I'm Charlie. Human. Facilitator. Activist. Therapist. Student of Life.
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D’you know those days
Where peace holds you For no good reason? Where, for just a tiny sliver of time The world’s suffering Can’t find you No matter how hard it tries? And, in its absence, All that’s left is the radiance Of The Small Things The way sun rays Paint daffodil faces Or how a duck lands gracefully On glassy waters Sending soft ripples outwards That touch bellies of other ducks And touch other ripples Created by other creatures In distant other places That the duck will never meet The way fragments Of blossom Light as tissue paper Blow on breeze Catching themselves In the cyan, slate and cobalt Of duck feathers Or on the backs of waterskaters Who, when the world heaves with sorrow, Just keep on dancing I watched as leaves shimmied with anxious excitement today Because Spring whispered “I’m just around the corner, dears” Passed strangers Whose eyes, my eyes Told me they knew Felt thoughts and heartbeats Of people in far off places Felt soothed by the Humdrum of traffic Ring of phone Whistle of kettle Sat with the tiny details of life And felt my soul expand.
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Golden meadows
Sun dripping off ears of grain A dragonfly, passing by Finds herself caught up in its ethereal glow Hovering gently, she rests her weary wings Upon a single grassy castle below Light rain moistens the scene Inviting a rainbow to spread itself Slowly across a patch of sky One by one, each bow sends its colour Off on a journey, to mix up the blue The dragonfly closes her eyes She lets a little breeze Rock her back and forward Lets it tickle her soft slender body Lets the sun play with her iridescence Lets the hum of a thousand cicadas fill her ears Lets the song of a distant meadowlark Ease her out of this reality and into another Lets the raindrops wash away her heartache Down below, ants scurry about their busy work Worms blindly but diligently aerate the earth Up above, a small plane flies high in the sky Knowing nothing of the richness below And here, in the grass castles Af a sun-drenched meadow A dragonfly dreams in peace Who made the sky?
Sewed each tiny patch of blue together one by one Then delicately stretched it across our heads, Stretched it across our heads, to keep us warm and cool, Warm and cool, warm and cool Who said that everything below this thin blue ceiling Was now our home Who said this when they knew of its fragility? Who decided on the formation of the clouds? White and soft, armchairs for our eyes Who made them float? Who made them twist themselves into animals one moment Then rain down storms and throw thunderbolts the next? Who worked out how to stand a tree upright And hang leaves off her branches To make flowers look beautiful Who decided what colours to paint their faces Who decided that bees would keep all this alive? Who placed the oceans where they are and not somewhere else? Who made the land sit where it does Who put the people where we are Then give us the capacity to make every surface of the earth feel our presence? Who thought productivity was the best measure of a human’s worth? Then built entire economies and nation states upon this idea? Who thought killing each other Was the best way to resolve our differences? And who thought to make us believe we were all so different anyway? Who gave us minds to dream with and eyes to cry from Who taught us how to love with everything we have inside And who taught us to kill with little afterthought? How did our mouths learn to string together magical notes one day And scream hatred at each other the next Who decided two ears to one mouth was a good ratio? And why was our heart placed so close to our head? Who made it so we had to talk to each other And live with each other, to survive? Why do we find this all so very hard? Who let us feel sadness? And why is beauty so often hiding deep inside of it? Why do some people see heaven in a face Whilst others see nothing? Why are we all here, loving, living, dying, fearing Together under this thin and fragile blue sky? I climb into the depth of you
Into your cool, quiet heart Held up by your roots Which spread beneath us In every direction Becoming infinity How is it that so many people Have taken this path To the next place And then so wonderfully Forgotten it all When we arrived? I place each foot carefully Upon your intricately carved steps Surrendering to the darkness That envelops my body To the peace that plays my soul I don’t know where this staircase leads Just that I must rise, step, become By following this spiral within you As I climb higher The base of your trunk Seals slowly up Zipping me gently into The journey ahead There’s no end in sight No light at the top Really, no light at all And yet I can see with Greater clarity than ever before In here, I feel held Considered, loved I feel the hearts of every soul That ever lived and ever will live Reverberating around you Around me In us They’re lifting me higher Lifting me from this place To the next And perhaps from that place Back to here The endless circle of love Of life, of knowing and Mysterious creation God’s hand
