Friday, November 30, 2012



Whim...!
a question
is posed..
touted as
most pressing as
our century unfolds:
Who am I..?

a phrase and cliche
proposes to reply
through the back door:
those talking-points
sometimes official
often serve to accuse..

the accuser
points to those points..
derides the masking
of original I am..
sad choice to repeat
health to reveal..

those points have
not just arrived..
dogmas of old
others brand new..
a sage once prescribed:
self-reliance on

Whim...!
The sage is RW Emerson in "Self-Reliance."  :)

Tuesday, November 27, 2012



Patience

this morning
this title introduced
through some separate
synchronous readings..
the question right now
how might patience
assist with this poem..

might it be
better to stop
stop writing just now
allow some gestation
some quiet perhaps..
resume in minutes,
or hours or months..?

hesitation quite brief 
and rough writing began..
still the end
that distant goal
an insistent completion
seemed to delay
blocking the flow..

did a fear arise
prompted by 
a finish out there..
that this poem will
never find ending..?
will likely end
as discard and refuse..

a walk.. reliable antidote.. 
there does seem
in those sometimes
an effortless flow..
other times 
impatience a mooring
so patience might grow..?

Sunday, November 25, 2012



Big Bang

we all came
science does say
from a dot
a pinpoint
expanding
to all this..

but where is
that dot..?
if we say
where we live 
in our 3D
preposterous it seems..

if we say
in higher dimension
in our 4D
there would be
no space for us
no time or locality..

so we try once more
not 3D not 4D
but in between..
our universe
that dot is
 local in no locality...?

Saturday, November 24, 2012


three Vantages

we start early
peering around..
the desk and chair
a solid nightstand
tire pressures
wheels always round..

 much later moments
a fleeting glimpse
from deepened despair..?
the edge of a shore
the evening twilight
definite something more..

then at last
we reclaim our past
this new vantage
a clearing light
immersed and within..
yet not entirely
our own...





the Ladder

these rungs..
on which rung
does one stand in
this morning sun..?
the bottom rung
seems firmly planted
in this shopping season..
black friday entry
frenzied desires propel
our seasonal excess..

season is dark with
light saving they say..
where is it saved..?
in bright windows
in smiles and trees..?
and we might ask
finding two faces
on this lower rung..
what faces are there 
in that rung above...?


Thursday, November 22, 2012



the Square

a simple shape
a foundation
our stability 
our confident strength..
but ask we must
ask how sufficient
for our lives in
these disturbing years..
is now our time
is our honored square
more dependable
in a new light..?

dare we let go 
disconnect those corners
allow the four lines
to drift as they may..?
one mae become bold
more solid
more dark..
another fades to
a slim beam of light..

the other two
lack decision right now
end up comfortably
somewhere between..
then we notice
we cannot distinguish
which line dark
and which light..
 seeming becomings
before our eye..
 is our square
strong as before...?


Wednesday, November 21, 2012



Christmas Quiet

a quiet christmas
we expect this year..
travelers not arriving
just the holiday..
season shouts elsewhere..
a red poinsettia 
will be sufficient tree..

a seeming culmination
of early bells
an annual football
a brown dog
cats and icicles.. 
city lights and coastline
from a mountaintop.. 
excitement on those mornings
ribbons fleeting use..

these few memories
fill our quiet now..
but in reflection 
this quiet has not
only now occurred..
with gratitude we see
our treasured
 christmas quiet has 
through many years
endured...

Tuesday, November 20, 2012



blessing and curse

in this 2012 year
elevating consciousness
our illusive challenge..
 an evolution signpost 
on a circuitous road..

reaching this marker
finding new directions
depends on awareness..
locating our place
right here and right now..

worthy guides there are
who tell us
we are perched
on a precarious ledge
between light and shade..

other names suffice
for this place
might we say
blessing and curse aka.. (?)
then our guides say..

don't curse the shade
don't curse the curse.. 
a startling discovery
to be made
in each her own way..

at last she absorbs
the sought for blessing 
during a frightening search..
all along disguised
 as the accursed curse... (?)


Thursday, November 15, 2012



Dispositions

we each
have our own
dispositions..
leaning we say
mostly one way..
one relishes variety
another finds home
in sparser places..
in those
high thin clouds
afar and away..

evolution now
seems to demand
that one and another
plan for travel..
recognizing at last
that one and another
are found deep within..
hastening then
to become the other
then with joy
return again...









Wednesday, November 14, 2012


Choices

we seem
on rising each morning
to plan our day
to choose best paths
for reaching 
each evening..

then we listen
as the wise ones say
our histories are
is not was..
time really eludes
maps with paths 
drawn before morning..

how then
might we choose..?
recognize the paradox
is this our real
and glorious
choice...?

