Choosing

When animals choose you
something resonates
cats that stray into the yard and stay,
dogs who follow as you work,
lie beside the fire, beside your feet,
the robins nest constructed in the crook
of the birch beside the breakfast window,
swallows cheeping from the box beneath the eave,
curious fish nibbling at your feet
wading in the pond,
chance encounters with rabbits,
beating hearts, body frozen for the moment,
a deer behind the redwood trunk,
wooly bears trekking across the pages
of my sketching pad
they choose to direct the marks upon
the paper where I write.

© 2006 David Fraser

Rabbits

This old dog, rolling rocks
over with her nose
sets out
chasing yesterdays rabbits
through scented broom
far from the beaten trail.
She kicks up the morning
wide awake, full of dawn
drifting into dream sticks
floating, paddling out upon the pond,
her nose earth close gives 
that strength renewed
each day, again, again.
She invites me in.
I, too now have tomorrow, rabbits,
new scents to chase

© 2006 David Fraser

The Hunger For the Self

The hunger for the self cannot
cure the hunger of the world;
the cancer of our petty sorrows
does not let us see the weeping on the earth.
We are trapped inside our egos skin,
each one of us from birth
inside our private cave of bone.
What quality of light
might wake us up
to see the world as all the other eyes,
realize, we need to feed our hearts,
shed this central vision of ourselves.

© 2006 David Fraser