haiku, hokku yugen

 (haiku)
faithful time...
the shepherd that keeps
every lamb

(haiku)
like summer moons-
another's light makes us
more beautiful

(haiku)
the soldier's graveyard...
falling leaves cannot cover
so many wars

(hokku)
river at dusk...
a single plume lights the way
to the sea

(hokku)
shooting star...
joined with the night
once again


 (hokku)

across my yard
pouring silver drops ...
a chalice  moon

Silent side (For Ava)

Into the morning air

dawn sky and a cardinal song

moon filled a purple lace cloud

with close echoes of the day to come.

As I launch a journey, a circle of day

it is the vessel of night that tempts my eye

‘til at top of a hill a race of gulls

in a high dry sky, a noisy parade

angled wings and puny tempests

lifts my sight to take my breath...so near

so clear, the wondrous place of  waterless seas.

I think of moonlight touch-

a more silent side of the world-

and a gentle One setting out to do

little blessings, like wine drops fill a glass,

an unfinished taste...of greatness.

como o sol até a lua
vida reflete de você
e torna-se mais bonito

whisper...

It is when I am sure
you have heard
that I am content
to whisper

When you are as close as breath
involved  in every rustle
of sheets and toes that
I reach beneath silence-
speak to you
as one naked heart- in wonder

Of this tragic state
these separate lives...entwined
for the mercy of love and sunlight.
We find sparks, sudden arcs
to dispel an unwanted darkness
light the warm glow of night

It is when I know
you understand the wishes
that precede and follow-
my caravan of love
across the desert between us-
then I can whisper
and know ... that you know.

hokku (trio)

 in changed air...
ancient seeds rise to green
red deserts

summer winds...
whispers from the heart
of the sun

once a battlefield...
now young dreams rise
as green blades

a simple notion

In rain

grasses make a bed of whispers

as feet slide and glide over glassy ground.

Streets make jewels of lights and flashes,

 rooster tails rise off puddles, while I stride
on near-empty pavement.
Tunneled visions I keep 

of searches I’ve made,

treasures I've found, the path

on which I'm bound.

Like time and tides, tomorrows 

rise and fall; but for it all

it is an ever simple notion:

whether we drag nails in the ground

or hold arms wide ....

in welcomed embrace.

a love poem

Watching waves

cross the face of the sea

rhythmic rise and fall,

as beneath an airy canopy , water
caresses land.

Of all the thoughts it gently brings

none so pleasing as the way to say 

your name: rising and falling across my lips;

like the power of tides to stir deep waters.

Yet, the greatest of these

are in infant scale to the tiniest part

of vast seas of time; and yes, like  tides  

waves of vagrant and purposeless light,

traveled on-and-on.

They cross the wandered path

of this momentary existence,

transformed by you...

into a place

of boundless love

wisp of dust

in the voice of a summer rain
sweet refrains and lotus scent
as winds rise to introduce
the summer storm of evening
bright planets gleam as stars emerge
in the interplay of night sky and cloud

and wonder of the fates my eyes entail
to see a cloud formed yesterday
or star shine that has traveled
from before the world was a world, when
it was just a wisp of dust
around a bright white star

hokku #4

on Easter morning ...
in the apse--risen smoke
and guilt-free synapse