there you were…

bowing into the dusty earth

head kissed in sacred emotion

awakening in the night to be with the beauty

delicately hanging over the creek, wide-eyed in wonder

naked in the daylight

   in the river

      in the Self

the stories are living on

   in this body

      in our bodies

         in the great Body of our mighty home

breathing

moving

lightning

ageless reformations of rock, temple, artifice, unraveling…

Did you see them?

awakening again to the dawn chorus

to the great mystic togetherness

opening in reach

as if to become

again

whole

They came in under the flags of a broken republic

amidst so many miles

and answered the call

together

An empty-faced Buddha,

as forgotten trash heap

and cotton-candied insulation spread by the gails

was the gateway:

'are you really ready?'

'who is here, now?'

echoes still lingering like scents

mingling with the burgundy and vanilla ponderosa

and still

they came north

past their own gates

past the mess of forgotten dreams

past their deferred lives

and in…

opening our big hearts

we played in the forest

at the horse fly locale

and found our doodles

and should yin practice

we got feral, like the bear

and moved through the growl portal

into new terrain

to let go

'what is wild in this heart'

was so beyond the rooftops of our knowing

and so beyond any managed time

and irreverence

pine tree moments

owls and chipnuns

stupas of remembering

as we built sacred community

like weavers of silver webs

sharing our names and our un-name-eds

we let our brokenness become the salve

for the light

to return

'the shaman's path is upside down and inside out'

echoes on

there was time, enough time

there was space, enough space

there was love, so so so much love

I swore I wasn’t gonna cry

and even one morning that I wouldn’t even talk to anybody

but they cracked me open

And I am now openly grateful

In land of no outlets

I was moved

touched

loved

filled

connected

got low

got high

listened to the wind

cried in the thunder

even though, at times, we didn't feel like ourselves

and arrived unprepared

the dawn chorus unpecked those inner hidden locks

and brought forward the stirring

we were there

and the hail stones too

Did you see us?

sobbing at both sides of the threshold

and so many parts between

It wasn't about me/us

It was about the vast wild mystery of this divine world

and all the expressions of existence

it was about all of us Earthlings

our lineages, all, were weaving

life again into us

as we took the mantle of responsibility

once again on and in

to embody the change

the vitality

the wild aliveness and great turning

of an ecosomatic bloom

were we in the nest?

had we flown away?

or were we underground,

in some cave-y way?

who can say

who can say

    who

but the fragmentations of our wounds

became the material for our healing

where every end is a beginning

and every beginning

is a prayer

Sometimes we must stop

just stop

to unearth again that which is tangible

from the duff of these internalized conquests

   of life in the city

      at the edge of Voice

         and the thin line of choice

shaky

tender

fear-ridden

and simply again let ourselves

be

dig with bare hands into our soft lives

walk with bare feet across and into the true body politic

a homecoming like no other

like life

remembering

to be life

landing, we arrive,

bowing, we lift off

<3 tbird

[A collection of emergent poetics from the School of Lost Borders 2025-2026 Ceremonial Immersion. This is found poetry of wilderness ceremony.]