End of February

between morning
and moonrises
we breathe
live and dream
i hear your
breathing

we're all doing our best
to hold on
to these days
to our memories
to our fleeting youth
to this life
moving faster
and faster
with each
passing moment

Slate

Clutter chokes the space of my desk
My hands have just enough room to write
Accumulation of relics from passing days
Books and records and knick knacks
sprawled across my desk top
My mind is just as cluttered though
you would be hard pressed to see inside
Does clutter need to have meaning
Is clutter a symptom of a well lived life
Can all of this be released
Can I let go of what has accumulated
Am I strong enough to clear the slate

On Happiness

Does my happiness exist in the company of others?
Does my happiness exist in my solitude?
It does and it doesn't.
It exists and it comes and goes as it pleases.
There are times of endless tedium
when it skirts along the edges of my life.
My happiness exists and for that I am glad.
Does your happiness keep you company
on nights uncertainty?
Does your happiness show itself to you
in little bits at random times?
Human, oh so human.
If truth be told
I worry about my happiness
from time to time.
Yet for all my worry
I have never believed that my happiness
would leave and never return to me.
It is my companion through
the undulating waves of this life.
It has it's own moods
but I don't begrudge it that.
I do not expect my happiness
to solve the problems of my life.
I work on it the problems as much
as I can. I try to let my happiness grow
in small ways that enrich my soul.
I wish my life and yours
to be filled with as much happiness
as we can reasonably embrace.

Current Forms

Blooming flower at the edge of Winter
Your face basks in the chill of dawn
We gaze upon each other 
Many lives
Many forms ago
Yet we are unchanged
in our flowered essence 

Routine

I felt her get out of bed and the sudden absence
of her body next to mine. I saw her at the foot
of the bed, skin bare in the slight chill of morning.
She gathered her towel and things to take a shower.
I let my mind wander as the sound of falling water
came steady from the bathroom. I gazed at the ceiling
as though I could divine the future from it. How much
of this life has been a dream? How much of it have
I actually lived to its potential? How much time yet
remained? I heard the falling water stop and the glass
door slide open. I could imagine the contours of her
being dried off. I thought of all the small touches we
had given other, touches of hands, fingers gently
grazing the nape of the neck, hands stroking the full
length of our backs. This comfortable intimacy.
She walked back into the room wearing her favorite
robe with her hair pulled up into a towel. She smiled
at me in the way that has always left me hopelessly
in love with her. "Are you going to take a shower?"
she asked. "I'll take one in a minute. Not in a big
rush right now." I said. "I'm going to have some
breakfast. Do you want me to fix you anything?"
she asked. "I'll probably just have some milk and
cereal." I said. She walked over and leaned down
to kiss me on the lips. That natural sweetness of
heart and body. How many years had I lived
without it in my life? She stepped out of our room
towards the kitchen. The residual warmth of her
shower was calling. I closed my eyes and found
myself so near and so far away.

Lifetime Summation

Define a lifetime

Words
Actions
Experience

What do we leave
What do we take

Impressions
Memory

What is beyond

Everything else

Walk This Path With Me

The path of struggle is one we all must walk upon
in the course of our life. Struggle, hardship, falls
on us through the years by the sheer passage of
time if nothing else. We grow, learn, and adapt
from these lessons. We must see them as lessons
in order to foster growth. Some of our struggle is
self-inflicted. Those struggles cling to the very soul
of our being and force us to engage in deeply
personal reflection and evaluation in order to see
a way forward. Some of us struggle with addiction
to substance or reaction. Neither is good for the
body or soul. We must engage the deep thinking
mind to find our way through. Sometimes this
can only be achieved by reaching out towards
others. Knowing when to do so can be difficult
and a source of fear and judgement. Those who
love us will see us not as degraded beings but
as fellow humans attempting to ascend to a
higher state of being. This ascension need not
be anything intensely religious, though for some
it might be, but merely the fulfillment of a long
gestating path of growth.

