Nothing Else
As the sun's raysilluminate your being and warm your face pause to take a nice long drink of life, close your eyes and smile. Know that this moment in time is real and all there is, really all there ever was and will be Nothing else matters. People will feel how they feel and will believe what they want to believe our only job is to be Fall leaves will continue their dance in the crisp wind, the squirrels will continue to play and the woodsmoke will wisp long after we're gone But now, there is the sun and the Earth beneath our feet and our breath. Time is still and nothing else matters.
Native Sun
I am four generations removedfrom a world unrecognizable, a world without walls, truth of word and of law but ultimately just another domino to fall in the name of progress
Imagination can only give a glimpse But the seed of memory is strong in me Often bubbling up as effervescent Wisdom whispering in my thoughts
The forest is where I come to worship its great canopy, my cathedral branches gently swaying in the breeze to the melody of birdsong, its beautiful choir I connect with Nature in all her majesty, the supreme intelligence behind it gives order to the chaos again grounds and humbles me leaving everything right again
just a brief respite from our unbalanced existence but it helps to quell the sadness of the sorry state we’re in then the Native Sun tells me to open my eyes and see that humanity is finally beginning To awaken from a slumber long huddled in Cimmerian shade
Our family is being remade before our very eyes And the children of new world are an amalgam much stronger than the first, now a harmony unimaginable can be visualized Shimmering in the not so distant twilight, and felt flowing towards our shores Truth and destiny cannot forever be hushed
And to the Native Sun I whisper back, “please hurry”.
Silent Salutations
Our days are filledwith silent salutations as our nights wander on to tomorrow's shore dreams lap at the edge of desperation as hope promises an ever-open door
dragonwell fills my yi-xing pot as aromatic steam curls in lofty streams making me, for a moment, forget the grey no insinuations, pretense, nor enigmatic dreams
the landscape is awash with black and white on a breeze floats a harbinger of days ahead a whisper of how mistakes can wither and drop dead from their vines to nurture the wise ground and give such sweet reprise to those who still believe
The Greatest of Secrets
You languish, awash in worrythat time is slipping by and all that once was has long gone down the road never to pass your way again
they tell you you’re a sinner and you remember when your innocence wouldn’t allow you to believe but time and their wicked words have so deliberately whittled you away
it is they who tell you to keep coming back, dangling the hope of salvation just beyond your fervor’s grasp.
But there are a few things that they have failed to tell you you are miraculous, you are divinity’s spark the power of your soul is a sleeping giant, long exiled
if you only knew the power that you possess your eyes would stream tears of joy as if awakened from a terrible nightmare to realize the greatest of secrets, that you are an emperor in beggar's clothes indeed.
Beautifully Bittersweet
These lines on my faceconvey much more than words can say
In every laugh, every tear it is written that life is more than some fluid interplay of randomness
I've long felt trapped by the ceiling, have grown accustomed to the cool indifference of its glass
like a child I've fogged it over with breath and etched a message for some savior to find
But that savior never came and the hands, they continued so persistently in their sweeping revolution that now no time remains to succumb to sameness
The realization of a dream appears when it is meant to, always written in beautifully bittersweet form. The glass so easily shatters.
Four Thousand Breaths
I feed upon the sky at nightas the last ribbon of sun is gone, the darkness envelopes this place I sit four thousand breaths from dawn
my eyes embrace the ancient light as countless have before, as crickets sound a seamless chirp from grass down by the shore
time’s a faint and faded concept, the years converge as one, miles are merely memories to be brushed away and shunned
reality is obsolete before the evening’s shepherd moon, my eyes open to realize it’s four thousand breaths from noon.
Anything More is Gravy
It grew me right up This blessing, this curse
This thing that compelled me
To become a reluctant deity
Contriving a world and all that
Gives it breath
Once the ambrosia of creation
Brushes against your lips
You rely on its complexity
to complete you
this monkey that clings
so desperately to my back
screeching its words of wisdom
Gleaned from lifetimes
Of living in this harsh world
To have nothing more than that,
would be enough
a stone cold faith in these words
and that they have somehow changed me,
grew me right up
Anything more is gravy.
The Simple Life
Simple but not simplistic, this life Time, not to be wasted,
is forever fluid and relative
we are all one, everything connected
the Universe is the most wondrous web ,
more vast than we can yet fathom
knowing this, I feel comfortably small
For now, I find myself delightfully contented
to feel the sunshine on my face, to laugh,
experience love.
Forever grateful I am to still have mysteries
left to ponder and a single cup
of good green tea well within my grasp.
Things I've Learned From Puerto Rico
1. The weather doesn't get any nicer than this.2. The people are standoffish at first but warm up quickly. 3. There seems to be a real "Love/Hate" undercurrent in their relationship with the US. 4. The music is loud. 5. They eat lots of meat. "Vegetables" usually consist of either a root vegetable or shredded iceberg lettuce with sliced tomato. 6. Driving is aggressive but people are not as heavy on the horns as most US cities. 7. Coffee is served with milk, almost never black. 8. Life is less orderly and lived at a much slower pace. After coming from mainland America it took a solid 3 days of varying degrees of frustration to get used to it. Now that I am I'm much happier for it. 9. My priorities will be re shifted with less of an emphasis placed on things. 10. I love being immersed in foreign places, learning subtleties of the culture. 11. I'll be back.
Amnesia
The charm of afternoon hours keep slipping awaySo lazily past the rolling sea
A growing pile of steel bottle tops litter the Sand at my feet along with nagging cares which are beginning to feel as far away as home
At this rate, if the warm island breeze Continues to rustle the palm fronds just so And the fresh ceviche keeps coming, cool and sweet The dark circles are disappearing and That old, endless string of 4:30AM yesterdays Could now be mistaken for some haunting dream
It should take just two more days, I surmise, Of this tropical clime to regain enough strength To realize that I've been foolishly stumbling Blindly under some kind of strange spell Then it comes clear and crisp as the cathedral bell I breathe easy and my mind is freed what we consider vacation is truly life, indeed.
Memories of the Sun
Smothered in this deep winter bleaknessas the sun walks away from us an ancient journey to be traveled once again
but I will hold fast in my memory the days when it seemed close enough to pull from the sky and whisper to
I remember each moment it warmed us and the wondrous twilight when we squinted as it danced broad along the water's edge
these memories of the sun, they will offer me solace through the gathering darkness as we patiently await the lushness of the equinox with a certain feigned indifference that fools no one.
Alarm Clock Dawn
Desire, draw us ever deeperTo the keeper of our hearts. We seek but a glimpse Of timeless twilight in this long day's night.
The Peace we seek begins within And ripples forth in silent waves Bathing each soul with light.
“THE POWERS THAT BE” wish us To continue our slothful slumber But our numbers are too great For our hunger to be quelled.
Put your ear to the tracks and hear The low rumble of our humble awakenings.
Take this, your first gasp of pure Truth. Utter your first cry, then a long cleansing sigh As we say goodbye To the darkness of this world.
Quote of the Day
“Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.”
Wander Lost
When the routines of lifeshroud my peace and cause me to wander lost
I long to be a small fish in a big pond,
to lose myself in the bright spot of the next road’s vanishing and to be born again in foreign eyes
I then awaken in remembrance that happiness isn’t meant to be rationed out like thin grey gruel
each day's dawn is a sweet symphony and as long as I hear the music my dreams will have to die another day.
Quote of the Day
"The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it." - W.M. Lewis
Quote of the Day
"What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Quote of the Day
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply becausefailure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
-- J. K. Rowling on her rocky early career and life
