The Present

So many days have passed since I was a child
When I looked in a mirror to search for my future
Would I be bald or grey? Would I be strong or weak?
It really doesn’t matter to me at all any more
For the future has day by day become the present
And here I am now - just the way I am
But this moment will pass away with time
And with that passing I will stand upon new territory
And shoulder everything I value in that moment

The things that I value are fewer and fewer with time
The things I now value rest among friends and family

If

If I were a tree; birds would visit me
If I were the sea; fish would swim through me
If I were a tea; thirsty people would drink me
If I were a bee I would buzz for honey not money
If I were a mountain I could make rain fountains
Neither a tree, nor the sea, nor some tea, or a bee
Could ever pay the fee to live in place of me

Water

Water is perfect
That is all that it is
Blue in a clear sky
Grey in a cloud
Clear in a glass
And white if it is cold

We need it to live
We need it to swim
We need it to drink
Or to ski on a whim

Winter Moment

This day could be overlooked
It could be shouldered aside
Without even thinking about it
If you weren’t moving around
Watching for spring’s surprise
But the day held its own beauty
In clouds and moisture and sun
All playing across small fields

I drove an hour through change
From clear vantages to dense fog
The world’s vignettes shook me
I felt so open and then so closed
From high up I could see forever
White cotton batting ropes of cloud
Like braided snakes across near islands
Joined white crusts of thick fog
All bellied onto dark foghorn seas

The wet and silver-squinting road
Descended darkly into a belly of cloud
Changing gradually into a dull ribbon
As cloud smudged the floating sun quiet
Hiding half of its light in the mist
Cloud moisture clung to the cool road
Waiting to embrace a warmer season
Then the road led into the light again

The road ran again from blinding silver
To wet-rubber-black when it descended
Toward the still and heavy salt ocean
Across the beach of clean wet stones
Crackled by endless fingers of waves
Each bright stone inspected and placed
Just where it needs to be right now

Thank you to the sea and the sun
For their endless joy in change
As clouds cloak me from the sun
Inside their miracles of moisture
Breaking open the moment's beauty

Changing

The world is said to be changing
Of course everything is changing
Life arrives new in every moment
The past dies as the present arrives
And future's basket is full of our hopes
Sometimes we withdraw a good dream
Sometimes we take what is left there
It doesn’t matter because what comes
Is always new to us inviting us to dance
Inside the music of our only universe
And a life we share with all other life
In that heated moment when we are alive
In that moment when all directions are real
And our breath is as important to the land
As the wind that pulls the colored leaves
From autumn trees and then recycles them
Returning them to a place that imagined them
All growing usefully on bare branches

Miracle

The rain seems the same
As yesterday and before
But every drop is different
Did you notice the drops?

Rain can only exist
Because it happens
If it never happened
It never imagined itself

What is real is often lost
Inside a precious miracle
That forgets everything
Before we even arrive

Science and familiarity
Can dissolve the wonders
That greet our children
When we all first arrive

And after every miracle
Is named and explained
Our dreams fade into Art
In the light of ‘Artificial’

Try hard to remember:
That dreams brought us here
So embrace every miracle
With your own warm heart
Let science soothe your mind

Wonder

The rain is the same again
As it was yesterday and before that
But the drops are different
Did you notice the drops are different?
Rain can only exist
Because it happens on this earth
If it never happened
We would likely never imagine it
Just like so many other little things
Here in this precious miracle
Where we don't remember anything
Before we learn science
And use it to dissolve the wonder
That greets children
When we all first arrive
Before we fear the miracles
We name them and explain them
And our dreams become Art
In the false light of ‘Artificial’
Yet our dreams brought us here
So embrace miracles with your heart
Let science soothe your mind

Depression

Once and maybe again
An empty lonely train
Lies us down the same
Defeated by the rain

Prisoner of our mind
No easy way to find
If truth speaks in rhyme
Differently each time

Silence writes its name
To hide us from the pain
And find invisible gain
No safety lies in fame

Anger's shimmering fear
Takes us far from here
To see its silver mirror
Don’t let that visitor steer

Now that time has passed
The world still longs to ask
Do you know your lonely task?
We can answer to the mask