Linda Shticks

Lovely Linda Shticks walking slowly ever more free and clear

soaring higher always loving upon the breeze

untied, unrestrained and unworried

never a fearful day need be

only a moment comes

now and then

but she

loves

that

more

than she

can begin to say

so she flutters as a butterfly

bejeweled in her own glorious wings

spreading wider to fly deeper into the depth of her own

heart that grows ever warmer and larger like her soul she longs to know

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where does it lead

?????????

if not

???

??

??

??

?

?

?

?

?

to

your own

understanding of what

a beautiful part of us all you have been

and continue to be now

in this moment

where you

stand

with

us

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Shticks Drawing: Veronica Shticks Anderson

Underlying Photo: Chi King

Honoring: Linda Ienuso

Only One

A blue bird sings upon a vine as

crashing sounds of entwined communion

announce each wave's surrender to the whole

always withdrawing into nothing and everything

but never losing the place they forgot to claim

and the sunset paints your heart and mine

too far away to touch and yet inside

connected by golden threads

too thin to even be

and yet they

somehow

seem

to

A

sweet

touching

warm breeze

kisses the heals

of today as it spreads

ever wider and more loving

into the sea in some illusion

as old as time and as young

as your heart's next beating

inside this frame you claim

tenderly surrendering its

claim upon your soul

as if it was real

even though

you know

you are

only

one

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Photo: Elaine Erskine

Awaiting Your Light

At

night as

I came to grips

with my sleep I asked

how can you step so sweetly

in the green light of your knowing

without the brilliance of your clean boot

casting a shadow upon their table of hopes

inflaming their condemnation to their own peril

for you love them so deeply and truly like water

flowing freely around their frozen forms in time

sometimes growing sluggish like old honey

you have waited so long for this moment

that as it arrives you hesitate in love

carefully watching your shadows

growing longer by the day

loving them more by

the night of

their own

darkness

How you are

pleases me beyond

any hope of saying in words

in the truth I am coming to see before'

