Breath (from the book Blue Bridge)Whispering to myself With every step I take, Trying out names, for I know There is something yet to be called ….. I know it, something up ahead Just around the vendor over the rise – A bird taking to the sky From the edge of a jagged cliff – A bird floating outwards In silence ……. A silence Waiting for a footstep To crunch on stones, For a voice to fling upward Through sharp sunlight With a name…… calling Before the bird could call Before the bird called.Oh, the bird was there alright And sure it took flight When it heard me approach But it broke my herewith a mighty croak! So I’m sitting here playing With a purple flower Slender stem, no leaves Purple fizz –And it’s quiet again. I am still am nothing And the hills a long, long slope Down, down, down to the sea Far below. I could roll I could run could scream But I am nothing. A cool wind blows And the light is naked and nameless And the rocks are faces of angels And the bird in the sky wheels And cries to forget the earth And its ancient bones –Oh, sensual pain – Wings…. Wings…. Wings, Singing wings. If only I could begin To describe the emptiness Which fills me to the brim With new breath might almost lose my name And take instead a feather for my soul.