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The lake this morning was satin,

shimmering in muted sunlight,

a fashion statement of grace and elegance

in this slow waltz of nature waking

in the grand ballroom of morning. 

The Tall Ships

A summer’s day, and a cool breeze

billowing the sails visible now

on the distant horizon, silent

and swift, a reminder, perhaps,

of a time of commerce and leisure,

the trade winds of another era,

another time, gone now, but

for a small instant, an instance

celebrated, relived in a collective memory

of time and yearning and pageantry,

the spirit of the sea uplifted.

Merida

Before Disney, there was no Merida, no fairy tale,

no myth, no folklore, just Scotland and its own legends,

monsters and unicorns, shapeshifters, the wee-folk, witches,

and the willow-o’-the wisps luring us off our course;

but there was a mother and a strong-willed daughter,

argumentative, vying for power, clashing

with tradition, desiring her independence.  And so,

Merida was born, dropped into Scotland, DunBroch,

refusing to marry the prince who would win her hand,

arrows shot, the best marksman winning, she besting

them all in this Disney tale of breaking with convention,

no prince to rescue her, for she must rescue herself, setting free

her mother, too – trapped inside herself – from the bear she had become:

 

a new princess, a modern princess, breaking the mold

set by Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, rescued,

a modern woman, bravely, now, setting herself free.

River Town

In a river town, we, too, are carried by the currents,

strong currents coursing to the sea, wending their way

from the mountains through inland towns, great fields,

and large tracts of forests perhaps uninhabited,

perhaps unexplored, an expanse of fir and pine

and oak and elm, birch and poplar, green to gold,

to rejoin the oceans, vast and powerful, a great unknown,

a destination fated somehow, inescapable, a joining,

a resting place we seek to return to,

and we, in a river town, are called, pulled

by the currents of that river running through us,

currents carrying us to the sea,

currents carrying us home.