Published in Cathexis Northwest Press (again...the second time CNP has published me). Out in the March, 2026 issue.

From Mud Emerging 

rain comes early this fall
or so habit alleges
 
a November skyful
of sun has drawn
a white flowering
from the black dirt
in the nearby hills
 
there you walk to celebrate
the season’s edges
where mycelia have woken
to see you
 
their roots connect
the broken will
in the underground –
here there is no place
that does not make you
 
on these humdrum trails
you walk to root out ignorance
and take steps to stop
the myriad screens
that first cause
a fake you
 
here fungi, not the lotus,
remind you
 
*
off the trail
on a small track
to the steep cliff
where the raw light falls
to the darkness
at the bottom
of Baldwin Creek draw
           
picnics once here
or prayers
leave breadcrumbs the size
of chasms
 
the lie in your grasp
has trampled the grass
on this edge
of your wilder nature –
your hand grips
the local rock
 
the coastal mudstone
crumbles as the path
comes to a crag
 
*
these small trails
are mysteries
and dead ends
leading to a leap
in the freefall
of dharmakaya –
 
the main trails:
thoughts begin
small trails:
thoughts end
 
you pay attention to beginnings
more than cessation
 
it is embarrassment,
isn’t it? the very peril
of what you think
 
in the end
the dark winks
to take contrivance
to the edge
and push it off