Visual art provided by © Mary Clark
I Came into the Forest
~From his new book, Across the Light
I came into the forest believing all the fairytales, how the trees rose up at night and walked, and that little people hid behind rocks until the moon fell on their shadows and made them skitter off like a flash of gold. I believed the fish would jump out of the water, and in mid-air, talk to one another. I believed the stars were flowers that came down into the forest to sleep with us for awhile, and that the dew was the tears they left behind, when they ascended the stairs back up into heaven. I believed the moss on the forest floor was a place of dreams, where I went to lay my head and sleep. I recall, in my dreams angels came and looked in on me, and smiled as they kissed my forehead, and then disappeared, as light from over the hill began to fill the forest. I believed all of this when I awoke and rose to yawn and stretch, and look out my bedroom window to the nearby forest just beyond the stream that was alive and shining with the early summer light
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I am surprised by the simplest of things,
a jeweled hummingbird dipping its long bill
into the throat of a flower,
sipping on the nectar of heaven
I wait in anticipation like an expectant mother,
I wait for the storm over the ocean to break loose
and for waves to thunder into the cliffs
and give birth to a deeper dream
I am not afraid to receive the beauty of sorrow and loss
Suffering binds my heart to the treasures found in hope
and hope glows like early morning sunlight on a stream
meandering through the woods in spring
Joy and sorrow are an open meadow where deer
cross over into the deep woods and therein
the mystery of love glows in the dark pain
we all endure but not alone, we endure pain
and loss at the communion table of the heart
where we break bread and together sing
softly like the birds and the bluebell flowers
that glow with the morning dew
Bruce Owens has been writing poetry for 50 years. One of his poems appeared in the Robinson Jeffers Newsletter (No. 93 & 94, Winter & Spring) in tribute to friend, and fellow poet William Everson. He has been a guest lecturer at various colleges in California, lecturing on the nature of the creative process, and he has conducted poetry workshops, mainly with young adults, especially those struggling with various addictions or having come from an abusive household, using poetry as an instrument of discovery for both self, and as an entry into the world around us. His collection of poems: Eddies in the Rush (ISBN 0-971256-0-0 [149 pg.]) was endorsed by C.C. Bailey and poet William Stafford (1914-1993) a "National Book Award recipient." You can learn more about Bruce on his Facebook page here:Bruce Owens Poetry
Across the Light is available here: http://www.middlecreekpublishing.com/across-the-light