Tuesday, September 25, 2012


The Black Hat

A most difficult
and dark home life..
a small girl 
carried her burdens
to kindergarten class
each saddened day..

There her emotions
were released in
explosive despair..
fears and sorrows 
expressed in her
most anguished way..

The teacher in 
a recalled moment
of quick inspiration
found a hat
a black hat in a
costume drawer..

The hat now named
the brave hat..
and when emplaced
the little girl found
some moments of peace..
Then her peace spread..

Wearing the hat
worked its spell
on each wearer in turn
including the teacher
whose day then most 
surely improved..

Did the black hat
an identity assume
of those shadows
outside..
And become absorbed
in each inner sun...?



Monday, September 24, 2012



breathing

how is our
breathing placed
in our center?
retaining awareness
for a few minutes?
an hour?
all day long?
this new awareness
breathing our center
connecting meanwhile
in here and
out there..
new consciousness
simply breathing
aware
being breathed...?

Saturday, September 22, 2012


a good death


a new recognition
how we lived death
in north and south..
in our self inflicted
all consuming war..
death now found
in history's foreground..

his gettysburg words
conceived and dedicated..
equality and death
each soldier remembered
their sacrifice owned..
his words our grounding
death's equality lives..

patterns have repeated
more wars
fires and floods
those september screams..
careful accounting
from chaos springs..
and we know now
each must be named..

we have strewn flowers
many memorial days..
his address recalled
we repeat
none died in vain..
a fearful delight
each life seen equal
connected
by their blood
and their light..

back then
each soldier's family
fervently wished
in their deepest despair
for their loved ones
a good death..
these all now seem
to us good
very good for all time...
Poem is based on recent PBS American Experience program,
Death in the Civil War, and a book, Republic of Suffering by
Drew Gilpin Faust...







Thursday, September 20, 2012


paint splotches

a day
with contrasts faded
hazy smoke from
distant forest burnings
skylight diffused..
traffic at rushhour
a monotonous din..
such muffled appearances
invited a more 
exacting look..

white paint splotches
 accidental decorations
to a darkened parkbench
suggests here a distant
supernova explosion..
a motorcycle pistons' 
high pitch report
 self identification
in the traffic din..
an airliner's orange 
contrails laced the
gray cloudless sky..

then a sudden appearance
a haloed quartermoon
light enhancement
with circular glow..
yes contrasts seemed to
speak on this day
bursting the haze... 






snapshot

our conversations
contain both
light and filtering..
the words we find
express our meaning
one snapshot..
instantaneous filtering
of a clearer light..
our words are
moulded by gates
constrictions
words sometimes strike
rather than flow..
one snapshot
of who we are...


Wednesday, September 19, 2012



a tall stranger

a lifelong pursuit
to be free
enough
for expanded
awareness
in the place
 we now stand..
this seems our
foremost quest..

attachment grows
surreptitiously 
as a virus ensnares
covers and compresses
until we cry out..
if stillness is gained
a tall stranger
centered nearby
unnoticed until now
watches our torment..

watching 
is found quite
enough
to loosen the bonds..
new awareness locates
that fullness
we are intended
to find...

Tuesday, September 18, 2012


a snail's story

spiraling in
and then out..
in our hand we find
a galaxy miniature
spinning a special
 story..

our mind's eye
projects movement
an outward inward
exchange
now and always
 becoming the other..
but the shell remains
fixed as a map
the movement  
a soulful creation..

 a still point
on our shell
finally gives rest to
our eye..
in the stillness
 a  torus we find
a sacred movement
a new awareness
mapped for our
time..






Monday, September 17, 2012



discovery

as we write..
first the whiteness
of blank paper
imagining a fullness
of joy and distress..

the white exudes
a nothingness
brimming with energy
awaiting a word
the word emplaced
seeks direction..

to join with others
to rise and return
or to decompose
to fall and spread
colored differences of
new creation..

the path of this
lone word
seems quite beyond
a writer's choice
who in surprise
learns the chosen direction
by discovery...

