The Beginning of  Land of Sands

With the tunneled, targeting, vision of the honorable, red-tailed hawk I scrutinize each flatteringly iced, truth-giving spruce in this silent place.

Native symbolic markings and quixotic lines of connectivity… mysterious and questionable… dance fervently on my fearful face.

My lighted vision leaves my earthen-clay colored cores in emotion-moving, salted slits.

A release of honest hope in bright, magnetic green build like the strength of watery currents around me… inwardly sighing… the awkward pang leased from the metaphysical wounds in the pits

At an instant, an unexpected kaleidoscope of marigold lights and glorious power symbolized in the form of a lion blind my sight.

In fearful haste, nowhere to flee…oh dear…., I burry my face forward into the mounds of earth adjacent to me….my fragile hands unsteady….. guarding the vision I have at the back of my head with all my might.

Hair of pure light and sun, wondrously feathered, gloriously gilded plates of armor fitted… artfully and blatantly cloaked in flashing blood red... 

The gentlest speech escapes his lips…first in ancient old and then in modern new….

”Rise my little child-like one”. “Lift your eyes to the guiding one above…lift your weary little head!” For it is the right time to instruct you…for you must travel through the heated desert ahead…..I must tell you what you must do.

Mend thy shoes, Heart must be worn in pure and shield shined and true

Keep advancing forth through the sands of heavy heat and relentless wind…..wait for the signal....when you are ready my child-like one...the signal I will give you….

The Hermit's Journey

Senses of six sourly pressed under a magnum of sulky silk...the sound deeply unsettling…channeling eccentric vibrations around me…setting it all a sink.

Monstrously confusing the invisible fresh lively-hood of their mysteriously masked synchronization...breaks the infinite importance of their link.

Irregular tremors, tumbling pressurized waves of reverberation crush phoenix’s hope-filled wings….leaving his perfectly honest armored chest battered and a tare.

Hands torched and burning at an unfound temperature, perspiring hands frantically furrowing and desperately clasping every tool rustically orchestrated in my trench ….a deliberately disorientating, unwanted, robust, tang, man-made, salted, flame choke my vision…

Dangerously pushing link into contradictory worlds of 4 … trustworthy heart please help … I am blinded like a bat…please lead us with the well-guarded ancestral elements of earth and air…let them confuse us not in the direction of our mission.

Pure projections spring from my child-like heart…shut-eye blinding beams of wisteria skillfully shade the honored heavens … volumes of gleaming sun-glow sherbet, violet red, and soothing lagoon periwinkle sprinkles… ruby shaped pebbles encircle this place of plush silence … primordial groves of glassy, glinting, minted evergreens iced with the concrete purity of truthfulness gather midland… ultimate forgiveness and unconscious respite call softly inviting me… sweetly lulling with the scent of lavender and the sound.

Land! I roar. Clumsy fingers on the left tugging and slipping away from the worn leather reins and mothering right on phoenix’s tell-tale gashes… confusingly guiding his targeted aim…flailing, floundering, and flipping all ways...sliding sideways…awkwardly descending…thought process chained and bound.

Crash! Slink…Slide…Landing like a hell-tossed flounder on the unyielding density of dirt.

Like the valor of the Siamese cat sacredly gifted with lives of nine…hands firmly fisted and hardened…determination rooted at the very beginnings of the belly … slam forward and cleave at the life-saving fabric of my shirt.

With the utmost delicacy of the palm…softly humming tranquility into his worried mind… I gently lift and support my dearest phoenix …devotedly drape his miraculous, gentle being, and instinctively and safely secure him to my chest.

I take a moment to soothe and warm him…I cradle my cherished phoenix closer…denying, clouded eyes brimmed…my mind slipping…without him…how can I sense the light of day?

Blazing, unmerciful tense corrupt and cripple the conscious…No!No!No! I start to scream…Crazed strapping battle cry hurtles like the feathered keeper…travels through the revolving balance of ever flowing seams of the universe… Archaically, fire-molded chains broken…battle-torn they lay.

Lightened, spirited, anciently-guided force transpire, once carefully gated core…I give my phoenix quick loving nuzzle …feet start to rhythmically prance and proceed.

A silver-crowned, diamond-edged, mirror-reflecting shield drops from the calmed atmosphere above…the guiding ones speak…language absolutely drenched in safeguarded potency… chaste and clearly concise heart-speak…fear nothing my child-like gentle one….we will give you what you need.

Phoenix will rise from the earthen-fruited cinders in 4…. Freshly born even stronger in vitality, resilience, and in force …for now, you must like the lone, silent, careful, hermit… journey solely by following your feet and see not through the use of eyes but of the heart.

 Deflect their sullied spite, invidious sight, and hollow-hearted actions…pair this gift with the purity of light at all point on this fated passage…soon my dear little one…the golden cupped one will join you…decidedly fated as the winds, sun, and life….hold strong and fast….remember…with the light you should never part. 

