Faces Carved Beside the Sea
Don Hynes
Faces Carved Beside the Sea
The old stones will receive our stories
if we will let the weight fall
from our weary shoulders,
so many lifetimes
of interwoven patterns;
the years we live
then seem to die
only to re-appear
and take up our rucksacks once more,
treading the pilgrim path ever so slowly
toward the distant mountain.
The rocks have weathered the wind and tide,
the furious bashing and starkest heat;
passing boats see nothing but mass
for what the stones contain is held below
yet if you look with soul’s eye
you see the carving of many faces,
images of animal and human
who have walked this way,
come and gone and return again
to continue the weaving.
In every tapestry there is a time
to set down what has gone before
lest what remains be spoiled
by the older cloth.
Our hearts are loathe to release the threads
for what we’ve woven is precious
but the stories must fall
if the path be clear to the mountain.
No one can take our burden
unless we hear our inner voice
and decide with our very life force
to let the old stories go to the waiting stones,
to have our old faces be carved beside the sea
while the new chrysalis of our immortal self
emerges into the light of this one holy day.
Don Hynes