Brief Eternity

images of the body
beauty within
how does one recognize
what burns in the soul

chords struck and comp
on the piano
notes glisten down
a glissando run

heaven makes itself known
behind closed eyes
passion of the moment
breathing to the beat

to witness beauty
is to know beauty forever
beyond body and into
this shifting world

your eyes are the sun
and the moon and I
can only look upon you
in pure adoration

I have found the eternal
in these fleeting moments
and I will remember for all
of my brief eternity

Soul of existence burning through me 
I am consumed by light
turned to ash 
reborn 
into the world
once more as I was meant 
to do now and forever

ritual

Pining for the undefinable
Sitting in contemplation
How long will this last
How long can we go on

Implying the Sky

The story begins as many stories do, not with a
beginning of it's own but as a thread from another
story. It is as if saying 'Sky' and implying both
the state of day and night. And so it is. Waking
up early or on time because of the simple fact of
ones body having become used to the routine.
The body wakes the mind and tells it that it is
time. Time to open eyes, time to engage in
routine functions, time to stand and live and
breathe and find a place for itself once again.
These mornings seem as though they themselves
are endless in their succession, and in their own
way, they suppose they are. The mornings
do not know what it is to be bound to passing
years. They exist perpetually and gaze upon
the passing of our lives. They witness our many
similarities in action and temperament as we may
witness the myriad of light at dawn. In between
these wakings occurs so much. The normal
routines of work and relaxation, the falling into
love, the falling out of love, the tides of the sea,
the rains, the desert feeling the touch of a cool
wind, a child laughing, a grandmother cooking
for her grandchildren, a dog falling asleep in the
mid-afternoon. Do you believe in immortality?
It is not necessary to believe in it if one looks
beyond the patterns beneathe this life. There is
much that will outlast us and thrive. Our import-
ance is self-derived. How beautiful and perfect
this world is without our hands to meddle. This
story does not need a narrator. It does not even
need an audience. This story requires so little
that we are little more than an aside. And so it is.

Curation

Curating the images
of my life
into something worth
the viewing

Sunsets at the beach
Bands mid-song in concert
Odds and ends of nature
Curious graffiti
Vacation pictures
Palms in dying light

Mere moments
in a larger narrative

What is unseen

The hours spent alone
in contemplation
and solitude
Self-doubt
Drunkenness brought
on by helplessness
Laps spent sweating
at the track
Hours at work
spent on the phone
answering questions
waiting for the shift
to be over

Curious curation

A life filled with images

Which will I hold
when at last
the light
begins to flicker
and wane

We are but living dust. 

Waking and Life

living
sleeping 
waking
life wrought
in simplicity
how much 
goes on
in between
must things
be complicated
or as easy
as we wish
listen
do you hear
life beckon
will you 
call out
will you 
go forth

I'm Talking to You

When will you be honest with yourself?
You can lie to yourself
You can believe the lie
But the truth will always be seeded within.
Strip away the ordinary thoughts
That cloud your mind-
Your fears and insecurities
Needn't always be drowning your heart.
Your bad habits are only keeping you
From a higher sense of self.
Take up the mantle of work
And labor for what you desire.
Sweat under the sun,
Put your feet to the track and run.
Do not be complacent with your
Words and actions.
Become angered and willing
To create that which you wish to see.
The days are falling behind you
And you cannot see how many
Remain ahead.
Be honest.
I can hear myself.
I can hear that voice
Ringing clear
Like a church bell on
Sunday morning.

Advice for You

Do not grow discouraged with yourself. 
Do not let negativity consume you.
Do not let self-consciousness and self-
doubt swallow you.
You are the strength you seek.

If one cannot sleep one must wake.
If one wakes one must create.

Learn to

Let go

      of the world

One day

    it will let go 

of you

Who are we other than to bear witness to life?

year

A year is nothing more
than days 
strung together
passing through 
four seasons
of nature
passing through 
nights and days
while we rise 
and sleep 
through it all