Pledge

Come home to me
let me be your home
your haven
a safe harbor
in your storms
your place
of solace and refuge
come home to me.

Be at home with me.
Feel that you belong
where I am
In these arms
An empty space
in the shape of you
where you are meant to be
 Be at home with me.

I'd do for you
Whatever I have to do
Fight battles
Wait years
Sail oceans of tears
I would kill
I would steal, I would do
Anything for you.

Walk next to me
through the night
and the day
hold my hand
all the way
if you get stuck
I'll stay till you
can walk next to me.

I swear to you
I'd prove it if I could
I'd cut out my heart
and nail it to yours
I'd burn up with the stars
I am yours. I am
yours. I am yours.
I swear to you.

(c) Tasha Chinnock 2013

Belewe Mone

The Moon is blue
She looks at us
From far above
And she is yearning.

Blue Moon shining
Pulling at my veins
Singing a whale song
To the Earth.

What if the Moon loves?
How can she say it
Out there in the cold
She floats, alienated.

She glows and hums
Resonant light
Loving reflector
Mooning for Oceans.

The Moon, like a woman,
Floats in orbit
Draws us closer
But never close enough.

(C) Tasha Chinnock 2013 

A Dream

In my dream, 
we walk amid sidewalks
and talk of dreams.
Our dream-life is reality
and I can dream yours 
and you see mine clearly.
And the sleeping fish 
we walk past,
with their vulnerable bellies,
don't mind us
we are only dangerous
on the inside,
the dream side.
We thrill and excite
over seeming nonsense
and you feel my heart race
and I know what you're thinking.
And I can sing to you,
and you remember something 
I said fifteen years ago,
and you do your silly tricks
and my eyes dance
waiting for your finales
and your punch lines.
And I would never 
wake up in the morning
and find that you'd
stopped dreaming.
I would never have
to wake up and try
to live this dreamless
fish bowl
nothing.

(C) Tasha Chinnock 2013

Offering

 
Take this prayer
Take this prayer
Take this silence.
This voiceless morning
These thoughts
These breaths
     Read them
     Know me through them
     They are for you.

Take these looks
Take these looks
Take this watching
The sighs
The smiles as
I notice what you've done
     Join me
     Delight with me
     In beauty.

Take this song
Take this song
Take my worship
It wells up inside
Take the hums
The whistles
     The words 
     I sing
     or whisper.

Take my heart
Take my heart
Take my searching
My intention
My desire
That sought you here
     I need you
     I'm calling
     I love you.

(C) 2013 Tasha Chinnock

Moony

Lately I've been hypnotized by clouds.
I go through too much of my day
Distracted and burdened,
Looking down,
Looking within.

Last week at the carnival, 
there was a chance in the hectic heat
for me to strap in to elastic ropes
and soar into the sky.
I jumped higher and higher,
Looking straight up
into clouds that opened up
like a door.

I felt out of my head,
rising without falling.
I lost focus and remained. 
Perhaps I took a quiet nap
Up in that blue retreat.

(C) 2013 Tasha Chinnock

The Deep Greenness of Early Spring

Child, a crooned lyric
She began as a boon
A pot of pure honey
A map of nearby stars

Her tan, bare feet
Ran on a lark
Kicked and giggled
Her youth song into the air

Storm clouds rolled in
Darkening that clear blue
That velvet ocean
Stifling her very atmosphere

A contrary garden sprouted up
Overnight she was a jungle
Roots white as worms
Nubby stalks of nettle

Milk-weed dripping
Leaves purple-tipped like bruises
What monsoon song is this?
Twirled by whirlwinds and swirling pools

I spurn gloves for this work
Her thorns deserve my blood
And what pruning or weeding
Can I claim any right to?

I'm blessed by her scent
A dab of nectar
A visit to the honeycomb
Which flourishes within her now

Her primroses enclose a secret
Still-budding bird of paradise
Flaming orange
Shouting angry verses with its spiked tongue

Crying and pounding paths
Untamed and unfinished
She will burst the gates
She will break out in full regalia.

But a bell still rings
A tinkling there in the trees
A hum and buzz
Among the blossoms

Yet she gazes up at starlight
Feels dusty ground underfoot
Still sweetens my tea
With her honeysuckle voice.

(C) Tasha Chinnock 2013

Tweet

Myself

I am an impatient sinner
Swearing more artfully than a sailor,
And then apologizing
in an endless cycle -
“I fall down, I get up, I keep on dancing” -
My heart spends penitent eons
face-down in worship
of a mighty, holy God,
baffled that he loves me
In spite of my vices.

I am a turtle-loving,
literature-shoveling,
artist-in-training,
Internet-dweller, with little freedom
for friendships in real life.
I am a compulsive
lesson-planner
list-maker,
ex-slacker, exhausted
from striving to succeed,
pushing myself ever forward
for the sake of three
who depend on me.

I am a homework-helper
Staying up late to have time
with my own kids
Responsible by necessity
Training myself to do it all
Early riser, bill wrangler,
housework hustler, mistress of car maintenance,
natural remedy distributing
Doctor of Motherhood
Specializing in selfless love.

I am a song-singing, story-telling
Hand-motion choreographer.
I am an eye-popping
Knowledge dropping
Guide to seventeen 5-year-olds
The Pudding Whisperer
Apronless painter
Science experimenting, air guitar rocking
Second mom to a school full
Of runny-nosed angels.

I am a solitary diamond
Too elegant for a mate.
Sleep alone, rise alone,
pray alone, wait.
I am not in a hurry
I don’t need to know
my future – the how or when -
I know the One in control.
My God is great.
I can wait.

I am harmless
I am fierce
I am silly
I am smart
I believe life is an art.
Not a science
Or a dogma
Or even a test.
I live each new day thankfully
I do my best.
And over and over
I am abundantly blessed.

(C) Tasha Chinnock 2013

Tweet

Feet In the Stream

This is real
Purity, natural
calm and serene
This is where you are
surrounding us
in your creation
Not in the cities and towns
busy and noisy
carnal and carnivorous
But this quiet
simplicity
Moving, breathing Earth
You are here.
In the heights of the trees
in the call of squirrels
and crickets and birds
In the endless song of the water
a song of communion
with you
Nature's best friend
constant companion here
It's true you are everywhere
But sometimes, though I seek, 
I can't find you there.
I find worry and trouble
and selfish flesh
I find need and priority
And every high thing that exalts itself
above a knowledge of you.
Nature exalts you,
not itself.
And when I sit here -
in natural silence -
Your voice is clear,
your presence obvious,
your love astounding,
your joy contagious.
Let me take it with me
when I leave this home.

(c) Tasha Chinnock 2012

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