An Endangered Species of Flightless Bird

11th April - I think I'd like to be a mountain

An indigo streak on the horizon
Becomes green and creased and shrouded,
Loom lordlike over your realm.

I think you know more than you let on,
Millennia of whispers in your roots,
You have weathered storm and quake and war -

Tell me;
is there a dragon curled in your belly?
Do you rumble at affront?
Or do you just embrace the earth,
and give lessons in patience,
and steady silence,
and remembering?

12th April - God's face is seen best in the dark

here, i think i am closest to god.
the smell of dying masked by lavender,
sea salt spray. he is here:
the choir of masts in harbour,
the sun sending wide lilac shafts to us,
the water waltzing, slow, gentle.

here is the gift i was never given;
the sense of quiet when the rush is gone.
i took my tubes away at last,
let him rattle free ocean air into the hollowed-out parts of himself.
gave him just our oldest and our best.

i am holding his hand, he is holding mine,
and together we wait for god.

13th April - a thousand paper cranes

The art eluded me in my impatience,
the hunger of never sitting still,
never watching the light split,
(I might have seen the shadows on his face)

Had I folded a brick each day since then,
I could build the backward-looking bridge,
give scaffold wings to the girl I was,
set her free before ever she were caged

we teach ourselves our vocation - in the end,
all wishes are selfishly wished
and I never deserved mine granted.

To this day, this one of my favorite NaPo threads on YWS. I still think about this thread a lot and I remember two years ago during NaPo eagerly waking up so I could read the new poem you posted each day.

@bluewaterlily - you are too kind. I have a feeling yours is going to be mine and many other people's favourite this year!