this long awaited leap can arrive complete

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Photo: Marc Adamus

Automatically

I thought I wanted to PLAY with you

but I've come to realize I want to BE with you

playing with you will happen automatically

but BEING will not

I thought I wanted to PROVIDE for you

but I've come to realize I want to BE with you

providing for you will happen automatically

but BEING will not

I thought I wanted to be with YOU

but I've come to realize I want to be with ME

being with you will happen automatically

you are wherever I am

unless

I am not with myself

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Photo: Liliana Karadjova

Questionable Arms

A

warning

thrown down

so easily unnoticed

only some steps away

from tsunami's submission

nestled safely by some loving arms

brought from within by some questions

embracing the flood so tenderly

so enthralled by her beauty

stemming destruction

within a moment

now calming

structured

serene

to be

you

you

reaching

growing to see

how you can obtain

some grip on your liquidity

as there comes a perfect moment

within reach of your own strong arms

more like your self in balance here now

as you relax and allow to be still

ingrained patterns die swiftly

if you'll ask them to leave

with a loving heart that

finds a new balance

still in the night

questioned

away to

hover

and

be

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Sketch: Unknown Artist

Inspiration: Un Asleep

Sometimes Kissing

Warm breath flowing from your mouth

smelling the essence of you so divine

I stand inhaling what was inside of you

into me and holding my breath sweetly

long enough to know I have tasted your soul

feeling the touch of your cheek upon mine

some rush of tenderness swirls about

as I hope to remain inside your castle walls

if you do not banish me from your midst

by withdrawing your love or raising your bridge

So I look into your eyes that shine

through a million years in just one day

cutting across a universe of my fear

penetrating where no heart has been

knowing you have captured me forever

and how I welcome you to stay and grow

sometimes kissing days away entwined

or tending after those you love in order to

give you some space to call your own

watching you dance merrily in joy

or feeling your tender body push against my chest

as you sleep in my arms near my heart again

and I say the words in whispers you'll never hear

wondering if you'll awaken and brush me away

as I lay enthralled and entranced by your presence

then as morning kisses you awake so slowly

I come to see the sun rise a second time in one day

as you illuminate the room with the glory of being

I cannot help but bless you and be grateful

to have another day in your paradise

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Photo: Steve Hanks

Breathless Oasis

I

awaken

in darkness alone

but thinking of you my heart

soars flying to the horizon beyond

my birthright into the heart of being and

self I know as me he who has become and is

becoming all he can be and whatever he will be is

guided by a light that somehow glows more brightly

when you appear in this oasis vision to quench

this thirst that leaves me breathless

at the approaching hour when you

will arrive at my doorstep anew

again as you have always

been here with me

ever since the

beginning

of time

and

me

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Photo: Pierre Boisgontier

Praising Their Existence Into Being

Down

some moonlight

drifting on a stream of honey

into your life upon sweet golden wings

a kiss of slow awakening glows on a perfect night

turning bright as the sun becomes small and your heart

illuminates the sky open now all boundaries smeared away

no space that takes no room at all only crying to know

itself in knotted splendor crawling upon knees

of praise so pure that heartbeats stop

because there is no time between

these lips praising their own

existence into being

by their divine

devotion

calling

out to each

other they become

one with what is only just

one way of knowing completely

as some curvature emerges into view

and blushing sighs begin to know a finer day

turning into night twisting into ecstasy

spreading wider or clamping tighter

at the sound of cascades that

begin to emerge sweetly

into broad waves

beating hearts

wanting to

know

themselves

again and again

ever more fully and deep

as they become more one each time

they fold into a sweeter trance

more together less apart

more and less

becoming

as one

ever

is

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Watercolor: Steve Hanks

You Can Fly Again

In the afterbirth you float

just some days past your circle's crossing

again somehow there comes a shadow

upon your golden path much like a child just born

as you yourself were born again today

out of a warm womb's caress into a world

much colder with harsh lights and sharp sounds

Easily it happens to forget the remembering

and here you sit without description

you call to be known and loved

hoping some mother might find arms

to embrace your beating heart

and deliver the prayer's promise you desire

snatching you away from the threatening doom

and delivering you again into the land of kisses

where you belong to your whole self again

So here we are with you who never left

always more than at your side we are within you

woven in some way a thousand time within every strand

and here we stand together all at last forever

if only you can feel the blood that courses

through you heart out to your limbs

you'll feel the raindrops that we are

smothering your fear and animating your sweetest dreams

But here you sit

at the crossroads of your own tender contemplation

only does the sky fall to remind you of your own fear

or sag when your fear calls it to strangle you again

But you can lift

up your eyes and see the truth that shimmers clear

free for the taking as you wander not alone but together as one

But that's the choice to make

and in our prayers you might find hope

and in your hope you might find the way

the way that is yours to have always and forever

just by clicking together your ruby slippers

give yourself permission to be free

you can fly again

in the love

we have

for you

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Watercolor: Steve Hanks

Child of My Dreams

Child of my dreams floating warm and free

captive deep inside of me you swim

leaking in a way you show some swollen sign

so that others wondering ask somewhat shy

what are you dreaming and how does it grow

I only can tell them I do not know

Captivated by my own creation

I look to the sky for a sign of peace

dripping from my heart I find

nothing really binding as it climbs

a tall mountain rising up out of the sea

I find myself wondering what will it be

With my small heart walking now faster

singing a song that knows its own end

but will not betray its pleasant way

before its gestation time is through

so it trickles along like a river wide

gaining strength from deep inside

And I'm left only painting broadly

on this moving canvas of my kin

pulled at edges by sharp knives threatening

struggling for my attention and curiosity to end

but then a strange green light floods over me

and suddenly I find I can let it be free

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Photo: Susan Brandt Graham

As We Draw Our Lives

With steadily trembling hands you shake

as you draw your life into our books

walking out of your mystery into our mist

dawning like the sunshine's kiss upon cold shores

you warm our hearts and sustain what is us

And we tremble too at the thought

that just like you our vision has been thin

only now coming into focus

as we draw you within our reach too

we warm your heart and sustain what is you

Drawing ourselves into being as we do

every moment as our leafs spin and bob

upon the river that is us together

emerging from our mutual loving fog

into the brighter morning we will bless

And now in strangely tear filled eyes

joyous at the coming sunset

that will close the door of yesterday's promise

giving consideration to tomorrow's gestation

of the vision of us joining each other's lives as one

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Drawing: M.C. Escher (of course)

