Pilgrimage: New Year's Eve: Final Steps And Then Home

we have journeyed

hand in hand and side by side

blue skies and gray

somedays the road was too solitary to be borne

and yet I knew that somewhere in a pocket

a glass of wine

or a poem

you were there beside me

no pilgrimage ever ends

so long as heartbeats and words

are remembered

Pilgrimage: Last Few Miles: Closing the Trunk

put the ornaments away
drag the tree to the curb
blow out the candles
sweep the last crumbs from the floor
the year is closing like an over-due library book

Anticipation's Night

The simplest signs
mark a path of marking
another sacred eve

necklace of families
squared, clasped hands 
emanating light

as we trudge or dance 
the periphery
as though

children again with 
no questions but
to follow

Pilgrimage: As We Reach The End: Soltice

one more night of Autumn then dark descending

that beautiful black with stars unending

hush the light is fading

smile the heartbeat breathing

light will follow beauty bending

while our hands and bodies are blending

Amen! Amen! Amen!

Near Solstice

so few nights left in this chill
Autumn one week and Winter
will be here and bitter weather will continue or not
we prepare
for snow
for wind
for rain
for shelter
for cold hands
for warm hearts

Uncounting: Pilgrim Ground

Everything is frozen now
while I remember 

canyon shadow
eat the recall 

of unwrapping
jacket tied at my waist as if

wading into weather
the next step

white bite blanketed 
hallowground

Pilgrimage: Three More Weeks:Waning

we ate the last
bit of raisin bread
I baked it early this week
along with a plain white loaf
the simple deliciousness of it
fresh from the oven
or the soup I made on Monday
simple acts of thanksgiving make
me long for that sweet taste of the host
when bread meant Eucharist for me