ASH SONG

From spirit to flesh to spirit

the pathway to God revealed.

Spirit enmeshed in a body

to our world was sealed.

Tomorrow Land is calling

to a far and better place.

We release you, oh our dear one,

but will always remember your face.

(c) Linda McGeary

11.11.12

From my novel TELLING TREE

soon to be published on Smashwords.

Working on sequel ONCE ON A BLUE MOON.

Draining The Rainbow

You promised!
You said you'd
Be there!

A friend for life...
Then you drowned
In a bottle,
Draining the rainbow.

(c) Linda McGeary
2011

IN THE RIVER

Love is a river,
calming and deep.

Love is a river
that doesn't sleep.

Broad and flowing
love moves along,

keeping us current,
alive in the song.


(c) 5.16.2010
Linda McGeary

IN CHANGE

(With all that has been happening with my sister's health issues and my time being taken up with that and finding a comfortable place for her, I have not had time to write. Notes only. And keeping track of her money and expenses, meds, etc. have not left time or energy for much else. This is a poem my husband, Duncan, wrote while I was down in San Francisco with my sister. It speak to me of what she is going through, what we all go through. I think it is really good.)

In change
there is fear and hope.
In change there is discomfort.

Nothing grows without change,
thought, belief, or mercy.

In change,
life is in charge,
in change I am small.

All of good grows cold,
all of the bad gets older.

In change
I am caught in the middle,
in change I am waiting.

What comes is unexpected,
or worse, suspected.

I tried to keep change
from happening,
for once too much change threw me,
and trampled me, and left me in limbo.

But change has come,
nevertheless,
in love, and work, and play.

The change I've accepted,
and the change I have fought.

In change, I've tried a measured dose,
a time or space just right,
in change there has been overflowing,
and sometimes the running dry.

I've been a rock, a stick,
but change has flowed around me,
and I've reached out,
in rare times.

In change, I've found fulfillment,
where I expected little,
change I've tried myself,
before change was laid on me.

In change,
I've seen there is no escaping.
Just acceptance,
of all I am and all I'm not.

And yet, in change,
I am thankful,
for all the surprise
and curiosity of what's next.

In change,
I am different despite myself,
in change I have lived my life.

9.8.09
Duncan McGeary

TWO PRINCESSES

Once upon a time there were two Princesses,
Princess Rachel and Princess Riley.
They went out to play one day
and a most unusual thing happened...

They met another Princess.
She was see-through,
with wisps of cloud and sunlight for hair,
shining every color of the rainbow,
her dress a silver green swirl
of leaves from the Silver Oak.

She was Princess Breeze,
and she asked them to play with her.
Princess Breeze picked them up,
and whisked them away
from the Summer Lands in the southeast,
and carried them all the way to the lefthand coast.
All the way up, to the high, dry desert,
and down to the Giant Redwoods,
and beyond.

Princess Breeze carried them to cousins,
aunts and uncles,
family dogs and cats,
pet spiders,
(to which they said yuck, because they were on the walls and not in cages)
and a little secret room with candles
and an abalone shell for burning sage and sweet grass.

They saw big cities,
and open country, rivers, the ocean
and clouds,(Princess Breeze's cousins).
They climbed high mountain peaks,
then rushing whitewater they rafted,
with Breeze close behind.
Lava Buttes and chipmunk snoots
where all on the agenda.
But all to soon, Breeze's Mother, the Moon,
called her home from the west.

She carried them back,
Princess Rachel and Princess Riley,
to the land where the sun shines hot,
where the turtle hides
and the alligator glides
and pink flamingos dance.

Yes, she carried them home,
their bag of memories held tight
never to be forgotten.
They slept that night and day,
for it was hard play,
waking with smiles and laughter.

(c) 8.4.09
Linda McGeary
The Princesses Aunt

FREEDOM'S DREAM

Conscious to be, to redeem,
find my peace, my place.

Living the Hero's dream,
feeling love shine on my face.

The release of creative flow,
finding riches within,

connect, merge, know
Divine, kith and kin.

Inner work Ocean Deep,
fearlessness out to the world.

Mansion rooms of Seashell Treasures, to keep
and give away. Peace, strength, magic swirled

together within one thing, a tether,
facing all fires, all fears.

Rising on the tide of heat, like a feather,
cresting the current of the years.

Linda McGeary
10.25.99

FLAME AND FLICKER

We are a flicker
of God-Fire,
never leaving
the Source -

But having
fallen asleep
we dream a
nightmare
of separation
and despair.

That ... is the lie.

The truth is
and always
will be...

The Flicker is one
with the Flame.

(c) 1998

AWAKE

The only way out...
is in.

The only way up...
is down.

The only way
through life
successfully...

is to be as
present
with your pain
as you are
with your
joy.


(c) 1998

ONE

As the wave
is one with
the ocean,

As the ring
is one with
the gold,

As the beam
is one with
the sunshine,

So, you are
one with
God.


