Saturday, August 31, 2013

last of summer (hokku)

 
this book
read or not its pages turn...
waxing moon
 
summer heat... 
deep-winter wishes
drip from my brow
 
rolling thunder...
the lingering after thoughts
of sudden fire
 
summer's end
gull-winged shapes of hearts...
slowly drift on air

night scents...
my thoughts drift into
the edge of a rose



Thursday, August 22, 2013

quiet fire

calm waters keep our dreams 
ignite them with the evening sun 
spreads quiet fire 'neath the waves 
kisses the shores again and again 
wet touches to remind, 

she is of the sea

One day 
fates will ask for proof of angels
I will hold such a moment as this 
when I reached for you with my heart 
and even the seas grew still...

the night began to glow anew
a moon of fire, for the heat

of desire also fills bent wings
of prayers and wishes

Monday, August 19, 2013

new hokku

empty creel...
the heron quickly proves
rumors of fish


scented breezes...
a petal's edge turns my thoughts
to sounds of creaking floors 

city on edge...
rolling thunders climb 
skyscrapers

unanswered door...
the old man's cane
sinks into dust




circling...
dipped wings and slow descent

into the last dream


 a pyrrhic beauty...
sunset makes a prism
of city-colored air


 

Friday, August 16, 2013

part of the sea

Aloft in the sea, float as if flight
for the lightness of splendid air
is woven in the waters;

we reach with might and thought
for a light within us is the guide.
We glide closed eyed
upon faith in what we feel.

There is no indifference
to the caress of waves and swirl, for
we are part of the sea
and it keeps us in its arms.

The fear of falling is lost
upon billows that urge us onward
that remind that we are forever
in the peace we make...
in the enduring powers of tide and flow.
We are forever in the present
the past is the wake behind our fluttered feet;
the whirled curls after spent pulls of arms.

They pass to send us onward,
into moments reached for,
breath yet on our lips, and
love yet to be lived...

Monday, August 12, 2013

quickening...

From somewhere
the desert sky finds a tear
and as if it pretends to weep
a dryness floods the incipient verge
we are left with an urge to swallow

So it is when i notice my hands
or the innocence of my pillow
when the rumpled covers-
weary glyphs of a fitful night-
slow dreams and quickening.

From somewhere
the mind finds a memory
to heal the scar left in the night
as if lightning has torn the sky
and only darkness...can heal.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

vacuum

Today could be ordinary,
tedium and minutiae

a day lost to the weary-ways of the world.
We can fall; 
be lulled into a mundane view
that life is only as it seems.

Then, as if by a chance more-than-chance,
a red cardinal song falls from nearby trees.
A draped willow fir catches a wind
and whispers a vague melody.
They fill my thoughts in sudden wonder
as if I'd been given a way to see
beneath the patina of the everyday
a wormhole to another side of the page.

It is this way when we love
the world is never enough.
For we know within each moment
there is an unfilled space...
and Love abhors a vacuum.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Bankrupt

Risen from sewers
in legions - the corrupt
misled fair minds of A CITY,
now to be claimed by those
who only see the vulture's chance

bankrupt


Gritty City with a tilted halo
your spirit has a gangsta' lean.
Tied by hip to the reckless gas machines, you fueled
much growth; now the world chokes
on the four-wheeled felony: poisoning the air we breathe.

City of such loyal oaths, home and place,
those before came to find, peace and fortune
have blessed us. Kept smiles for so many little-ages.
NOW bankrupt and they sell the precious art.
BANKRUPT in chambers of justice poised
to aid the most unjust taking- democracy

The flower of many ages of sacrifice,
young men went only to return old and war-weary.
They fought and some died there, and there, and there...
died so young-- for Democracy.
Dead for the City they shared with their impatient dreams.
Taken away by whom? Who would dare?
Despoil blood gifts of so many heroes-- so many wonders?

It is a callous time, a time of little men
ruled by petty and corrupt, morally-bankrupt;
men possessed of no ideas
except to please their petty masters.
They are not of Democracy, they have raped it,
violated it with low-hearts of foul little men.

THE CITY where dreams come to be born and reborn
A PLACE tied by spirit to a people who wish
to Love a City

The City transforms, it always has-- it was
a place on the water once, now the water
is remembered on sunny days.
It was a place of sudden freedom for
the shameful days of small callous men
and chains.

We know a City, a place
never short of spirit and hope.
Sadly, never lacking small, indifferent men
who take the bounty others have made
and feed it to a base need for greed.

Yet THE CITY endures, finds sunshine
in the dark clouds, a plume of light to
lift us until dawn; a  candle to keep
a beacon for the Love of those
wh gave us this time and place

A CITY that will once again
prove greater than the puny evil
of small and ruthless men; for
in the City, in a Democracy,
there is a way to remove ...trash.



Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Japan (hokku)

We observe the anniversaries of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Reminders once again that war is a failure of reason. It is a failure to be as mankind might - a rational being dedicated to honoring the great gift of life.  War and destruction have cut short millions of lives. Conflict has diverted humanity from the progress that is yet within reach: to eradicate disease, provide food, water, and an unlimited potential for abundance to all. There is sadness for what we might have been, yet hope that we have learned.

We stumble blind without the light of reason.



[Hiroshima]
rising sun-
the unforgettable...
remembered

 [Nagasaki]
rising sun-
below a man-made sun...
and its shadows

rising sun-
a deep silence follows
groaning earth

Saturday, August 3, 2013

in the surf...

Waves laugh with her
leap to surround elegant arms;
sea air too holds prisms for sun
to bejewel...

my eyes capture camera
and keep her just this way
at play with a speck of a vast day
where somewhere there is birth
and sadness beyond endure
and here there is this droplet
to blend into the samba of a spinning world

A swirl of beauty held close in thought
a piece of light that travels on and on
across a deep flow of time
i've made...just for this
treasure of the sea