Tea Leaves
Tea leaves
Float aimlessly
Stirring moments
Of newness
New day
New year
New hopes
New beginnings
Some people read tea leaves
— I just drink them .
2022 © CMM
Birthday Stack
Birthday Stack

The stack went high
So high in the sky
The candles glowed
And went on and on
The special way
I started my day
With Mom and Dad
And siblings too
The glitter and gleam
Reflected in me
As the dreams for the day
Go as far as I can see.©️ CMM 2021
Fog
Autumn wears many faces
As the mornings lift
Into fog and mist.
Leaves now shuffle in sound
Dry enough to drop
Below the mothering tree.
Cool breeze will make way
To a warmer day
Reluctant to begin.
Black walnuts fall below
Your feet in surprise
Causing this runner to skip
By so not to fall…
©. CMM. 2020
Paradox
A robin waits and then she soars
I run the hills out of doors
In the middle of world’s unrest
I still run and the Robin makes her nest.
3.00 miles
Copyright 2018
Paradox
I enter into today with the celebration of loss and love —
I cherish your bedside as we said good bye and
All I could do is cry
It has been five years and your sweet desperation breathed between two places
Your eyes closed as some said the “Our Father” and others’ dark faces
Posturing, some told lies and some truths; you listened.
Reaching into the depths of the last moments, you closed your eyes
For the last time you pulled from a place we all know only once in time
You called out ” I love you.” The room quieted
copyrighted: CMM 2016
The Path
Wet morning sand stick to my feet
while brown seaweed breaks into my path.
I travel to my beginnings toward the sea.
Watchful without pretention or notice
sounds of waves crashing and wind blushing
past me, as I step into the path.
On the shores morning and evening meet always.
Reflection of all time before me, and after me,
will continue long after my footprints are no longer
wet to my feet; deep into my path.
The Journey
Dark and bleak the days become,
Mother and child still are one.
They seek shelter for the night
against the cold weather’s fright.
A manger, a stable, they find by grace.
In the night, their stay finds pace
to birthing pains inside the shed.
Labor and love defies world’s dread.
Where infant cries break the sounds
all kings and shepherds seek to surround,
as star reflects hope and the son,
God enters the world among
on this our Christmas Day…
© CMM 2015
Sea and Free Will
Sea and Free Will
I am never more at peace,
soul, never so restless,
mind, never so engaged,
heart, never so brimming,
body, never so awake…
As it is
with sand slipping under my feet,
salt left on my skin from the sea’s wind.
the white aquatic seagulls call an echo,
behind the albatross breaking dawn…
to the heart of my beginnings.
copyrighted: CMM 2003