Intense and Joyful Blue


Intense & Joyful Blue

		Here, don’t be alone, take one of my poems with you. And when this hard, sick, crazy world has gotten to be too much, when you are lonely, at the end of your rope, just read this book. And remember, you can keep the spark of love burning deep, in some small corner of your heart, and no one has the power to take it from you, to put it out. It’s yours. Keep it. You are love. You are whole. Sincerely, Anna Ione March 2003

	Slow Down	This Is The Gift
	We were sick. We were broken. You saw us sitting on the sidewalk, and you passed us by. We were sad. We looked funny. We were, maybe, a little scary. So you looked the other way. But today, I’m asking you to stop. Just for a moment to say “Hello.” Not because I want to take something from you. I think you should stop. Slow down. Take a moment. To discover, the beautiful flowers lying at your feet.	Oh, I see, this is the gift, to be out here in life, to touch life, before it is taken. To feel alive. In this place, here, now. Yes. Stones, and the smell of creek water. And the trees, cascading leaves, spinning, fluttering, golden dreams around my head. And the sweet sound of water over stones. Whispering trees. My body. My blood. My hands writing these words. My feet touching the earth. You were telling me all along, return to the earth. She’s calling you back home.

	Intense & Joyful Blue	Touch The Earth
	It’s like paradise, but not quite. The trees are golden green, and rusty red, pale lavender and gray. Cherry trees, a garden full of flowers, peas, lettuce, and herbs. The seasons are mild. Like an earthly heaven here. But, the people don’t get along. Yet isn’t that always so? People don’t get along. The children play in the creek. Tie ropes to trees. Swing and jump, and splash, and play. I ask myself, why don’t people notice that? Their children are bursting with light and magic. I watch them from my window. Outside it is like an idyllic painting, a perfect beauty to rest in, and yet, so often , the others seem asleep from all this. Today I am secretly grateful that I can see the truth. My heart burns like a dark sapphire. Intense, and joyful blue. The world is new. Every moment. The world is new.	Why am I here? In this particular place, in this particular moment. I need to stop. To pause. Beside the soft, purple flowers growing alongside the roadway. Instead of, always, rushing, rushing, to somewhere that is ultimately nowhere. Because now the water is falling over the stones and the green grass is brilliant to my eyes. Those small birds moving and chirping, in the bushes. And I am alive now. I don’t want to always be on my way to somewhere else. Sometimes I want to be here. In the wholeness of the moment, and the beauty of what is. Could there be a greater gift than to just be alive, and reach down, and touch the earth?

	Into the Wild Grass	Begin Again
	What I love are these blue jays that come in the mornings. They chase all the others away, I don’t care. The blue of blue feathers is so deep and soft, I have touched them in my mind, and gone into the trees. What I love are these trees look at the bark closely, there are a thousand gradations of color there. At the stream, all is quiet, but the sound of water. Two deer, a buck and a doe, came up beside me today, within arm’s length. These are my loves. I have listened for a long time to the silence and gone deep into the wild grass.	Begin again, sooner or later Another fearless breakthrough Allows the grace of self-forgiveness to work in your life. Appreciate simple things apple trees, abalone shells, stones, stars and beetles. Your deepest longing is a wild thirst. All poetry is copyrighted by the author.