Mexico

Afternoon Panorama

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Sitting in a chair out by the sidewalk as
the last rays of today’s sun
fall across primavera and rosa morada
in full bloom and the church bells
from a block away
peal through the dusk and
the cattle stand in their enclosures
With tails swishing lazily as doves coo
in unison as a breeze brushes
across the surface of the earth and sea
without beginning or end
and the quiver and wave of energy
arises into birds flocking
in swirl and dive through the trees
abandon all thought
and truly see.

4/24/2021

Chasing Words

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I am chasing words

down gutterless streets,

trying to catch thoughts

or a phrase ablaze in the night,

or even just a leaf

catching the lights just right,

but I only find profanities

uttered out of anger or fear or tear

whispering down between the hiss

of flattening tires

and the rip rap beat on cobblestones

of feet and meter and liter,

the volume of pure water

flowing by

as I sit on the curb

with my little k-9 friend

hoping to see

a place to pee.

 

1/21/2020

Opposable Opossum

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Opposable Opossum

So it was YOU then,
dancing in the ethereal darkness
beyond midnight,
hauling your loot,
my nearly bad fruit,
between beams of starlight
and stolen dreams,
beyond the reaches
of my meager senses,
over roof tops
and under fences.
An aboriginal arboreal marsupial.
A possible opposable opossum.
My apache tlacuache,
an ánimo animal,
I see you now
strutting down my garden path
in broad daylight,
bold as brass,
as I water the vegetation
to renew myself.
You have returned to the scene
just to be seen.
A proud thief
with papaya juice still dripping
from your rubbery lips.
Oh-you-possum,
bald tailed and loathsome.
I can hear you
laughing softly from between
your bared razor sharp teeth,
I salute you,
as you wiggle your fat behind
into the tangle of the jungle
where even my civilized barking dog
refuses to follow.
You, creature of the night
from the other side of light.
You, who are now
slinking back into the emptiness
from which you came,
carrying our fears
and all the suffering in the world
we are unwilling to bear.

2/16/2018

The Universe Whirs

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The fan spins idly in the window.
A truck grinds along the nearby highway.
A drum beats somewhere in the pueblo.
The high pitched voice of a priest in recitation
wafts from somewhere beyond the trees.
A breeze stirs a response from the leaves.
Romeo barks at a bird or an iguana on the roof
and then quiets.
The universe whirs from the heart of my being
and the stars that surround us.
Time flows through the waft and weave of everything
like senseless chatter,
forgotten as soon as it is spoken,
unable to hold it’s place.

9/30/17

Four Haiku

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Clouds blanket the mountains and the valley to the sea.                 When the sun shines again, will you be there?

In the moment there is no breeze.
Nothing to flutter the leaves of the trees.

Lifting my eyes from the illuminated window to the cyber-universe,
How delicious the sound of falling rain.

The sun has touched the surface of the sea.
There is no need for words now.

9/23/17

Tormenta Tropical

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Whip and slash.

Dribble and swoosh..

The storm washes.

cleanses, erases,

Purifies,

Opens the sky to new possibilities.

Each little death,

Carries us to the next moment.

Each moment could be the last.

A tree is down.

Power lines tense and sag.

Grass swirls. and matts.

Leaves glisten and shake and swirl away.

On the beach,

Each new wave defeats the last,

As always,

Doing.

To be is to do.

To do is to be.

Waving.

Sitting inside, waiting,

Breathing,

Heart beating

with each new gust.

I storm, motionlessly

From the center of all that is,

with each new birth………

as

Rivulets run down windows

Walls tremble in the wind,

In the consuming darkness,

the rain continues to fall………..

Soon,

It will be over.

9/5/16

Invisible Thread

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They are not wolves,

or coyotes or jackles

with their long histories in the natural world.

A terrier or a spaniel or a hound

really has no home in that much larger place,

at least not in their present, modified form.

A wolf belongs.

He has his purpose within an ecological system,

the wilderness from which he was born,

his connection is clearly written

in the spirals.

But for dogs,

like the humans that breed them,

that link has all but vanished

and the wild place from which we emerged

thousands of years ago

has become a foreign country.

Perhaps then,

that is why we both,

even though we are of different species,

seek one another out,

cling to one another,

care for one another,

and love one another.

Perhaps

that is also why,

some of us

seek God or solace

in the untamed, uncorrupted places of the world,

far from the complications of the crowd,

to heal, when we have been emotionally wounded,

or have been somehow cut off from others

whether as a result of our own foolishness and confusion,

the designs of others,

simple happenstance,

or the inevibility of death.

Perhaps,

it’s because when we are alone,

when we feel our smallness in the universe

and our separateness from nature so intensely,

or when we look within

in the solitude of meditation,

that we can also feel the unseen connection,

no matter how distant,

between one human and another,

you and I,

family, clan, friends

or with another animal,

or God, or nature,

or all that is more than ourselves.

Because our need for love,

is so great,

so strong,

that to live without that connection,

even with a small dog,

who shares that same need

for that same tender, invisible thread,

……is simply unbearable

Campfires

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I awaken this morning

in the cave of my being,

perhaps not quite ready for the light,

not quite prepared for the surface,

I lay on my back

tenderly testing this new reality

with shallow breath and coiled tongue,

as if it were a coal,

still too hot to touch,

not yet cooled

from last night’s fire.

Where have the wheels

hidden beneath night’s carriage

taken me as I slept?

What cold and distant constellations

have been traversed?

What country do I now inhabit?

Will I find the same familiar trees,

the same mountains and seas,

the same beloved faces?

Or some new other,

yet to be explored,

transformed from the ashes of yesterday,

when we burned down the house

in the radiance of your smile,

which now, once more,

I feel blazing on the lids of my eyes.

8/11/16

Into The Hum

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As I lay in my bed

listening to all the sounds about me,

filling the moment,

the thrum and buzz of billions of night creatures,

insects, frogs, lizards, birds,

the rustling of leaves in the breeze,

softly bringing the coolness of night air,

the occasional car or truck or motorcycle

passing by up on the road,

and the resonance of every other sound in the universe

from no matter how far away,

vibrating through space,

from perhaps light years away,

until reaching these insignificant ears,

soft and low,

nearly imperceptible,

like a barely whispered song

between lovers across town,

I hear the sound of my own breath,

in and out,

and my own heart beating,

along with every other heart,

along with your heart,

out into that heavenly choir

without any conscious effort of my own,

into that great hum……………….

receding

into the distance

from which it has come.

7/14/16