Tag Archives: Spiritual ecology

Enigma

December 11, 2025 By in Photography, Poetry Tags: , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

~

Rooted in the Greek word for riddle

I steady myself

in the middle of the stream

So much rain

my toes search for purchase

as I move along in the strong current

~

But I’ll not wander in the side eddies

where the slickest algae

coats the surface of the stones still idling there

passing time as if singular

feigning reflection

~

An intoxicated accumulation

of over fertilized organic matter

girdling themselves

as if they could hold on to the ground

~

My days have been emptying

full of the feeling that I’m living in two separate realities

~

More than a waiting game

too much hard evidence

~

Carrying a pack that needs to be cleaned out

and made into a traveling case of essentials

fit for traveling in even faster flowing water

~

I’ve been carrying these stones around with me for decades. The one with the impressed shells is from the Northwest Pacific coast and was gifted to me. Its partner once dwelled further south, somewhere along the coast by Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco.

They traveled with me when I returned to the waters of the east coast, after my sojourn with the Pacific.  The stones always hold a corner of one of my gardens, along with a bowl of water for the critters and birds.

The poem inserted into the photo arrived out of the blue, as many poems tend to do. It came as a puzzle and I chuckled as I considered who it could be referring to.

That is until…. could it possibly be “water”?  And partner with the poem “Enigma”?

~

Poems and photo © Jana White

Instagram @ Jana_H_White

Fragile

March 1, 2025 By in Art, Poetry Tags: , , , , , 2 Comments

`

Fragile like smog shadows rifling valleys

the mountain holds its breath

~

Fragile like feverish water

the ocean aborts the moon’s children

~

Fragile like bees losing direction

and stamens playing their last hands

~

Fragile like children born overwhelmed

by viruses perplexed

~

Fragile still

like a flower

self-sewing in the garden

in blooming will make no mistakes

Intelligence in its unfolding

~

~

“The Sky is falling. The sky is falling”

Painting and poem by Jana White

Instagram @jana_h_white

Emerging

April 3, 2014 By in Poetry Tags: , , , , , , , 22 Comments

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All around

  the long bones of the trees

raise small green prayer flags

from their roots

of  winter solace

~

Signals humming in the first spring wind

“There are so many lost in their own momentum”

~

There is an urgency

as the intrepid green shoots

attend to the living word

“With”

~

~

As everything cycles new in the next few months, my activities surround the season. I’ll be lending my hands, my arms, my back, my muscles, my eyes and my ears where needed.  My softer parts and all my bones go along for the ride. …giddy with enthusiasm.

I’ll also be germinating the next set of audio broadcasts. The seeds have been planted. I am immeasurably grateful to everyone who listened and lent their own thoughts … such beauty….you have my heart….

I’m learning trust in so many ways

opening like a flower

in a field of wild light

~

~

Artist: Paul Klee

Weather

December 20, 2013 By in Poetry Tags: , , , , 19 Comments

Trees~

We’ve never been a good fit

as I’ve skimmed across your surface

scratching at dust

looking for entry

The humus of my life is enough

to sustain each season.

Never enough it seems 

to grow roots.

~

They counseled me,

” Don’t forget to breathe

   when the trees

   lose their leaves”

~

I watched those last brazen greens

that were stunned to new growth

by the sun warmth and rain of falling days,

their wildness ignoring immoral reason.

I harvested their leaves for winter teas.

Good medicine for this winter of my life.

~

The pulse now lies below

retreating

recollected

tucked in for reflection

networks of roots resting,

arms around each other.

~

When I too was brazen

I would empty myself with nights of hard drinking,

or when resolve quickened for release,

with bouts of high fever

Unaware of the pulse below

and startled by the clacking of human engagement

that other seasons hid from view with warm promises.

~

Now I have covered that distance between my mind

my heart

and have become a nomad in this civilized wasteland

as I follow the shifts in my perceptions.

~

My skin is a porous coat

I wear

in all weather

Trees

pray

in all seasons.

””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””

When I went to re-post this poem I discovered that it had originally been published exactly a year ago on the same date. It’s good to listen again, poetry being such an amazing dialogue with self, with Other …

~

nothing and everything

June 27, 2013 By in Poetry Tags: , , , , , , , , 22 Comments

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nothing and everything

arrives unexpected

~

listen listen

~

and I hear the rising of my own story

surfacing for protection

who am I then?

the sum of my parts

or who I am becoming?

~

this aching is an intention

radiating in waves

the energy

a voluntary take over

I can feel it everywhere

my sex, my stomach, my bottom lip

inundated I feel I am sinking

~

drenched in the running colors

I wade to shore

~

the more I surrender

the more transparent I’m becoming

~

 sentient

I hear

~

the earth is weeping

 

Fragile

April 18, 2013 By in Poetry Tags: , , , , , 18 Comments

like smog shadows rifling valleys

the mountain holds its breath

~

Fragile like feverish water

the ocean aborts the moon’s children

~

Fragile like bees loosing direction

and stamens playing their last hands

~

Fragile like children born overwhelmed

by viruses perplexed

~

Fragile still

like a flower abandoned by the garden

in blooming makes no mistakes

intelligence in its unfolding

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

fragile flower~

 

Resurrection

March 8, 2013 By in Poetry Tags: , , 6 Comments

~

Made captive by circumstance

in the garden of our sex

let there be a resurrection

of memory’s flesh held in stone,

the Earth herself embodying

the records of this undoing.

~

A longed for freedom

now pulses with a courage

transparent as a string of worn pearls

from the sea of this misguided betrayal

~

For we have always breathed as one

in any way our souls take breath

birthing a life

that blesses all

“””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””

International Women’s Day

“”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””