The Gifts

A different passage now lingers and looms ahead…unravels in slow-motion like a pair of gauntly wound scrolls… shielding; resilient ribbons inaudibly unfurrow and slip away

 A fresh dimension of illustration extinguishes the existing creating this new sphere where the realm of realism and extrasensory or nonphysical radically rest on another in an unthought-of way.

A different type of flying is required of the rider, but one must embody strength of heart, amplified regularity of mind, and an altered use of eye.

Just to begin to comprehend and begin to unveil…one must have all three and all three you must couple, soundly safeguard, and tie.

Faithful phoenix slams through the countless collection of cumulous strands of clouds beneath us, and expertly lands on ground.

I hesitate for just a minuscule fragment of seconds, tenderly clasp my arms around phoenix, and listen for another signal or different sound.

My heart hears the wishes and the feelings of this land… instructions to heed here… …What is that you say? What is the nature of your call?

My heart hums and softens, my overly-excited mind joins my heart…. both start to waltz together… awakening the eye, which calls for peaceful, cleansing, rain to fall.

See! I hear them say…the immediate surroundings ricochet outward and melt into muddy, piercing emerald and earthen -clay tan colored cavern walls.

The bristling salty scent of thriving life brings my nose a flare… beckons me walk further into this place.

I can feel the vibrant mirth, the tiny bonds of energy dancing on my face.

I inquisitively touch the cooled, dampened walls… a torch appears adeptly tracking the placement of my hands

The musky, dense walls…articulately and skillfully contoured are linked with auspicious augur and tell-tale symbols…I begin to understand.

My mind races like the terrifying, tiger… stalking, springing, and conquering ….hunting without an ounce of fear.

I sense the presence of someone behind me….I turn….eying a weather-withered, shrewd, starkly- cloaked man…he steps in a little closer…he quickly draws near.

The aged, but sound sage’s fiery fingers tenaciously pull back exposing an oddly-warped apparatus …resembling a pirate’s sunken chest.

I instinctively reach over, insert the key, and turn it to the west.

The curious gadget swiftly props itself open, baring personal objects or gifts of three.

Gift one is an unusually elegant quill liquored and laced with the ability to create fateful movements for the senses to experience, but mostly to see.

Gift two is a rosy brick-hued apple masked in scribbled, squiggly names...who knows….maybe the digits will hit the threes?

Gift three is a gorgeously, but carefully embossed M booklet bizarrely divided by the letters C, N, and B.

The man’s eyes happily danced and brazenly basked in awareness, truthfulness, and something completely far-fetched and free.

I knew at that moment I had to choose one gift…one gift…..this choice is entirely  up to me.

Sands of Time

The winds are softly coaxing me, solemn, secretive, hushed tones are whispering to me, guiding me along this bewildering, but tranquil trail.

Temperament of the horizons have rolled into a misty plush of perplexing and blackened violet… deep-thinking grey hues rush into the unflustered silence … giving way to something unfamiliar and frail.

I carefully scathe the  top portion of the heaps of sand from the grandiose hour glass…letting some of it slowly slide and empty into the unwearied palms of my hands…

Time halts for a momentous moment … recognizable glinting beams of light spruce and sprawl like the captivating constellations of the universe… are suddenly dispersed into my world in the form of absent strands.

I surprisingly spotted this radiant light shining from a short distance some time ago… this fragment of time so precious...so gentle and uniquely extraordinary… heart thumped at a breathlessly exhilarating pace…twas something so rare....

Flashes of a genuine link or bond filled the accepting hollows of my mind…I remembered the dewy, shimmery, droplets of a smile and cheeky laughter, but see them rapidly recede and timidly thin into the air …

Must I do this again dear phoenix…my trusty ally? Is anything permenant? Why all the episodes of astray?

 Must I endure this...I fear I'll wither...must I feel the unwavering weight of dismay? 

 Must I see and feel them; wonderingly walk to and fro…?

The release of a watery splash…the diming of a light…Phoenix lovingly nods…I place the tampered sands back into the flow of time…..give it one last glance... and let go



The Signal

Written by Sonia Beard

06/02/2011

 

The coaxing, incredulous, currents tumultuously transcend over me and swiftly swath my being, coil me in transformation, penetrate and gingerly kiss my surly soul, prompting me to gregariously and fearlessly fling my limber limbs out and take flight.

I can hear their familiar, faint, mind-warming echoes of their softened whimpers …my amiable, honest ally, the wintery wolves secretly swarm…warily, cautiously watching…. with their piecing, pallid eyes gleaming…I can feel their pompous pacing and prancing in my veins… anticipation…boldly bracing themselves for the fight.

I let the calming currents of much needed change brush past the perceptive angles of my face…budding bristles of outdated old slowly swirl and gather in my meditating mind and like the archer’s bow….are tightly retracted only to be radically dispersed like untamed brutish waves.

I instinctively kneel and devotedly start to dig my tiny, inquisitive hands into the loose, elastic loams and earthen mounds of present and future….a shocking surge of tenderness and luminosity start to balloon and radiantly rupture from my unexposed palms...a forward secret path is what it paved.