Reaching Origins deep Below the earth Your life is millions Of chapters old You watch the world Above and below The passing clouds Rain trickles down you Like tears on my face When the sun shines It spins out from you In a thousand directions Like a kaleidoscope You share its warmth With all of us You are a staircase For our aspirations Climbing Ever closer to the stars From where we came Searching for meaning In your crevasses and peaks You let us climb Together We lift the world up To the sky A monument
To the breath Of the universe Round and smooth Perfect texture To wrap my Arms around Made to be hugged Your fibres were born In the strength Of the wind When you sigh The whole world Stays alive Your bark is rough But your gifts soft Each leaf a fragile homage To the future Roots deep Branches tall Foliage broad Touching the universe In every plane Filling every gap And lung With spaciousness. The cold dark
Silence Is breaking Old tree Stripped of Green clothes These soft buds Will bring you Back to life Spreading along Your branches Like tiny pink Fireworks Beard fluff To welcome A brand new day Frost gives up Its anxious clutch On everything Your time is up Dear frost Melt away now And let gentle Warmth Replace you Bare earth Once hard and cold Softens As tiny shoots Break its Long sleep Push, push, push The shoots and seeds Rise together Like underground dancers Like miners buried alive Channelling their course To the surface of the earth They heave Til they can breathe And finally Look sun in her Radiant eyes Nests are spun in trees And high bushes From random assortments Of stuff A feather here A stick there It’s all worthy Construction material For a temporary home Once concave enough Fragile eggs are laid Inside them And warmed til Pink, wet, feathered Creatures emerge Like aliens In a brave new world Their eyes struggle to open But life is helping They look out, from the nest And everything is alive Trees covered in pink buds Now coated in shiny Verdant leaves Sun streaming through Branches and bushes As though it just can’t Touch enough of the world In every precious minute Flower fields Of every colour, Size and shape Imaginable Thriving under the spotlight Of radiant sun and sky Air, thick and fresh Full of possibility Bees, humming And bobbing From one flower head To the next Happily transporting The stuff of life On their plump little thighs The baby bird’s Eyes are wide To the world The richness of life That has sprung From cold and dark And silence This perennial play Whose message is That even when Things seem grim And grey Life can change Completely And everything Becomes possible Again Explosions of colour in the sky
Tearing up the atmosphere Soft clouds drift by, patching up the holes Deep down, soils turn, roots set deep Seeds grow, small then large, Thrusting green leaves and Coloured heads at the sun To feed with rays of gold Bees dart, landing softly, taking gently Leaving quickly, working their magic Tree branches blow Lackadaisically in the breeze Casting a million blossoms Into the sea where they cover the water Like a vast patchwork quilt Deep below, tiny fishes swim In and out the sea grasses Tummies tickled by anemones Sea horse fathers carry their young Soaring upon the heads of humpbacks Who heave their giant bodies momentarily Above the water and then crash hard upon The glassy surface, sending vibrations Through the entire ocean Sea spray spirals up into the air catching The underbelly of a duck as she flies Nonchalantly for thousands of miles Towards greener pastures Ducklings waddle in and out the reeds And marches, pecking here and there For baby snails and worms, to fatten and grow Their vulnerable warm bodies beneath The soft feathery disguise Mud flats shift and squelch under their Little webbed feet whilst water skaters And dragonflies hover around like fog Deep below the river is a platypus Dancing, twisting then Turning her lithe little torso, The cool currents propel her Up and under, up and under She flies with the currents, Spinning endlessly Eternally entertained by the Ways of the water Trees turn golden brown, ochre orange, fire engine red Dropping their crusty leaves upon the river surface Explosions of colour in the sky Soft dandelion tendrils float by, Carrying a thousand wishes. Silence. All is well in the world. All is very well. |
Charlie WoodHuman. Activist. Facilitator. Therapist. Student of Life. Trying to do my bit to build a kinder world. Archives
December 2024
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