Steve Greene
Steve Greene
This is a painting that was done in 2020 by young neighbors Bailey and Madilynne. Clare gave them a canvass and they painted on it all day. In the evening Clare did a bit herself. I love this work. It has the excitement of youth and the wisdom of an elder.
someone dreams tonight
of images that glow
of winds that bear copper sky
and the northern starlights
sees one hundred spiraling galaxies,
become and becoming
we are all dreaming tonight...
this is how the garden grows
a thousand images
with no where to go but to the heavens
where other gardens grow
there are one thousand dreams here
dreams of blossoms and fresh orchids
street light visitations and beautiful realizations
maybe we will...
maybe we will not die
but after life it is certainly the most beautiful
it is where another garden grows
you remember your past
yet always move forward
how can things be so familiar and yet
everything is new?
I know “I know that person” and yet,
I can only smile
This is how our gardens grow
countless memories
and countless dreams.
There is a young child on a hill
her head is laying across her arms
she is half sleep in the darkness
it is night.
She sees only shapes
some trees and moonlit sky
all blurry.
How long has she been there?
and how did she get there?
Yesterday was cold,
tonight it is also cold.
There is stirring a number of yards away,
it may be the wind but there is a tall man.
He is slowly walking up the hill.
He has long black hair
and a thick shirt with beads.
He approaches
the young one
very slowly.
She see’s him but
is not afraid.
Around his shoulders the man has a blanket.
A blanket that has a certain luminescence to it.
He takes it and wraps it around
the young one and lifts her up,
and holds her close.
Again there is a stirring,
soon a few women and men
are moving up the hill
slowly
slowly and smiling.
Smiling because they know that she is safe.
These people, they call themselves “Walkers”.
The Walkers do not know
where she came from or how she got there.
That is not important.
The important thing
is that she is safe now.
These Walkers are a soulful people.
Each having a story of being on the hill
and being wrapped in a blanket
by a person who has come forward.
They will continue to
walk on this hill.
They will walk for perhaps months until
another young one is found.
Each night they work on the blanket.
The blanket is woven with threads.
Each thread contains prayers.
As the blanket takes shape,
there is a luminescence about it.
If they look into it,
they can see way into their past.
Their past from when
the Walkers picked them up
and put them in their arms,
when they were young.
There is nothing else to do
but keep moving on the hill.
They are Walkers.
Another young one will be coming.
What no one seems to realize is that
this happens before the birth into the real life.
It is as though it is a dream before life.
It is a mystery except,
the life of a young one is saved.
Sarah Brayer
In the stillness
of the self
and the stillness
of the non-self
is a place much bigger
than even mountains
it is a place
beyond stillness
and also inside stillness
it is everything
there
that is everything
it is true
you
are everything
you
are
you are the lakes
and you are the mountains
and the sky
you are every story that has ever been spoken
you are every tear that has been shed.
and every star twinkling in the galaxy of the great night
you are a baby crying now
and the mother that holds it softly
you are middle of a rush hour
and a deer in the meadow
in this stillness
you are a man
who can let himself cry
and be glad for it
you are a butterfly and
you are a coal factory
she feels the love
of a thousand angels
and the baby that sleeps softly
in all this is stillness
simply stillness
stillness
we don’t have to do anything
we are already there
we are
we are this again.
Image by Brian Orner