Light in a sapphire over exquisite wine
campfire-light and shadows
on a redwood grove,
Daughter of Ceto naked in the ferns
waterfall pouring behind you
guarding the portals of Salmon Creek
sun of all worlds our fiery heart
Diablo winds coming in
news of a fire somewhere, Big Sur summer.
Home, a sunlit-cliff overlooking the ocean
dark paintings of saints and royals
Greco-Roman urns, your bed
a gondola of dreams,
half-awake I saw you holding
a truss of tiger lilies–
It was like running in a forest fire,
I could not see a way in your wilderness.
How like a sorceress you scolded me
“You’re riding a runaway with no reins”
under your spell that was our way
wild stallions galloping
on low tide waves of unending blue
we raced headlong into calamity
hallucinations of a lasting love.
How much happens by your own doing
not much— I am walking on water now
my life, running through fire the world
smiling at whatever it seems,
nothing can take me unawares
for all we are is all we do to have it
love… is always a variation on a theme.
Salmon Creek, Big Sur, California
