Holiness

With a hunting knife
I carve my name into the thighbone
of a driftwood giant.
Grasses dance in hourglass sand.

Spilled wine speckles the waves
and the gnarled barge of Avalon
carries hope south.

Someone or something
has carved another legacy
into the dark evergreen mountains.
Buttermilk clouds soar,
dwarfing even these glacial ridges.

The sound of my words here
is sacrilege
to the ceremony of tides
washing the spirit clean.

I will reveal the secret of this place
only to those whose passing
leaves no trace

but holiness

—from the collection The Charlatans of Paradise
2005 New Orphic Publishers, Nelson, BC Canada

—The Arrow Lakes is a place of great natural beauty in British Columbia, Canada. Arrow Lakes are divided into Upper Arrow Lake and Lower Arrow Lake. They are situated between the Selkirk Mountains to the east and the Monashee Mountains to the west.