Lost Summer

                                                                                                Flickr image

Winter has settled
And it means to stay
Leaning its weight
And early darkness
On a soft spoken summer
That was stolen like youth
Now gone without warning
Summer seeded its regrets
We may even want it back
Feeling tricked by silent plans
Of low sun and cold rain
Or a sense that youth
Could have been spent
Differently
In a past that plays still
Frozen and unchanging
While the future floats
Unsettled
Beyond now's firm fence
Planted in present moments
Each one owned and spent
By misers and rich men
Is either lost or savored
While all hearts whisper
Truthfully to the gods
That travel with us

Gold Rush

                                                                                                        Google images
A thousand white geese in the sky
Like a train moving south
Never looking down
Nor to the side
They fly
Calling
Ahead
With
Bright
Trusting
Excitement
Tomorrow’s mist
Waiting for them all
Inviting them back to life
Joining their cherished train
Together all turning their backs
On the simple things they loved
They leave this place behind

Listening to their dreams
That draw us onward
So irresistibly
To a place
I can’t
See

Autumn Leaves

                                                                     Google Image


The north-east wind blows steady-hard
The sky is blue and dry
As colored leaves are plucked from trees
a few just won't comply

They move as fast as animals
That rush as if a herd
Or birds that flock above the trees
From branches where they stirred

They sang so proud and usefully
Perched green above the land
Now sorted leaves on nearby trees
Are plucked by autumn's hand

The wind frees all from summer toil
So every leaf can play
By joining those from other trees
That spread near Halfmoon Bay

Little Fish

                                                                                 Google image
The season for saving fish is over
As I wash the land out of my nets
And charge the shocker’s battery
I wonder if all the fish survived
In those muddy ditches we seined
High temperatures and low oxygen
Stressed everything that lived there
We saved most from catastrophe
But never thought to make them smile

Push

                                                                                                       Google image

Push against the shoulder of life
Or any other part of it, if you want to
Sometimes, it is necessary to do that
A solid force of loose atoms is mindless
But very present in this worldly place
Always greeting from within its rules
Without judgment’s frown or smile
Without bending to a crooked will
Or following a mind’s argument
It halts us with unwavering love
That we can always depend on

Samsara

                                                                                                    Google image
Samsara threads
Never-ending through
Life and death and birth
Her river spills its water
Replenishing the earth
Then breathes with us
Through dancing stars
Across the silent sky

                                                                          Google image