Foolish Creatures

Flowers are foolish creatures
All the pomp and show
The frills and the put ons
The color, the light

So much work
For Beauty
Truer than words

Every petal unique
Flavored
Born with sass
And too much too say

Though some whisper so quietly
You’d think they were silent

And when a flower holds a pen
To perfect paper
Mountains crumble
With the crack and fall of kingdoms

And the music
Which every flower breathes
In every rhythm
To the far reaches of the Universe

Strikes the moon and stars
And every constellation
Barreling their way into eternity

To stop
(And see)

Only a most foolish flower
Continues to unfold
When the dangers great and many
And chasms of the world lurk
Just outside its humble shell

And when the bursting comes
Opens fully
Wide and with as much heart and soul
We living can muster

The wind weeps around her
Like an adoring tide
Of potential quicksilver

God,

As I know that idea to be
Created many a foolish flower

I can only reach
And offer
That one such very foolish flower

Might be me.

by. Rachael Ehrlund

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Stories

if I could reach
your brittle
branches
I’d kiss the sky
transcendent blue
cornflower
crayola
the shade of bachelor buttons
painted across a willing air
no cloud
no puff of distraction
only the swift
whoosh
thoughtfully
music through the whitewashed
leaf bare trees
dancing
glorious
I wonder if they can hear
the grace in their wings
wisdom
I bow to
ancestors
waving
calling for a vision
listening deep
blue
see.

by. Rachael Ehrlund

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Holy Is

What good human is not a terrible pyromaniac
What genuine liver of lies could do less than acknowledge the power
In the fire of rebirth

Who could fail to see the beauty in the burning
Of old selves and places yet to have been visited
Of thoughts without form
Or ideas without grounds

To watch them fester
To watch them sizzle
To see them dissolve into a fog of mist and light

Who could live that violently
And refuse to see the mystery
Who would not shake the shadows of the selves they have not been
And the selves of people they will never be

And see the undisputed color
The insufferable holiness of the color that they are

Who does not marvel at the beauty of the passing night
Who does not see the gorgeous sun
The setting of the day
Letting the past be nestled into places
Soon to be gone

And burn

I am that someone
And I call to my family of selves
My souls, beyond the me that I know
And I say, stand with all that I am
And that which I will never see

And suffer with me
Be destroyed
And revel in the freedom

Of that which we might become

We are more than the seeming of embers
We are less than the falling of trees

We are altogether a terrific something
Hardly anything to put a flesh and finger on

We are life.

by. Rachael Ehrlund

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Of Love and Rainbows

For Everyone.

For You. <3

The turning of every page
Is all so beautiful to me
And whether you soar or you fall
I will love you

There is no answer. There is no end
To the story I see in you
And I could no sooner pick a fonder chapter
Than a more beautiful flower in a growing field

The same. Yes
But different.
Of their own choosing
For their own reasons

And who am I?

Who am I?

To fail to fall
To bend my knee
To worship at your holy humanity

Who am I?
To think that someday past or future
Some day other than this very breath
You could possibly be more beautiful

Who am I?

Somewhere you remember, too
As we stood amongst the willing
Waiting to begin

Who am I to fail to praise you?
To honor where you have been
And where you are now

I will not compromise my love
Or bend into some old form
Less wide

I am the same purple that glows in the sun
Smiling for passers by

And the colors in your eyes
I am shown
Are my reason for existing

Forgive me the beauty in the tragedy

I cannot keep myself from reaching
The deepest and the brightest parts and places
And wrapping them in my open arms

For who am I to miss the glory in your presence?

I will give you all of me
To be a witness
Because I am the pieces of you I came here to believe

Who am I to love you
Any less?

by. Rachael Ehrlund

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Otis

Into the light and away from the pain
Of potential tomorrows and days all but past
The expectation
The predetermined ideas of self worth
The flow of time and the drifting of space
A cold wind blows
A warm heart burns
And the hair upon our necks
Stands to attention

The leaves pile themselves roughly amongst the bushes
Tiny homes, scattered and makeshift
Built of passing dreams and frigid attempts
To control the changing of the cosmic scene

Leather books bound with fragrant stories
Carefully drawn shades perpendicular to the waning night
And comfortable friends waiting in the wings
To astound you with laughter
With loving

Though we all separately simmer with our respective fears
And cry out historically in the most similar of languages
Reaching through adjacent shadows for a hand to know
Today
We are heaven sent

Bonded in our weak places
To and by the people we have lived and been
And seen
Reflecting us

The grand communion of taking and giving
Respite
Sharing morsels of thought streaming down our faces

A family of lies and growing honesty
Our best paid attempts
Our truest plans
To shine

For each other
One another
We can surrender the need to fight
The need to hold

Mind open wide, hearing the grace of the light
In our souls
The life in our eyes
Blinking
Focussing
More than breaks the surface
Less than the barest of bones.

by. Rachael Ehrlund

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Chariots of Fire

He came into my world
When I didn’t know what it meant to be selfless
And taught me
With the smile in his eyes
How fresh to see

And the moon
Took on new shapes and colors
In his awestruck presence

And the sun, became a man
I could believe

Without the challenge
And the refuge
Of his sacred heart, beating wider that its name

Beside his quiet
Nestled between screams of joy;