(c) 1998

ALL AND NOTHING

How do we speak of the infinite?

The void where God-Mind is all - without limit.

The center of flame beyond bright,
both void and light together.

The all and the nothing.

(c) 1998

EARTH WEEPS

Sometimes the Earth
wears a sadness.

A grey trembling.
A weeping whisper
of what could be...

Something I'm aware of
only once in a while.

Then my heart is heavy.

Somehow...
I feel responsible.
What is it...I'm not being?

Have you noticed...

Our Mother
weeps.

(c) 7.4.01

SUMMER MEMORY

I was a child born to dream
on long summer days while
sun sizzled on round river rock.
The glinting golden green waters
slithering between high walls,
down to the slowed pace
of a snake sunning itself on black sand.

Black sand's golden glimmer
off wet footprints.
A wandering track to under
the Willow that is my hide-away.

In green sunlit shadowed hide-away
I hold my breath the better to hear
high-pitched Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,
then click, click, click overlaid
in a symphony of insects and it all
blends into One Perfect Whole.
Soft wind in Willow wands,
brightness of air, heat on sand,
coolness of river, Bzzzzzzzzzzzz.
All into one language only IT and I know.

IT and I know all things are possible
in this sizzling heat. In this shaded cool.
In this quiet buzzing intensity of life.
And I was born to dream.

(c) 6.1.96

SUMMER AFFAIR

Grey skies hid the summer sun
muffled quiet stilled the day
until thunder whispered far away.

Lightly the rain began to sing
as lightening cracked the sky
and darkness rumbled with a sigh.

Thumb sized pumpkin drops faster fell
dancing, leaping in joy they shook
hazing the ground with a velvet look.

Crash flash blinding light
blood pulsing to the beat
of kettledrum and splashing feet.

Sacred sounds of Summer Storm
fill thrill and spill the heart
into the action to take part.

Pounding emotion keeping pace
elemental passion wild treat
love affair with nature - complete.


(c) 7.1.95

JUNE

June silence, lake blue as noon.
Valley, mountains, trees and loon.

Fields full of wild purple glory,
Bright giving, Mother Earth's story.

Clouds afloat like dreams,
Lazy drifting picture scenes.

Hazy horizons, horizontal bliss.
Soul feast of earth-sky kiss.

(c) 6.11.98

SHE OWNED THE WORLD

Strong, straight-limbed, and confident.
Water was her element,
her comfort,
her first love, her last love and all those in between.
She was born floating in soft scented pools of light.
Lilac caressed her every move.
She was born pronoic, thinking all hands were there to help,
all eyes there to see for her.
For she was blind and lived through her other senses,
only perceiving shades of dark and light.

This never troubled her, for she couldn't say what she was missing.
she couldn't see.
She spent all her early years swimming in lilac pools
with frilly, friendly goldfish.
She came to know every rock and sandy verge.
Every cove and warm current.
Every bit of bank and reed.
As loved as her vast string of pools were to her
she became restless,
longing for more.
Some unknown something.
Then she began to hear tales of the wild waterways
and untamed seas.

The dangers of the deep.

Being blind she couldn't imagine the run
of rapid waters,
the ridges,
the rocky, sandless banks,
as they lowered her into
the scentless, frigid flow.
How could she calculate without sight?
For the first time she wished for the ability to deep see.
But there would be sighted helpers all along the way.
Wouldn't there?
She felt confidence going in.
Then the current caught her.

Fast.
So fast...
So this is wild, she thought,
and was swept out,
away from anything
familiar.

Past hearing the song of the goldfish.
Past the soft touch of lazy lilac sands, and helping hands.
She had thought she owned the world.
But this...
This was all unknown, fear filled and painful.
Banging, swirling against the jagged buffeting sandless banks.
Hope of knowing this wild water course dashed
upon cold stone.
How could they have let her in?

She owned the world.
She had insisted.

Now she understood what a child she was in her knowledge,
her understanding.
They had tried to tell her she might not be ready.
That she might be overconfident.
But she would not hear it in her joy of new explorations to come.
Now, in the tumble of rapids,
she bumped into
many silver flashes of large fish.
Only shadows of light compared to the lilac pools and the goldfish.
"Help me!" she bubbled, "Help me find a safe shore."
The Salmon replied with one voice,
"Oh, we are sorry, we cannot stop now.
We must renew ourselves in egg and sperm.
When we are new, we will come to you then,
we will find you in the wide sea."
Then they were gone and she was swept
down the rocky gullet of the screaming river.
Swallowed like a precious seed
to lodge in the heart of rage.

Long sinuous shapes
brushed against her, terrifying in their darkness.
How could the water which had held her gently as any beloved
bear her down to the rocky bottom?
Where were her sighted friends?
She sensed them not at all.

She was alone.
Undone.
Unmade.
A single tear in dark danger.

She was brittle with fear.
Pummeled from every side.
Rock, churning water, shadowed shapes.

