Bond…
Attached.
Connected,
we ride the waves,
floating in the depths,
crashing on the shore,
caught between
rock and stone
chipped and broken.
Even then,
together
for always,
until dust we become
and beyond.
pacific northwest
Gideon’s Challenge
Self…
Rough and ragged.
Flesh once smooth
now
scored and scarred.
Damaged walls protect
inner softness.
What lies within
concealed.
Supportive and nurturing
and yet
thick walls hide
what lies beneath.
Like the tree I have thick walls, although unlike the tree, as I age those walls become thinner. You chip away at them again and again, tirelessly exposing the meaty softness of tender wood beneath. And yet, there is always more bark… more walls to work through. The bark of this fir tree marks a part of my ‘self’ that I strive to defeat… strive to find balance with. Each year we are together, I get a little bit closer to finding that balance between damaged mess and flawed perfection. Each year, you help me find another step along that path.
Thank you.
Photo © ZenStatePhotography
Gideon’s Challenge
Home…
Hidden deep
swirled within
a bit of spark
has found its home.
Quiet and sweet,
wild but shy
it lingers
trusting
but not alone.
A piece of nature,
a home to one
entrusted
to me.
I can sense the energy of what lives within this broken shell, a little spark glimmering in the dark, hidden beneath the shell. It lives in my home, invited and cared for, carefully loved and given a spot all its own. Perhaps some day it will feel safe enough to peek out and say hello.
Photo © ZenStatePhotography
Gideon’s Challenge
Support…
I can’t see me
lovin’ nobody but you
For all my life
When you’re with me,
baby the skies’ll be blue
For all my life
Me and you and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice,
it had to be
The only one for me is you,
and you for me
So happy together
Okay, so I didn’t write today’s little poem. They’re actually from the song “Happy Together” by The Turtles. But…. it was just so perfect for the picture.
The thing is? You are my support… and I’m yours. Just like the branch above and organisms that make their life upon it. Some might classify our relationship as co-dependent, but I don’t see it that way. I see it as a perfect balance of support reinforced with the snug comfort of love added in.
Photo © ZenStatePhotography
Gideon’s Challenge
Comfort…
Come
slip into the water
with me
into a cool embrace.
Let the nymphs
pull you deeper
with me
as embracing waves
caress.
I find comfort within water. Floating within it’s caressing embrace, I can close my eyes and allow everything… absolutely everything… to just drift away. Where the forest is my grounding and my center, water is the conduit to my freedom and greatest moments of peace.
Photo © ZenStatePhotography
Gideon’s Challenge
Tenderness…
It comes
with the softest touch.
Delicate
like a feather.
Warm
like the kiss of sunlight.
With senses
heightened
even the slightest brush
creates fireworks.
As much rough and tumble as we enjoy, it’s the tender moments that sink the deepest. Intimacy between us is so intense and often violent, and yet the aftercare is the sweetest tenderness I’ve ever known. I do not need to be treated like delicate porcelain, I crave that intensity and collision of power and need… but it’s the tenderness that comes after that touches the heart and breaks open the inner protective shell, granting you access to that part of me that none other has ever been allowed to witness or touch.
Photo © ZenStatePhotography
Twisting the Leaf 