed by your rhythms.
Let us push, pull, move each other
To express the longings of our hearts and bodies.
Let us release joy and passion in sweat and tears
And fun.

Be my lover!

I will hold your head against my chest
I will grace you with pleasure, subtle and intense.
I will be with you even when I’m not,
Carrying you in my mind
I will bring you home

Be my lover!

Happy endings are in each moment
Tracing your muscles
Wiping droplets from your brow
Seeing them glisten in your hair
Interweaving your legs in mine
Surprising you, admiring you, delighting you

Be my lover!

I will abandon myself to your arms
I will release the pain of past lovers,
All erased, all forgotten
Leaving only the light vulnerable strength
Of love without expectations

Be my lover!

Linking Moments

Bows laden with big green leaves,
Weighed down with rain,
Shaken by warm wind,lull me.

Stuck in traffic, the window slightly open,
I hear sounds of a wet city
As I await movement
On the Lakeshore.

My head needs quiet
To savour something that just came alive.
Yet, distant honking comforts me,
Do all cities sound the same?

I glance at the mud
Separating east and west travelers
Tire marks, the shape of two interlocking hearts
Love is here.

Being Irish

What is it to be Irish?

To be born on a piece of earth to parents who were born on the same,

Nourished by its wind and rain?



To inherit the history

Of violence, pain and addiction?

To honor Irish ancestors,

Who created our land as it is today,

Who fought for our freedom,

Who sacrificed themselves,

For our well-being?



Is it to embrace a language

That was taken away,

That seems so difficult,

Yet resonates in our very core?

How it fills us with strength, pride and courage!

How it rolls off our tongues!



Is it to partake in a culture that was almost destroyed-

The songs of pain and glory

The songs of love and freedom

The poetry of the great ones of our land,

The art, the dance?

We were called savages,

But even the lowliest among us philosophizes,

even the poorest writes or paints

Or sings.



Is it to be Catholic, Protestant, pagan or druid?

The spiritual quest of the Irish has long been

Communion with nature, with each other,

With the Divine.



Is it to be funny? A drinker? A fighter?

Is it to laugh off the mockery?

Is it to not take ourselves too seriously?

Is it the adaptability we have learned,

Through famine, injustice, poverty, abuse and oppression?



Why is it important to dig into our roots?

Are we not citizens of the world?

Is it not a global economy?

Is this patriotism not outdated?



My roots are my ties to my family, my tribe

To whom I owe my life.

My roots make me who I am.

My roots sink me deep into the roots of all humanity.



For what is the deepest desire of the Irish soul?

Our history has taught us its value.

What is the deepest desire of any soul?

To be free, my friend, to be free!

A Question

If I reach out to you, would you take my hand?
Would you travel from where you are
to explore the landscape of my mind?

Would you love me
even when you don't understand?
Would you laugh with me everyday?
Would you listen to my hopes and dreams?
And absorb my enthusiasm?

Would you hold me no matter what I'm going through?
When I call you, when I need you,
When I yell at you,
Will you be there?

When it's boring, when it's hard
When I'm tired, when you're sick
Will you still look with eyes that are
as gentle and kind as they are now?

I will take you on
I will do what I can to bring you love
to bring you dept
to bring you art
to bring you my wealth.

I will welcome your body,
your life,
I will open up to your wisdom
your steadiness.

It's only a question of you and me
It's only a question of do we? or don't we?

First Spring

The sap is rising in the maple and the birch and the oak.

The wet ground is alive with sprouts, worms and insects.

The birds echo throughout the neighbourhood today.

I am the tree, energy is rising in me.

The buds of creation are growing in my mind.

Small purple, yellow and white flowers are showing their pretty faces

On the canvas of my life.

It’s my first spring

The first time I can feel nature’s awakening in my own being.

I raise my voice to the skies

In joy and thanksgiving,

In playfulness,

In the plenitude of oneness with my own creation.

Today, dreams are unfolding.

Who do I belong to?

Who do I belong to?

For centuries, I have belonged to man.

Without man, I suffered, was ostracised and died

I was expected to throw myself to my death on my husband’s funeral pyre.

My biology caused my slavery.

I had no access to food or security.

No right to be free.

Even God was denied me.

Who do I belong to?

My body has been used for pleasure that I have no part in.

It was bought and sold.

It was no longer living, breathing, sacred.

It was used, abused, dominated and throw away.

I say to you now,

That by the power of the universe,

I take my body back.

I reclaim my mind.

I am the embodiment of the energy of the cosmos.

I harness the beauty and vastness of the nebulae.

My being is sustained by the planets and the stars.

My birthright is divine.

I obey the laws of my own nature.

I commit to a loving relationship with myself and all life.

I honour my body, my mind, my life force, the movements of energy within me.

I belong to this moment.

I belong to all and nothing.