I’m tired
Sighs the morning
And the grey hearted birds
Choose a somber key
And the tears gather
In the corner of the violets’ eye
The hush is alright with the wind
And the lull of the leaves
Makes the sojourner sleep
A slight attempt at straight
Is made by the pickets
And the poppies lean there
Heavy with hope
Shadows link a gentle arm
Around my thoughts
And slip away
And I lay softly with you, World
My mind is aligned
My mood is yours
A little sorrow feeds me
A little sparrow
Needs the rain




Sara Mathews     June 2018

                                                                  ~For Greta~

I would not presume
That is was you
It was only in my waking
That I thought of you
As the little bird
Trapped there in the middle
Of another dream
All that stayed to trust
The glimmer of the dawn
How she came to me
And how I sensed she didn’t belong
I offered her a perch
And without hesitation
She hopped on
We peered into the corners
Of the room
The sharp and angular confines
Of a world that somehow never fit
And knew that it was time
And I walked her to the door
And when the possibility poured in
Not a moment did she lose
She flew as though her heart
Had always known the way
A silver arrow
Straight into another realm
And then the realization came
A free little bird
Never regrets
Never looks back
I would not presume
That it was you
But only that I felt a joy
A peace
Because I knew she made it
Safely home




Sara Mathews     April 2018

Grey hope
Lopes down the street
Gathering tears from
Newborn green
Blurring eyes
Horizon lines
Grey hope
Admires his misty cloak
Thrown over scarlet bud
And smudges morning birds
On wire
Soft pedaling their song
The muffled joy
Is what he loves
The tulip jeweled




Sara Mathews    March 2018

                                                                  Peder Balke


Sometimes I wake to the sound of the sea
The rhythm of the waves
Rolling time away
A year
A day
It pulls a pulse
A steady beat to match my heart
I know the words the seagulls cry
The keening
Weaving
Wheeling high
Their haunting song much more
They chant
Much more
I hear each grain of grief roll down
A love lost strand
I feel the past
Beneath my feet sharp memories bleed
To glitter in the sand 
I sift the darkened stretch of offered prayers
I grasp the fading night to know my fate
My single tear
Undoes the tide
When I was young
A smuggler rowed a golden light
And like a widow I must bide
Sometimes I wake to the sound of the sea
A year
A day
I wait

Sara Mathews     March 2018

                                                              Photo by Ingrid Mathews


When the night retreats
Curling back over the mountain
Slipping soft to shadow in the wood
Inking down into the bottom of the hour
When the golden moon trembles
Like a fading tambourine
And a wing of gossamer cloud
Streaks the heart of morning with a prayer
When a promise
Pries beneath the lidded world
Pouring lava through the hills and
Silvering the stream
When this is how we begin
There can be no dismal end




Sara Mathews     March 2018
Ingrid Mathews photography

                                  Jeremy Paul ~ http://www.jeremypaulwildlifeartist.co.uk


The rain is calling me
This morning
With tremulous voice
Come out into the garden
Heavy with tears
Dazzled with sorrow
Laden with memories
Each blade of grass
Each jeweled flower
Cries
A chorus of great sympathy
Wells up
Wracks the heart
Reaches out to me
The mercury sky
The sodden day
The dismal sparrow
The swelling symphony
Completely mine




Sara Mathews     January 2018
Rainy Day - sparrows by Jeremy Paul (used with permission)

I would like you to miss me
I don’t wish you sorrow
Or unbearable grief
Or despair
Only that you keep a special place
Away from anything mundane
A sacred spot
Where time and schedule
Have no hold
An island in your heart
That sand and water
Can’t erase
Nor years erode
And ceaseless current
Of all that living life requires
Must stop
And eddy there a while
Swirling memories

Sara Mathews     January 2018

               Photograph by Ingrid Mathews 

What makes a morning
Following goodbye
The indecisive
Grey blue
Blue grey
Sky of in between
Here nor there
Almosts 
And
Things that might have been
A slant of solemn sun
Peers through
The sponge of teary cloud
Wish
Wish for me
Though the dried leaf
Rattles
And the ground lacks life
And a chill hangs 
On every word
There is a glimmer
In the dying
A circling of hope
As other arms
Reach out with longing
Wanting for you
Waiting for you
All these days




Sara Mathews     January 2018