Manassas

a foreboding
photograph
startles to memory
our war's beginning..
 this named entanglement
darkened and dampened
 the frivolity
the expected brevity
of our war with ourselves..
a blood soaked becoming 
of machinery and death..

the foreground a
cannon on wheels
replicated in the distance
and we assume
again and again..
these engines of conflict
dominate a distant
'tho insistent background..
the sun's
fiery reflection on
an expectant treeline..
coupled with sky
turbulent and echoing 
the cannon's 
forthright entrance 
with purpose unmasked..

this our battle of
separation for reunion
a Manassas pattern
oft repeated through
all of these
our rebirthing years..
flanking and horses
surprise encircling
a wall of stone..
agony and sorrow
the fever of war..
all to reframe
then to restate
 our collective.. sacred
 I Am... 

(Thanks to Lucy for the photo
and challenge...!)


Monday, November 12, 2012



Associations

imaginations
when left adrift
sometimes
lose a grounding
essential to health..
how might these
far flung meanderings 
be grasped
and tempered within..?

when we Associate..
delightful similarities found
but differences also..
unities spring forth
somehow easing 
anxieties of living..
stress retreats
and released health
trickles in...

Sunday, November 11, 2012


Yoknapatawpha

all these years 
we have wondered
how his energy
is gained..
his lengthening life
those many details
swift literary command..

could an answer be
hidden here in front
of our eyes..?
a simple password
we've seen 
most recently on
that teeshirt in blue..

Yoknapatapha..
this strangest of words..
 more to be known..
the Chickasaw proclaimed
Split land their meaning..
but the Sole Proprietor
recall that pipe and mustache..

in direct opposition
saw slow water 
and drew his map..
this magical map
not geography not history
but somewhere between..
did he retain that Split..?

the Split remained as
dark territory below
chaotic and enclosing 
those good as deSpain
with rats named Snopes..
are we closer now
to a secret revealed..?

let's now recall
his penchant for maps
perhaps our key..
the story for him
without his map
was no story at all..
you probably have guessed..

this humble blackboard 
stands in clear disguise..
he rises quite early 
most eager to draw
a new Yoknapatapha.. 
our Friday map..
smooth water thus flows..

his secret now unveiled..?
can we now say what..?
sorry..most likely 
never and not..!

---CharlesC...Dec 2012

"History is not was, it is."
--William Faulkner










Friday, November 9, 2012


for Paula

a friend
from so long ago..
much to remember
here a few sparkles
from her stream of years..

first the boys
a pair as our own
golf and a phone booth
readily come to mind..

then there's Rosie
black and huge
we know for certain
mention brings tears..

from her Peak ascent
to Tucson descending
her parents care
brought comfort and Light..

to cap this stream
along came Greg
 his smile and guns..
a new horizon joyfully found..

this sketch is enough
but let's mention Jolene
mixing those cranes
with that Mexican hair..?

Happy Birthday, Paula
may this unpredictable
bright stream
keep flowing on...

Wednesday, November 7, 2012



Election

this new forked division
attractive to the majority..?
unattractive to the minority..?
perhaps not at all...
hopefully the birth
of a healthy recognition..
all must acknowledge
a significant new
 red and blue creation..
our common fleeting glimpse
of momentary Reality..
which is
feeding back
even just now
into the Light...

Monday, November 5, 2012



Stumbling

We do not
wish to be
accused of this..
an awkwardness
failure in life
mumbling our message
speech that's flawed..
our balance upset
falling and slipping..

but what of
those mistakes
those stumbles which
change our path..?
what of those
new insights
we stumble upon..?
a discovery made
when the normal
 expected..?
when only our
stumbling could have
led to gold...?

Sunday, November 4, 2012


A November Walk

A breeze with a
chilling edge
contrasting a cliffside's 
bright reflection
a passing appearance 
 of warmth of the sun..
the flowing breeze 
cold boulders another
 downward flowing 
from some
 early eruption..

this afternoon walk
surveying my notes
suggestions of descent..
sunlit high cliffs  
wearing shadows of pines..
streaked cloud patterns
joining bare branches
pressing downward
 this merging of lines..

descent of the leaves
all fell in past weeks
now grinding to dust
by cycles and feet..
and then
an encircling band
the sunset
 red horizon all around
without hesitation
ringing the town..

November descends
this once more...





Saturday, November 3, 2012



Resemblances

It is reported
that all reality
is composed of
innumerable patterns of
similarity and difference
all streaming from
a common source
a Formula most simple..

is our modern role
 one of discovery..?
the patterns we seek
 lying in wait..
 our need now
to find a new eye
new vessels.. 
building up
our inner
 resemblances...?


Friday, November 2, 2012




Lady V
when she arrives
at that V
in the road..
we wonder
is her freedom found
in the choosing
or the choice..?
if she chooses choosing
she is not free
for the other choice..
if she chooses choice
making no choice
ends her choosing..

does the V itself
contain the secret
the freedom she seeks..?
that V point
containing all choices
needs accompany
inspire and energize..
on her chosen path
remembering
she becomes once more
again and again
that point...

(With gratitude to Mae and Lady V for
prompting this musing...)







Thursday, November 1, 2012



The Territory

in the Old West
territory a name
of the uncharted
a resistance to order..
Old Colorado City
capital for only
five days.. 
 territory reasserted..

in our imagination 
territory encloses both
danger and freedom..
these lurking together
sharpen senses
energies renewed..
we need examine
where we are 
standing just now..
is this the territory
 we must become...?