Summer Geese

                                                                                                Google image
Geese show beauty
In a physical world
They wing a V
In the air
In the water
Forming a line
The social cackles
Are ever so gentle
But honking is brash
When they stand alone
So unafraid of sameness
They can’t be told apart
They need to be feared
When standing too close
But are always admired
Flying in celebrations
And floating in lines
Competent on water
So certain in air

Deeper Listening

Sitting there waiting
Listening hard to the world
Hoping for something
A line or a whorl

Giving up gently
Accepting the quiet
Watching hot richness
Vent up from black tar

There is no way to share
And no one to tell
Life burns like a flame
On a wick - unaware

The past and the future
Are separate - apart
Waiting for nothing
Not a crow or a spark

When I finally gave up
Forcing the time
Moments fly by
And issue a hum

Sitting indifferent
Like a moon in the sky
I felt other voices
Try tears in my eye

There is no way around it
A place knows itself
And I’ve lost my importance
That flame watched me melt

Summer Wind

The wind seems in a hurry
Pushing through the trees
Waking summer leaves
Turning soft green bellies
Toward a dark grey sky
The wind has promised rain
Green leaves never complain
Growing all through summer
Toward a colored wall of fall
Exchanging leafy green
For an autumn colored coat
After helping needy branches
Feel the wind that pushes by
Pulling changing seasons
And weather through the sky

Shadow

Early morning summer sun
Finds silver threads of web
Left behind on windows
By wishful spiders descending
All departed, all long gone
Straight line streaks of light
Play along thin threads of web
Up and down, up and down
When I move my head
Back and forth, back and forth
And the sun burns on
Heating up the day
While spiders ready themselves
For the fall and a winter
They have never experienced
But have always known

Belief

Walking certain
In old clothes of
Age and wisdom

Finding one thing
That’s perched far
Beyond the view
Of love and reason

Smiling at one thing
Near where I stand
Makes a difference

Awakening

Have you ever smelled
Life’s sweet breath
Earthy River of body love
Intoxicating for mind
Testing ground of souls
I hug others with my eyes
I love others with my ears
As the world reassures me
Through my own hands

I know the pain of others
Pure progress in that place
Where we all started
And must end at the same time
Returning again and again
Without rehearsal
To a place that is lit
By stage lights of truth
That never dim or burn out

Darkness

Darkness is the stillness
That stands with silence
Brought to life by light
Holding the essence
From which life is made
It is the out-breath of rest
Between bold efforts of life
That takes us to new places
We never dreamed about before
Places that wait in our stillness

Snake

Big fat and solid black
A Snake stopped my feet
My mind couldn't move
Stuck in ancient shock
That froze my body still

I had no choice
My feet were stopped
By a short loop that had
No patience for pondering
It already knew the answer
To the old question that
Slithered across the ground

When my mind
Joined the party
It said 'there are no
Venomous snakes here'
It also said 'there are
No black snakes here either'
My mind wants to know
What is it – what’s its name
Why is it so fat and so black

I could feel the
Chemicals in my body
Loosen their grip
Surprise was disappearing
As my mind was leading
Me away from old feelings
Of helplessness and fear

Where did the snake go
Why have I never seen one
In 18 years of walking here
As I am given a safe picture
Of the snake by my mind

Feeling fear less and then less
As seconds pass – I realize
How close I just stood
To long ago man
Some things change so slowly

Dreams

Sometimes life seems to be a dream
And dreams happen when I sleep
There are so few rules in dreamland to follow
Car doors have been songs with broken locks
Fish with bright ties and white shirts give talks
Now - how can anything that silly seem real
I realize that dreams are measured against life
With many rigid rules that don't all make sense

If life itself is a dream, how is it that we walk on it
Why do we see it, feel it, touch it, hear it, taste it
And recognize it through other ancient senses too
Like up and down and time and where our soul needs to go
These rules and these things make life seem real enough

When life ceases to love its dreams
A solid door blocks our way to freedom
And dreams that drew us open-eyed through sleep
Become fantasies of frustration - blind in gardens of truth
Dreams must laugh at us with mystery as we dig for understanding
With strong commitment while using use the short spade of a human mind

Red Embers

                                                                                              Shutterstock photograph

The feel of strong heavy paper
Thick and blank textured bone
Patiently waiting for a pen
To trace its bold meaning
Or for paints to color a sheet
Splashed by some other soul
A truth drawn from eternity
Where essence can arise
Bright as a winter sun
Lighter than weightless -
Smoke from red embers
Dreams that revisit us
To captain blind footsteps
That climb onto our dreams
And play the music we follow
Through the silences of life

A Hot Day

A hot day in the summer
Seems to set the voice we hear
To waves and water and shade
That all speak more clearly
And louder, with more persistence
And even more emphatically
At this summer time of year
Our body dials in the voice
The language we hear reflects
The season we stand in
As it grows through the ground
Near the edges of our feet

Heat seeks the sweet lips of summer
Drawing us to open doors and windows
For the breeze to enter carrying scents
Of purple lavender and white jasmine
Yellow faced bees outside visit scents
And colors that flowers make for them

One day winter will rise
Steam off hot flat asphalt
Or invisible sunbeams to chase
Frost off the face of a fall roof
At that time when light and shadows
Are cut straight along ruler lines
And winter carries its own dreams
With frost and ice and snow
Wrapped in the cold moisture of cloud
Winter words shine bright crystals
Under the light of a far away sun
Then hide in summer freezers till
They believe their deeper meaning
And rise from the ground to greet us

Maple Leaf

My friend and I stood in a remote forest 11 years ago and watched a leaf fall 120 feet to the ground - it was the only leaf that seemed to be falling at that moment. We both watched its unending fall through infinite silence with profound clarity. I do not really know what he understood from that moment but later on our walk he fell to the ground in the slow and graceful manner that the leaf showed us. He was unharmed. My newest understanding of that long ago occurrence emerged 10 minutes ago with this poem.
 

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Falling with grace
A big maple leaf
Spiraling down
Through time
Yellow- red
And green
Not dead
Circling
Back to
Soil

Have you done this before?
Your fall into grace
Your beauty was perfect
It alone in the full world
Caught and held our eye
We never sought to help
We never felt sad
Pure colored beauty
A job well done
A life well lived
And it left us both
Somehow trying harder
To live life well
To live life fully
How could such a teaching
Reach out and touch us both
Through the silence
Of your speechless beauty