BEGINNINGS IN FOOTSTEPS

Beginnings sounding of arid days with days too many
of sweltering sun, searching for shade, waiting for night
and the coolness setting in softly touching skin in relief

where stepping lightly on asphalt cushioned the burn
until calloused feet screamed less wanting ever only
to walk the sands of beaches and to soak in a saltwater
ocean and close eyes to the brilliance and drift away

to step in life’s millions and millions of footprints
each made with tenuous and anxious anticipation
hands always reaching out trying to touch the future
new beginnings are filled with Nature’s pine and fir

each day more precious than the day before the one
woke up to where quiet is profound in whisperings
and the boughs of trees tremble as the wind touches
each leaf to the tiniest pine needle shouting a presence

that only ever rivals the ocean waves distantly breaking
upon the ocean shores you once trod in the beginning
but never truly the beginning of where those footprints
would lead to another place and new shores not distant

where dreaming in another star filled night only shines
a light on memories old and new that are your life
woven together upon land and sea beginnings

© Reneé Espriu

Photo is My Own Digitized As Art

The Spiritual Heart

The turmoil of this world will not diminish
the beauty of the earth we call Gaia
nor will it dampen the spiritual heart

though the fear of the unknown harbors
doubts, remorse and pain the sun will rise
to reveal clarity of what is tangible

Image Taken From Public Domain Photos & Digitized As Art

Dreamscapes

Life imitates dreamscapes not defined within illusion
fleeting images of happiness only written in a song
where you tumble freely like Alice in the rabbit hole
grasping at the path that will carry you along

in colors brilliant that set you apart from the crowd
carrying you light hearted past lyrics more than song
where sun and moon shines a landing upon a billowy cloud
footsteps now inside your dream for life has come along

Photo Is My Own Digitized

Glittering Spider Webs

The mornings now are chilled and brisk
dew heavy on lawns and gardens
droplets of water glittering, sparkling
upon spider webs left until the sun
rises upon the horizon and the web
once more catches insects in it’s net

but more note worthy is what will ensue
as the days grow shorter and nightfall
longer announcing a change in Seasons
an introduction to the vibrancy of color

as foliage begins to die but not fade
in each sepia, amber, russet and scarlet
leaf that clings to it’s beginnings
before letting go to settle into sleep
anticipating Spring to begin once again

© September 2021 Renee Espriu

Photo Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Created As Art

The Mystery of Words

There can be a tempest within my soul
on days where I’m unable to see the light
from a sun that is surely bathing me
in the heated glow of its’ rays

yet there are those days when the rays
of brilliance from that same sun radiate
through me and fill the day with bird song

song that touches every living creature’s
being with two legs to four legs to none
for even the tree feels the vibrations
in trunks, branches and fluttering leaves

leaving me in awe of it all, of the mystery
of the unnoticed brilliance of communication
the musical enhanced scores all around us

those are the days I again recall the words
whose magic enables me to speak from my heart
where the wordsmith rises again within my soul
a mystery e’er but the ocean tempest is stilled

© August 2021 Renee Espriu
Photo Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Created As Art

Rapids Shining Like Diamonds

The languid Naches River
may seem spiritless or slothful
as it meanders on it’s way from the Yakima River

but as it becomes the Tieton River
with rapids swift and shining like the sparkling
of diamonds in the sun’s reflections
it can become treacherous
to those unbidden

© July 2021 Renee Espriu

Photo Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Created As Art

The Killdeer and Red Clay

The Killdeer takes short running steps
in the grasses of Wyoming, reminiscent
of the Sand Plover on the beach
a sandy shore sparkling in the sun

singing their short high pitched song
creeping stealth but hesitating
then stopping to take in their
grassy surroundings

this they do each day routinely
as I take my walk in the heat of day
the winds gusting around me
that threaten but do not sway

for the scenery is new to me
a visitor here, as I admire contrasting
greens with that of the red clay earth
touched by iron oxide in Nature

in a landscape seeming barren, lacking
stretching toward the horizon line
is still teeming with life unseen
beauteous if you but take time to see

© June 2021 Renee Espriu

The Sky So Close

This evening when I took my dog out I stood in awe
as I have done very few times in my life while looking at the sky
the clouds of gray and white as the sun broke through
I have felt this before but so rarely
I felt as though I could touch the very blue of the sky
as though it was so close it became more solid before me
instead of part of the Universe that surrounds me
the clouds felt the same as though they were so very close
I might touch them and feel the mass of them
even though they drifted about me and did not stay still

there may be one who causes everything in life
to look more beautiful than it has ever felt before
when I was a very young girl before everything changed
I might have looked at Nature in such a way
in wonderment of its very being
but now, incredulous as it may seem and it does
my world is as beautiful to me as when I was a girl
a world that holds me in awe and I am entranced
by the mystery of it, the magic of it
and life now begins anew

© March 2021 Renee Espriu

Image Taken From Public Domain Photos & Created As Art

Waking to Life

Being alive, feeling alive is
having been awakened
Being alive, being awake
All feel as having been
resurrected

The sun’s rays shining brightly
as the brisk morning is
late of frost diminishes,
relinquishes, is vanquished
& is gone

So life is new and all signs
of disease and suffering
begin to recede into
the distance
of my being

The future awaits brightly
as a glimmering beacon
admonishing gently
to not fear

for everything right is still here
& will be here in the blinking
of an eye, in the fluttering
of a heart beat new

in all that is a gift we can see
in each breath we take
in all the beauty of nature
if we but take time
to see

© Renee Espriu April 2020

This Photo Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Created As Art

Nature’s Deluge Radiant

A storm shattered the quiet of the night
the calm still air broken by gusts of wind
bringing a deluge of rain in beating
against the house to run in sheets
down the window panes

but the morning breaks and with it
sun shining,, patches of blue sky
the remains of puffy white clouds

the storm merely a harbinger
of good things to come
bringing change in its’ wake

for change is the herald, the messenger
of hope and of promise radiant
in showing that in each new day
there will always lie the beginnings
of new things

as rays of sun light the paths well tread
there will be another cross roads
down which a new path will be taken
and life will move forward
once again

© April 2020 Renee Espriu

Photo Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Created As Art