Wednesday, September 12, 2012



tablet dances

a morning conversation
brought for those
of agnostic or atheist
 doubting persuasion..
an exploration of
stone tablet verses
so to experience
some secular 
everyday difference..

objections were tabled
citing limitations
much is left out..
that negative tone
we all know so well..
those shalt-nots
seem to prevail
in eight of the ten..

modern science
quite lately has
offered assistance..
producing a map
researching the brain..
two sides observed
left analytical with
 edges restricting
joined by right
expansive and present
 just out of sight..

left and right
interfacing
pulsating
might we say dancing..?
then to the tablets
with map in hand
left still speaks forthright..
but then a surprise
right is right there
in front of our eyes..
look once again
first in the listing
and once more 
see number four..

now we rely on our
newfound map
remembering the dance
those leftward shalt-nots
might others be named..?
each one is dancing
with a partner
one clearly not seen...



Monday, September 10, 2012


independence

let us consider
declarations of independence
as remedies
for election ills..
democracy has been
 deadened
by flows of money
reaching ego ends..
competing parties mirroring
yet exaggerating differences
knowing one and all
precious power the prize..

independence
allows consciousness to
arise at last..
good then is found
in left and right
 shadow enclosing both..
paradox rules oppositions
and detachment soothes 
the din of boisterous claims..
new freedom
brings new strength..
 money flows 
lose direction when
feedback polls confuse..
and democracy then
may flow with possibility
once again...


Sunday, September 9, 2012


glimpses

it seems
our living purpose
is to realize..
no matter our
alertness
truth suddenly grasped
novel art expressed
new science discovered..
our steady state
in this moment
and in all moments
is that we remain
in slumber..

waking
is a soon
extinguished light..
a glimpse departed 
a glint in a flowing stream
an ocean wave at peak..
remembering
brings recycling
an expectation for
one more glimpse
and perhaps more...

reflection
on the words above
we no doubt find
a pallor of unease..
how might a
waking more enduring
 expand our moments
and our day..?
would it serve
 to ask about
those glimpses fleeting..
are they ours
alone...?



Saturday, September 8, 2012



words

there are words
beyond understanding
and those
closeby with meaning..
then there are others
standing between..
these enable our lives
invite searches
promise possibilities
of everywhere finding
a connecting light..

these connections are
 overlooked often
found on borders
on our paths
unassuming..
but when gone
all disappears..
simplest perhaps
a connecting 'and'
a lighted circuit
showing anew
both this and that...


Friday, September 7, 2012



bird songs

a feathered message
for us today..
a hidden songbird capacity
for learning then forming
a song out there..

in our parallel plane
a gifted capacity to speak
but first a language
to learn
with toil and sweat..

the songbird and we
it now seems
 at once are
creator and creation
a mutual stimulation..
becoming our song...


Thursday, September 6, 2012



near death experience

there are many on record
the caves
the tunnels
the blinding light..
a hesitation
on the line
between life and death..

so many forms of death
each with corresponding life
these deaths
a passing of day into night
a passing storm
dark passages
each exhalation..

in each of these
a transition is reached
life and death not distinguished
the tunnel becomes
is the light..
so we read the reports
awakening
to life's primary
signal...

Monday, September 3, 2012



the secret

one panoramic field
enclosing many
 these many are seen
glowing with full confidence
each one standing alone..
the one field permeating
the many
and the many
the field..
this is the
secret..

without which
separate fragments
take form..
corresponding to 
each and every
stress and pain..
fragments well disguised
awaiting
discovery of the
secret...

Sunday, September 2, 2012



crying out

a time arrives
in each day
each moment
to locate the night..

discover in day
one brief suggestion
of night
one glimpse of sorrow
a sliver of moon
in bright daylight..

this is enough
energy and courage
to find the night
sustaining the day
and the day
the night..

in each moment
we discover a cry
of pain
of joy...

Saturday, September 1, 2012


serving

working for others
makes one poor..
special identity denied
one's voice deeply hidden
inner beauty suppressed..
livelihoods are exile
protections are dear
yet servitude keeps rule..

a new time
demands correction
 straightening posture
a new discovery..
each of us stands
as connector
of many and one
one's voice found at last
exile ended
though we.. remain
here...