The Bell

When you stop running

you can see everything clearly

as it is meant to be.

Rest your heart,

slow your breath.

How quickly the birds 

fly from tree to tree.

How quickly they rest.

A bell struck

resonates.

Numbing

Broken teeth

Bloody mouth

You can get used

to almost

anything

Without End

Forever would never be enough

for any person

Endless days and nights

What would be the reason 

for anything at all

Tied to the wheel 

of nature's ceaseless turning

Epochs would pass

as tides smooth down stones

sand multiplying on the shore

Precious years would be brown

leaves trampled underfoot

Death of all yet life continuing

without cessation 

Ultimate meaning or ultimate void

No rhyming couplet to make sense

of existence without reason

First Light Through the Trees

No matter the night

No matter the dreams

No matter the nightmares

No matter the tossing

No matter the turning

No matter the arguments

No matter the restlessness

No matter the anxiety

No matter the worry

                 the dawn 

                       is always 

                           there

Spring chirps it's presence 

Bare branches coming to life

Winter sleeps once more

Green Tea Classic

Green tea bag tied around 

the handle of the empty cup

Space longing for a tide

of hot water 

Ecstatic rush against

colored porcelain

Buoyancy as green colors

the water bit by bit

Steeped in process

Lips waiting in expectancy

Beware

Ambition is fine

but be careful-

from time to time

it will whisper words

that will plunge you

deeper and deeper

into a realm of excess.

You may not realize

the toll being taken

but it is being extracted.

Pull yourself up

before you fall too deep.

Perpetual discontent

is no way to live happily.

A man with enough

is grateful for the blessings

of the ordinary.

Maria

Every day the phone rings

and I hear your voice.

A continent divides us

but your words

are breathed into my ears.

How have we borne 

this separation

and survived?

That which binds us

holds us gentle and firmly.

What shall be first?

A kiss or embrace?

Will it be both at once?

A journey beginning anew.

Certainty in an uncertain world.

Between Words

I listen to Leonard sing and talk.

He always knew how to say 

what needed to be said.

I listen as closely as I can 

to decode what more can be found

in the spaces between words 

and punctuation. 

Is that what he wanted?

Can everything be found

in what is already there?

Ocean and Earth

The tides are welling up within me-

searching for a place to break through.

Any crack, any open space will do.

I am ocean and earth.

I am wind cresting over the waves

and running through the leaves.

How can I be everything?

Everything is me and it has

always been so.

Cinema Verite

Start the morning with coffee and cake.

Sit down and find the words clinging

to the edges of consciousness, waiting 

their turn to organize the chaos of being.

Traipse through fond recollection and 

not so reliable memory. Scene missing.

Blurred scenes. Plot points vague and

uncertain. How much time was that?

The camera lens is fixed on one position.

The weather is clear, the sun is lighting

enough for the scene. Action. One 

continuous take. Just this moment.

Memorial Cinema

We who touched each other 

as preciously as fine china,

as roughly as clothes tossed

carelessly into a dirty hamper.

What of us, what of then,

movies in the cinema of the mind,

hearts still racing at what has gone,

a story with firm conclusion.

Bookshelves

When the faces have gone 

all that's left is memory

staining the paper 

of the books, 

collecting dust unseen

sitting on seldom

traveled shelves.

Your face between pages,

my eyes struggling 

to see us as we were then.

The Living

That which does not change does not live.

How do passing seasons 

know when to end-

to begin?

What consciousness permeates

existence beyond 

the observable?

Night approaches-

stars dotting darkness- 

light traveling through vastness. 

Wind rustles the leaves,

unseen sun brightens other lands.