#jason armstrong beck

From a Great Height

.

Until we learn

how to be present

in a single breath,

we shall remain but

passing thoughts

in continuous flight

looking down on

ourselves from

a great height

on our way to

somewhere else.

Shore Birds

.

This morning,

I followed a bird’s

footprints along

the shoreline until

they abruptly turned

and walked into the

sea and I wondered

if I should do the

same thing—imagining

myself walking deeper

and deeper across

the ocean floor until

the bird began to fly

and I began to swim.

In memory of my mother. The references in this poem are ones she would understand and I hope that wherever she is now, she may to get to read this with a smile.

The Tall Grass

-

The hallway smelled

of disinfectant and sage

as though somewhere in

the numbering of days

they hoped to disguise

the wilderness.

The arrows on the wall

pointed to where I had

been told to go then

followed me into the tall

grass and grove of

redwood trees to a field

of purple flowers that

sloped down to a stream

where behind a curtain

made from motes of dust

my mother lay in a sunbeam.