Month: October 2018

Abalone Portraits

When the abalone shell arrived, it had a crack in it. I decided to take a photo anyway. What I saw in the image was much more than I expected. We are like this, I thought. We forget the extraordinary beauty that comes right up to our cracks.

I could not stop taking close-ups as abalone arrived at my door from all over the world. The slightest shift brought dramatic color changes. In this conversation with light and mystery I sensed a deeper connection. There were so many lessons here, a spiraling out to a universe of being. Joy and grief blended with so much at risk for the abalone and for us.

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The Abalone Are Dwindling

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The abalone are dwindling
In their rocky abodes
Along our coasts

It matters not that the
Maori and others
Understood their sacredness

With only dim sight
They sense their limitless world
Of kelp and water

Once they thrived
Breathing and mating through
Holes in their shells

Clamped down and
Holding tight was enough
As the tides found them

Now I grieve for the
Extraordinary beauty
They created never seeing it

The Goose Feather Sequence

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Spiraling down from
This fall sunset sky of geese
A lone tail feather

Dreaming here in my garden,
I sit watching a feather spin.
Warm light bathes the soft sweet moss
in welcome to this winsome sprite.
Bounding fast lest it escape her,
the clumsy cat misses it!

Held in her mouth like
A dagger, or a rose,
The goose feather trophy
Must smell strongly
Of potential prey
To my hungry cat –
She wants her dinner.

No need for any plucking
With feathers flying about,
Her poultry comes in cans
Extracted by turning
A gear and applying
A blade to cut the
Lid round ‘till it snaps.

I’ve been told, geese are the
Perfect prey for humans, when
That dire time comes with all
The secret factories abandoned
And we must revert to honesty
About the brutal sacrifice
Of those we prefer as food.