I could not hear myself

And in his pain
I know the sorrow of forgiving

Within his laughter
There is healing
And purity of love beyond what men can say

An innocence I will protect
With every section
Every premise of my being, second hand
To his becoming
To my becoming
To our becoming

As the unit, and the friend
I never knew a kinder hand
With smaller fingers
In all the world
In all my life

To not forsake him
To ever promise
The strongest version I can be
And sometimes I cower
Half terrified of the honor bestowed
The ineffable
The unspeakable
Majesty

This is my beautiful ghost of a limb
And the beating of our hearts
Reaches well beyond synch

He has been my salvation
My Holy Moses
Of a gift
Of a son
Of a teacher

I fall on bended knee
And kiss his OM
And sing a prayer
And twist my tongue
And stomp my feet
Hands on my hips
Belly softer now
This moment richer
Sweeter
Stranger

I am the blessed One
I am the student

And He
Is My Meant To Be.

by. Rachael Ehrlund

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Jericho

I am in between the sheets of unwritten pages
Poised to find wet earth to sink my teeth into
Anywhere and anything is possible
There is no space to drown
The air is clear below and I breathe in the treasure of that eternity

My head spins with the certainty of my uncertainty
All things great and small exist together here
Holding hands and singing hymns on the eve of sure rebirth

Change by precious change I inch my way to freedom
To knowing who I mean to be and how I plan to stand
And for what
Wherefore art thou after all

This is my hallelujah
Unbreakable promises to a higher self than I imagined
I will persist in my shining originality
I will embrace myself honestly

I will eat cookies filled with laughter and drink deeply
I will soar above the clouds of my disillusionment

Hope is the stuff of fairy tales and thick pots bubbling with truth
And it’s time to write my own story now

The lines that came before were prefacing this moment
These pages are determined to turn with the tide
To rise and reach, to crash and grow

To embrace my journey home

Selah.

by. Rachael Ehrlund

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A Simple Song

Potential is pure
It can fly in any direction
It can walk away
It can crawl
Jump great distances
And melt

Possibility abounds
There is no roof
There is no ceiling
There is only sky

And green leaves for growing
Tall trees for climbing
Clouds for popping
Birds to interpret
Wind that whistles by

If only we could be that free

Ah

But we are-

That’s reality
Stranger than fiction
I heard them say

Hope
Fear
Love
Judgement

We are the happy choosers
Of our own destiny
And we can change
Wake up and play a new game

Every day.

by. Rachael Ehrlund

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We All Fall Down

To see and be seen
To know and be known

So liberating
So terrifying
So motivating
So awe inspiring

When there’s nowhere to hide
But you are given the space to run
And find yourself

That space inside the valley of time
That holds the mirror
That knows your name
And every nuance of your soul is there for the beholding

And upon gazing within
You are experience
You are allowed
To exist

Even the waters fall away sometimes

I have spent so much of my time running
And bending
Too afraid to break
To stand

Even the mightiest of fortresses cannot evade the Truth
Cannot hold back Peace

Glorious Birds will always have the wings to fly beyond
And those with eyes to see will know

They always know

Yet sometimes we are in need of being unseen
Until we come to the place of our own making
Ready to move out from behind the walls
Of our devising

Knowing then that time has come to heal
We can rejoice in reuniting
With those who have always believed

Regardless of what anyone has to say
Has to think
Thought to judge
Tried to force

There are always those who flew above
To lead the way
While trusting in our ability to find our own path

Who cracked
And stretched
And screamed
When silence was too much to allow

There will always be those who remind us to spread our wings
And see that we are able to be
Anywhere we choose to go

Together it will always be possible

We were born for greatness
Alive to shine
And be the very we that she conceived

We are never alone

But if we need to be
To run

There are so many mountains to climb
Bones to break
Pieces of soul to find
And mend
Holes to dig
Moments to pass

There is so much life to live

To rise to the occasion
To achieve

One honest breathe
One fateful glance
One touch
One voice

One Love.

by. Rachael Ehrlund

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Quiet Epiphany

I am more well than I seem to be
My balance stands on the ledge of eternity
Caught by the wind
Begged to dance
And leap

My heart beats with strength to the point of aching
And I listen closely to the silent wings that flutter by

The breeze of promise on my skin
The chance of life on my lips
Completely unknowing any words in any language-
Only peace, within the racket of uncertainty

Chains
Rusted, fallen
No longer binding ideas to their definitions

Clouded beyond where the spirit stands
Who knows
And floats upon the visible breathe of the sun

The morning

Our cages weep to have been forgotten
Crumbling into vintage piles of miraculous rubble
Mist spraying bits of joy into the air
Like particles of ecstatic remembering

Graciously Free
Terrifically Open
Unstoppably Present

With a refusal to forsake the moment’s destiny
She Speaks

She breathes in deeply
With harmonious sighing
And embraces the startling clarity

Of knowing nothing

Of feeling everything

And moving with her body
The flow of ancient rhythm calls her to a place of healing
She jumps
And let’s the world turn beneath her concrete feet

She finds that trust is a delicate garment
Hung about her carefully
And patiently
Sewn of wishes whispered on the wind

With Faith
She floats ashore
And finds no need for fancy footwork
in new lands of yellow brick
And golden honey

She thinks such similar thoughts
And lands amongst the peonies

Too bright to shine quietly
Too full of love to sing.

by. Rachael Ehrlund

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