FACELESS CAVES

The faceless shapes formed by the ages peer into the scattered fire. Embers are caught by natures fury and attempt to burn the skull. Waves pound the hidden shore where we have gathered to let summer crawl inside. Constellations command the night sky as clouds dissolve to release that overwhelming sight of the stars. Close by there is a silent cave that leads beneath the shoreline road. Occasionally a vehicle of mysterious origins can be heard and momentarily seen over that curving road. However our voices become lost within the night and so there is no need to communicate by sound.

Only the crash of water onto earth illuminates our hearing and is soon added into the pattern of distraction. My breathing is steady and rises as the flames attempt to reach beyond the distant stars. Friends who were once strangers can be seen in the dim light, each thinking about ones place in this world. Broken wood is the fuel needed for our continued existence on this Pacific beach. Rebellious stars escape across the revealing horizon like single drops of ink falling fast from a cracked pen. The eyes follow the stars for only a flashing second and then return to the earth.

Soon restless and wandering steps take my form over darkened boulders, which are set against shrouded hills. Each effort made to rise above the faceless caves is met by the nights resistance. Then suddenly sanctuary is reached and silence is all around. The silence engulfs every moment spent in that isolation. The wind stirs the sightless ground and that darkness invites this mind to a complete moment of peace. Times energy is forgotten as I listen to the conquering waves out in the distance and there seems to be no end in sight to this isolation. Though soon echoing and familiar voices reach the hill, calling for the fire to end. It is a long descend to the waiting shore where those flames are vanishing. As every flame leaves, one more vision of a burning star appears. Then all is quiet again as our eyes feast upon the sky with what seems to be endless shapes and images explaining a pure connection between nature and ourselves.