Joys and Sorrows

My suffering becomes your suffering ,
Our joys shared become the glowing memories
of childhood or old age,
While all the day I wish I was better for you.

Yearning to be the model you need,
Of right action, right thinking,
Right purpose, so you will know
An easier Middle Way.

Not the teeter totter of extremes,
Not the icky sweet pungent world
Of indulgence and decay,
I long for you the yin and yang.

Sweet, delicate balance of good and evil,
The shared journey and burdens of love and pain ,
I want you to know the kind of peace,
You only get from a full night's rest.

How can I show you that the coin of compassion once spent,
Yields more than you could ever hope or believe for,
And know deep down, that essentially most people can be good, and are worthwhile.

Dark clouds meet the edge of our blue skies,
We must always know the dark to love the light.
That worldly energy you feel compells us all,
Projects us forward into places of fear and fantasy.

There is happiness,
There is respect,
There is infinite gratitude,
Words coming and going,
None seem good enough to describe the love I have for you.

We meet, connect, and part,
Wondering how it all will end,
If it be in a moment of joy or sorrow,
No matter.

Mary Kirkpatrick, August 2015

Morass

I feel as heavy
as my heart
feels me.
Don't know how to
Lift these eyes
These dreams.

Floundering through
the halls of destiny,
Wasting time battling
this imaginary
ghost,
That haunts my memory
and robs me blind.

Steals away the
Precious present
Drags me back into
a Morass of destruction.
Where creative freedom
awaits me.

Let the mind catch light
Find its breath of wind
To fan the flames of
life right now
On purpose, here
Painful, dirty, but real.

Mary K. Feb 2015

Frozen Molecule

Frozen and tired
This will of mine
Oh so weak
Wants to winnow away
Like the last rays of sun
On a winter's afternoon.

Disintegrate slowly into
Dust, a cloud of me,
Dispersing over plains,
Wooded world,
The ocean, going back,
From whence I came.

A molecule you breathe
Taking in my essence
Could I possibly stir
Your chastened blood
Light a fire within you
And let us both melt away.

Mary K  Jan 2015

2014 Poems

Funky feeling go away,
Make me free
to love and play
To be the soul
I know I am
The light of day to see.

Flee this pain
From my aching bones
Let my soul go
Let it roam
Set the world
Upon its edge
Then right it up again.

Foster in this foggy brain
A wisdom, a hope
Of loving not in vain
Fill this fleeting moment
To its brim
Let me out, and then back in.

Mary K. Dec 2014

Broken Girl

Broken girl,
Why can't you fix yourself?
With bits of pink paper
And wonder glue?

That crack in your soul
Is leaking love and sunshine
And slowly you're
Filling up with darkness again.

You reach for the stars
On your knees
Hope your endless gratitude
Will stem the raging sea.

Rising up inside you
Cold truths and empty promises
Threaten to replace
Your carefully constructed peace.

God, The Universe, Enlightened Ones,
Try to hold you up
Saving you from your
Senseless Self.

M. Kirkpatrick 2011

Spiritual Sponge

This heart
A spiritual sponge
Wrings out
Yet another memory.

Wishing it could
Just dry out
In the sunshine
Of this moment.

Don't let tears
Fill it up again
Until it is heavy
With the painful salt of life.

Melancholy always feels
More real than joy
Pain reverberates
While joy evaporates.

This must end
No more hearts can rend,
Falling leaves will decay
Move on, do not revisit that day.

M.Kirkpatrick  2011

Ghosts

The past threatens
To swallow me whole
In a cloud of doubt
In a sea of regret.

The present is focused,
Whole and happy,
Creative and light,
No reason for fear exists.

Shadows passing overhead
Chill me and drive
Old fears from their
Deep sleeping beds.

This ghost cannot
Be converted
Into an angel of hope,
It's just a specter.

Let it go
Free its hold
Forgive it and let it
Roam on without you.

M.Kirkpatrick 2011

Peace

I want to feel peace
The absolute balance
Of darkness and light
Inside the soul.

Like the infinite ring
Of a prayer bowl's chime
The essence of rest
Resides within.

The world falls away
Consciousness meditates
on the craggy cliff
Balanced between life
and nothingness.

The sound of a brook
Flowing over hard rocks
Is the sound of your soul
Leaving the ego behind.

M.Kirkpatrick 2011

Falling Water

I am climbing
A solitary path
Into a pass within
The clouds

Sheer abyss drops
on either side.

No turning back
Or moving sideways

Only slowly forward

Picking my way

By moonlight.

I can hear the
Powerful promise

Of a waterfall ahead
A force that can fill me
And move me.

I cannot fall
While I focus on
this one moment

In this second

I am okay.

Autumn Cravings

The well is dry,

nothing to yield,

No harvest to reap,

Just fallow ground,
Ready to sleep.

What can this heart

Give when it

Is so empty

So shriveled in contempt.

It was so full

Over brimming with love

And then it just

Died and found no one

To fill it again.

Oh harvest moon
You seem so full

I am a vessel yearning

To be filled and content.

The fullness must come

From within.

Feeling broken

Looking ceaselessly

for whatever it is

In the chasms inside

That can refill the soul
While "I" hide.