The Promise You Finally Keep

Fair young maiden alive and sweet

decorated before your time is spent

with self recognition ringing through

as your heart breaks free to sing

a simple song of staying true

a simple song of being you

I see your eyes now glistening

wet with tears that hover hanging

seldom flowing in these strong days

unless a child's heart touches you

a child of any age inclined

one just like yourself refined

You walk into a mist you've missed

wearing your veil unfastened and free

glimpsing around a corner stone

below the branch of yonder tree

your thinking laid aside this day

you've come here only just to play

And play you do with angel's wings

flying above the clouds you bring

to shade the sun from reaching deep

into the naked heart that speaks

of joyful moments spreading wide

without a need to run or hide

Standing tall in a prefect pose

smiling across time's empty tick

that doesn't come to sweep away

the sandcastles you have built today

as approaching in your steps not meek

the sight of you has let me speak

And indeed I speak in joyful chorus

praising you beyond heart's tender grip

that doesn't seek to hold in chains

the timeless beauty that you drip

as I behold your considered leap

into the promise you finally keep

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Watercolor: Steve Hanks

To Hear Their Own Wisdom

In the sweet warm water of a new life

I find myself floating in your ocean basking

seeing the source flowing into your basin

from the mountain's wise glaciers cracking

yielding their secrets to the pool of you

cold and fresh crisply they come in whole

warmed by the body that's already there

mixing and displacing what is now due

for spilling over the dam's cascade

And as you leak the churning sweetness

touched with the twist of your loving hand

fresh air mixes into the bubbling foam

preparing it for new ears to hear

and children's voices to behold

with wonder as you allow pretty creatures

to float within the river of your graceful love

to enchant their longing to know

providing a focal point that may allow

their pretty hearts to stop beating

long enough to hear their own wisdom

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Watercolor: Steve Hanks

How I Might Taste You

How I might taste you

in each curve of your being

entwined below each fastening

that I breath apart with my patience

cherishing you longer than any could last

I find some deep meaning in your kiss

and there I know tranquility that gives

your new light to a forgotten day

beholding you naked in form

I gasp at my reaction deep

as you unfurl your beauty

and lay yourself open

With eyes of disbelief

at last alone in darkness

that is warmed by a glowing

that touches candles into flame

and quenches raging fires

that have burned a thousand years

to know the taste of your sweet kiss

and suckle the wisdom that flows

from every pore of your being

into every crevasse of my heart

that is open to love you

Fly in to this circle my angel

and see this place to lay your head

in this honey field of golden laughter

that I've prepared for your blessing

where I have labored long to make

myself a better man so that you

can finally fly free and be you

the you I long to see dancing

across the body of a rainbow

into the sunset upon ocean

where God has called you

to be his Goddess sweet

Come into bloom with your soul open

to be touched with every sweetness

and told a thousand evenings

you are the one I have known

would someday bless my shores

without crashing upon my beach

but only walk upon water

that kisses your feet

and says your name

that I love to hear

Be my sweet lover some night

for as long as you care to stay

in my open arms and hands

that long to wash your cares

and kiss each one of them away

making a pillow of hearts

perfectly suited to you

because I have watched you

and know the way you move

and how you love to lay

Then let me just gaze

at your loving image

as you sleep in silken covers

ruffled by a warm gentle breeze

blowing across your fine form

as I protect you from hiding

any longer in a dark cage

because I have freed you

to be yourself in full

by freeing myself

and loving you

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Watercolor: Steve Hanks