Time stood still, or went fast.
A year and a day.
A million.

Lost.

She let go.

What good was fear?
It did not serve.
It didn't change things,
except to make them worse.

She let go.

Relaxed into the wild surge,
began to ride an exotic lullaby,
until she was exhausted with new experience.
She slept.

When she awoke
she was being rocked in a vast, gentle deep,
Back and forth,
back and forth.
A familiar rhythm.
Safe in the arms of the Beloved,
at the bottom of the wild sea.
Phosphorescent glimmer tickled the backs of her unused eyes.
Salt.
Sea sting.
There from the comfort of the salty womb
sight was born.
Color, ripping her out into a new world.

Bright, neon fish,
green life
and blue.
White light from creatures lit up like underwater suns.
Orange crabs, red, yellow, purple.
Nuzzling sea cows and singing whales,
dolphin and seals, gamboling in happy play.
Swordfish, tiger sharks, narwhals, and chubs.
Names and colors of things
flowed like the rapids into her.

Then the silver glisten of new salmon
undulated around her.

Wisdom... cradled her in new knowing.

She, owned the world.

(c) 6.2.99

created from a water dream

SUMMER TIME DRIFTING

Dark sky blue shot cloud white,
scud along to wind song.

Quacking aspens lyric dance,
sighing embrace of indigo night.

(c) 10.10.97

GRANDFATHER RAVEN

Grandfather Raven sitting in that tree
Caw, caw, cawing. Laughing at me,
working for a living.

Stupid child.
Laugh, do what you want,
fly wind,
he says.

Food from claw to beak,
what more do you seek?
Shelter for tomorrow?
Knowledge of next week?

Rise above your troubles
fly upon the wings
of little joys, and beautiful things.
In this, peace doubles,
just ask hummingbird.

Come visit me when you have more sense,
you work too much, it makes me wince.
If you choice to be wise
and grow old like me
stop chasing the dollar
and live to be free.

(c) 8.31.98

I was a flagger for the county for 7 or 8 months this year. This was a poem inspired by a huge old raven on the last day of this job. The best thing about this job was seeing the animals and birds everyday. Spending time out doors. I kept a journal with all the animals I saw.

CLOAK OF ASK

You came to earth, free authentic, Original Self,
fire bright, heart of gold, wild mind,
knowing soul. Eager. Playful. Curious.
Believing life Utopian, all of like kind.

Soon enough dark lightening struck.
By look or word or deed unmeant... or meant.
Cut, slash, slap, smash, indrawn breath of shock.
Small child's wounded Self shrinking into ego bent.

Stripped of glory you took up Cloak of Ash,
garment of Self forgetting, rainbows hidden in the grey,
lost to larger light and life, muffling song of joy,
fallible, falling, shattering, day by day.

Your bright way swallowed up in smoke
and ash of multi-faceted deceptions,
sleepwalking blind through heaven
holding tight to one view mispreceptions.

Clinging to those things by which you hide
from what you cannot face,
because you judge your naked truth
beyond any one's embrace.

Turn, face back the way you came...

Remember again, at your core, you are gold,
face the flame of fire's refining,
take up glory cloak with its golden lining
live life authentic, wild and free. Go Bold.

(c) 11.11.01

MOTHER

Woman with feet planted
in the earth.
Solid, steady, dependably present.
Sheltering as a tree.
Refreshing as green, and brown
and Spirit blue.

Heart not bound to earth
for all its earthiness.
The essence of her like
a small brown sparrow,
clever and wise,
hiding in the feather's
of the Great Eagle,
riding higher than her
own strength could carry.

A soul longing for the heights
of its cobalt home. The wider
view of all to see, gazing
on the treasures of God.
Eyes feasting with joy
on the vision of the
simply elegant connection.
Love.

Twin homed.
Body - Earth. Spirit - God Heart.
Essence fully comfortable
to nest in self with
forgiving wholeness.
Knowing herself a treasure.
Peaceful compassion knowing
you a treasure, and me.

Her life's pain transforming
to larger meaning - over and over
again.

Her completeness draws
me to renewal, in the face
of all mistakes, and fears.

Her love encourages to
hide myself in the feathers
of the Great Eagle,
and ride
the winds
of Heaven.


(c) 5.3.02
The first year after mother died, this was written as part of a Mother's Day celebration which I was a part of.

GLASS PAGODA

Little glass pagoda adorning the knoll,
four broad windows illuminating soul.

Vision waits on the crest of the hill,
a lovely spot, made for simply being still.

To look, to feel ...
remember what's real.

Loved ones,
sunrise,
flowers,
blue sky's.
Loved ones,
sunfall,
moonbeams,
hearts call.

Origin of Self, star-stuff, sea-foam,
breath of life, body-spirit home.

A sacred space to wonder from and intersect.
A making place to worship in, and to connect.

Four broad windows illuminating soul,
in a little glass pagoda built on a knoll.


(c) 3.22.00