My 60 Years

And swam naked under the Burney falls

I’ve been cross country skiing in Yosemite

And slept within her granite walls

I’ve soaked in Napa’s hot springs

Under the harvest moon

And floated over the Rockies

In a hot air balloon

I’ve camped in the Olympic rainforest

And in Four Corner’s canyonlands

I’ve been parasailing in the Hawaiian Islands

And found a native’s spearhead in Death Valley’s sand

I’ve slept on beaches in Mexico and Monterey

And once drove from Florida to LA alone

I did a Lomcevak in an old biplane

Never knowing if I’d make it home

I’ve spent the night at Mt. Angel Abbey

And heard the Benedictine monks sing

And rafted down the Rogue River

And did the Ashland Shakespearean thing

In 1980 I flew over Mt. St. Helens—

Right after she spilled her guts

I was humbled by the denuded landscape

230 miles of trees were just ruts

As a child I had adventures many

Living in Hawaii when it became a state

Both sides of Nature so awe inspiring

Paradise love turning to volcanic hate

Then let loose in the Pine Barrens of Jersey

Roaming Lakehurst’s woods, swamps, and lake

And exploring blueberry fields and cranberry bogs

With the best kids God could make!

We played kick the can and 123 Ringalario

I learned to cha cha, twist, and so much more

But one thing that I’m not so proud of

Is kiping candy from Mike’s store

Then we moved to Mississippi

When integration was still a dream

And in the depths of my soul

I can hear a Black woman’s screams

UFOs, Big Foot, and the Jersey Devil

Aren’t as scary as the man who crept

Into my apartment one summer night

While, I so blissfully slept…

And we lost John, and Martin, and Bobby

And many causalities to the Viet Nam war

When the Beatles lost John Lennon

I felt the dimming of that brilliant star

I’ve been daughter, sister, niece

Auntie Barb, wife and mother

Nurse, artist, poet, Reiki Master

Masseuse, friend and lover

I learned to crochet and embroider and cook

At my mother’s knee

And there have been illnesses, surgeries and scars

Knitted into the fabric of me

I’ve coached and supported birthing mothers

And hugged, and laughed, and dispelled fears

I have nursed and comforted dying loved ones

I have held many hands and wiped away tears

I have “saved” the dolphins and the whales

And have been nursed by the Pagan Mothers

I have studied the Tao and Zen and Rumi and Jesus

The Mystic Masters and so many others

But I’ve always sensed there was something more

And with an appetite that couldn’t be sated

I have grabbed for the brass ring

Or sometimes I patiently waited

Then I fell into a loamy darkness

Creative juices washed over me

And in my blindness to the World

I could finally see

My heart shattered into a million pieces

With a love that knows no bounds

It cleansed my mind of all preconceptions

I found the silence of sound

The wisest thing I have ever learned

Is that every gift given—is a gift received

As both sides of the coin turn into one

The birth we rejoice is the death that we grieve

When love becomes whole

With no boundaries or parts left out

There are no judgments, no concessions,

No desires, no death, and no doubts

And that is how I love you, my child

You who stand for all and for none

Perfection is there in all your doings

There is no sin—so say the Sacred Ones

And I may write of past adventures

Of days of joy and nights of woe

But it’s all memory—words— just smoke and mirrors

Life is NOW and this is ALL I know

©bjbeyers 2014