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Two Poems by Bruce Owens: "I Came into the Forest" and "Untitled"

Visual Art by Mary Clark

Visual art provided by © Mary Clark

I Came into the Forest

~From his new book, Across the Light

I came into the forest believing all the fairytales, how the trees rose up at night and walked, and that little people hid behind rocks until the moon fell on their shadows and made them skitter off like a flash of gold. I believed the fish would jump out of the water, and in mid-air, talk to one another. I believed the stars were flowers that came down into the forest to sleep with us for awhile, and that the dew was the tears they left behind, when they ascended the stairs back up into heaven. I believed the moss on the forest floor was a place of dreams, where I went to lay my head and sleep. I recall, in my dreams angels came and looked in on me, and smiled as they kissed my forehead, and then disappeared, as light from over the hill began to fill the forest. I believed all of this when I awoke and rose to yawn and stretch, and look out my bedroom window to the nearby forest just beyond the stream that was alive and shining with the early summer light

Untitled

I am surprised by the simplest of things,

a jeweled hummingbird dipping its long bill

into the throat of a flower,

sipping on the nectar of heaven

I wait in anticipation like an expectant mother,

I wait for the storm over the ocean to break loose

and for waves to thunder into the cliffs

and give birth to a deeper dream

I am not afraid to receive the beauty of sorrow and loss

Suffering binds my heart to the treasures found in hope

and hope glows like early morning sunlight on a stream

meandering through the woods in spring

Joy and sorrow are an open meadow where deer

cross over into the deep woods and therein

the mystery of love glows in the dark pain

we all endure but not alone, we endure pain

and loss at the communion table of the heart

where we break bread and together sing

softly like the birds and the bluebell flowers

that glow with the morning dew

 
Bruce Owens

Bruce Owens has been writing poetry for 50 years. One of his poems appeared in the Robinson Jeffers Newsletter (No. 93 & 94, Winter & Spring) in tribute to friend, and fellow poet William Everson. He has been a guest lecturer at various colleges in California, lecturing on the nature of the creative process, and he has conducted poetry workshops, mainly with young adults, especially those struggling with various addictions or having come from an abusive household, using poetry as an instrument of discovery for both self, and as an entry into the world around us. His collection of poems: Eddies in the Rush (ISBN 0-971256-0-0 [149 pg.]) was endorsed by C.C. Bailey and poet William Stafford (1914-1993) a "National Book Award recipient." You can learn more about Bruce on his Facebook page here:Bruce Owens Poetry

Across the Light is available here: http://www.middlecreekpublishing.com/across-the-light

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