I suddenly am aware of the frantic fluttering of a familiar peaceful, humble, perceptive, soul next to me…his perfectly sculpted beak, his feathers of well-worn travels, and his radiating spew of a crimson crown afloat…nostalgically nestled on his gracious head.

Its celebrated, glassy silhouette shape-shifts into previous forms: the ruby-red crowned crooning crane, the ravenous stealthy hawk, the spirited dove of devotion, to its final form... the all-knowing phoenix… appearing oddly cloaked in lead.

All at once, my child-like, shy gaze hesitantly scans this new guide….familiar images slowly spill into the sacred space between.

Aura starts spurting outrageous oranges, vivacious velvety violets, and soul-searching whites…all curiously combine and brilliantly explode… I know within me…a deep understanding…. Something I’ve been well acquainted with…I know what this all means.

Old friends we are…devout souls connected infinitely….I wait for the signal…an ancient signal  as old as time… eyes lock and connect…I shout outward “Guide me as you’ve guided our faithful people, old friend….guide me as you may”….

We know what lies ahead and with you as always I will stay.

I hear the wisdom intricately laced in honest howl of the wolves behind me, fresh earthen smell of new hope overwhelms …this is the signal I’ve been waiting for…. The phoenix daringly darts up into the cold and crisp sky.

Tumbling, transcending and transforming, he unleashes an overpowering shrill, one my heart answers to, a well-known courageous cry…

I instantaneously hop on and see the breaking of the day. 

I whisper “Old trusted friend…aim for the destined path ahead…let us bravely lead the way….

Old Pages...

by Sonia Beard on Monday, March 14, 2011 at 12:54am

Once again, I undergo almost ready, but ridiculous reluctance to turn the gaunt, delicate, and dainty pages of an old well-acquainted, magical, storybook I carefully cuddle closely and protect…The powdery pages are feathered and smooth, but each mystical microscopic characteristic tare, silly smiling child-like scribble, disastrous repetition of experiments (ill-plotted- not intently), and dangerous (but innocent) collection of naive diagrams, or tear-weathered worn inch of the pages just before and present are what I attach importance to and trace over with the tiny tips of my fingers and earnest, knowing eyes. 

Many pages were brilliantly brimming, positively over-flowing overwhelmingly…blossoming with superb… dancing, waterfalls of charismatic, natural collection of honest colors the human eye has never seen, touched, or felt… secured safely and hidden away in the strongest of chests and placed in the deepest waters for no one to deter, damage or deny.

The oldest chapters of the lot were filled with fresh images, a forthcoming manner, a gallantly gorgeous glimmer of commonly esteemed excited expressions and shy grins. Melodic singing was a shared aim. Main character-an old muttering mage of all sorts chirping away and spouting silliness with every awkward crooked step… …was following … examining and studying closely…and dragging his outrageous wand. All pages were perfectly pampered and placed serenely and sculpted/ purposefully painted with pain-staked inner surge of careless candor and luminous limitless streams of trust.

The following chapters were furiously fettered with the bruising gusts of badly bellowing winds of warning and shocking storms of tremendous transformation. The mad mage went on and turned his wand in and she began to mindlessly move forward searching and searching and tumbling forward and backward…in every which way possible. She pushed her eager feet forward…Different shades of colors appeared. Others appeared and disappeared like a night’s dream…lovable liars, sarcastic jokers, masked rouges pompously and seductively sauntered into place issuing outlandish promises and extremities of foreign kinds. Glorious gashes of ferocious fights of furry and epic battles raged, yet when the battle cries shook the land and spilled into the blistering and burning air, she turned to see not one held to what was soused.

“Idiots!” she screamed.

Hands coyly trace and solemnly soothe the present and oddly perfumed pages of this strange book. The beautiful binding… so stubbornly stern yet so flexibly fragile… She has been left to her own curious contraptions, eager inventions (still naïve), and harmless child-like diagrams again. I can see the coming of the dawn for her. The story has not ended. Finger curiously curled on the next page…all will be what she wishes for and all will be what it seemed.

Where?

By Sonia Beard on Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 3:19am

I whip my fingers through the glistening crimson puffs of powered mist once haunting the hollows of my mind.

My mind searches fervently and desperately for a silhouette, which once stood steadfast-a gentle yet slight and silent trace of emptiness is what I find.

A tremendous smear of old and a forcefully unrelenting gash of wind send me further into the unlikely and unknown.

The signaling shrill of the emerging majestic eagle shakes the earthen hemisphere-my trembling hands primp and prod something that was beating kindly…slowly pulsing…enclosed in stone

I float forward like a flimsy feather, onto my nimble knees and tired hands.

Splashes of surreal solemn promises slide gingerly tracing aged etches of strange foreign lands.

The slowing chill in the dewy damp air collect, blossom, and contract giving way to sporadic visions and sight

I sacredly lift my heavy lids and I clench onto my soul with all my might.

Pictures dance freely, gaily, in tune with the child-like laughter, a conquering male grin, and a solid sturdy oaken tree.

The images start to fade off; soundlessly slip…my melodic mind wonderingly whispers…Where is he?