The Great Adventure Trail

Glowing light through maple leaves
on trails of joy where horses tread
a restful ancient rhythm
beckoning our spirits onward –
live with the ways of nature
dream with the ways of love
ride gently on the pathways
as you listen with your heart.

Follow and believe
the gentle clip clop
of another world
on which you ride in mystery –
creations beauty even greater
as you hear the music in your veins…
Peaceful as a bubbling brook
healing as a gentle breeze
soaking in the light of sun
receiving summer’s healing touch
with autumn’s deeper medicine
beating like a spirit drum.

Ride into the sunset
ride into the wind
ride into the clouds and fly –
your love could never say goodbye.

(To a wonderful friend:  Frank Rudd ~ 1907-2008)

Copyright © 2012 by Brayden Sawatzky. Used with permission.

Midnight Oil

There’s no such thing as royal
when burning the midnight oil,
the slumber never comes
when the textbooks beat like drums
on the portion of your brain
that dares to feel the pain.

Creating from a vacuum
is a chore of dialectic hope,
where limitations don’t apply,
but time and feeling rule the scope.

When the mission is accomplished,
resurrected from your toil,
you will reap the jewels in harvest,
knowing that your blood runs deep
in a lineage purple royal.

June 1981

Copyright © 2012 by Brayden Sawatzky. Used with permission.

Serenity

Rediscovering
the source of your Nile –
the first quiet
trickles of your Amazon
bathing your new found nakedness
in hallowed pools
along jungle and desert
hot and forbidding
to all you now are.

There is no Jordan awaiting you
for sacred immersion
at sunrise or dusk,
no Danube or Ganges
to romanticise…
only you in the hallowed pools
of your new found source
rediscovering serenity
in the twilight of this womb.

Copyright © 2012 by Brayden Sawatzky. Used with permission.

Second Sight

From the microscopic to the telescopic
true love comes alive with majesty –
a verb with power to transform
an action far beyond reaction
expectation with a vision
bigger than the sky…

World without end! We are one
hurtling through time and space…
Slow down to roll among the dandelions
and drink this new elixir –
the nectar of our second sight.

Now we live transfixed –
eyes and hearts enchanted
by awakened awe
that sees into eternity
as mother to our ancient child.

Copyright © 2010 by Brayden Sawatzky. Used with permission

Mystic Warrior

I know a distant secret place
where bounty and all goodness thrive
and words and thoughts come alive
restoring the broken palace of the heart.

Vows of gold proclaim our destinies
as jewels glow and sparkle
with the passion of childlike freedom
dancing in uncontained ecstasy.

But how to get there in the night
through the forests of the past
and the dangers we have imagined?!

There is a letting go
of all that you once knew
and so tightly held to
as you love and flow
in the moment,
wild and dangerous and good –
a valiant warrior giving all…
No compromise!
No holding back!

And slowly through the forest
you will find what once was only myth,
the mystical and secret place
where hopes and dreams arrive
on earth as they are in heaven,
where your truest friend awaits
to embrace and heal you
with unearthly completeness.
Creation smiles as we meet with God.

Copyright © 2010 by Brayden Sawatzky. Used with permission

Phantom Spirits

We salute and embrace
your love of the game
for the joy of love is sharing,
challenging and being challenged,
inspiring and being inspired,
extending wings we cannot see –
and yet you feel them
and you soar…

Your body is a gift,
the vehicle you occupy
and drive and race,
living, growing, evolving, creating
from dust to stardust –
so much more than phantoms
in the afterglow…

And yes, you do fly and soar
in a mother’s heart
in a father’s eyes,
in the soul mates
of school and work and play.
Within the boundaries of love
there are no limitations,
and the faith to go on in love
will survive and thrive and fly…

(in memory of the seven Bathurst Phantoms of New Brunswick)

Copyright © 2010 by Brayden Sawatzky. Used with permission

Bravo for Love That Lives

Forbidden feelings fuel
the spirit of young hearts
longing for connection
from soul to soul
with touch that brings to life
an undiscovered universe.

Butterflies in the stomach,
nerve ends tingling,
intoxicating heady wine
floats you to another world
as smiling thoughts dance and race
to places where you’ve never been…

Youth is honesty in hiding,
hiding from decaying logic
of the so-called wise
who hide within traditions
that conspire against young love.
For those who escape to freedom,
this new enchanting liberty
is poetry, pure and undefiled.

(in memory of Hernan Bravo, 1949 – 2010,
poet, musician, and encourager to many!)

Copyright © 2010 by Brayden Sawatzky. Used with Permission

Brayden Sawatzky

Brayden entered this world in the 1960’s.  He was born, raised, and educated in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and continues to live and work in his hometown.  He is very glad and proud to be a Canadian, and one of his dreams is to explore much more of his native country.  Brayden loves the beauty of nature, the presence of God, and music that fills the heart with joy.He joined Abbotsford’s Poets Potpourri Society in 2005 for the pleasure of listening to others reading their poems.