for Maya...

From a time before we all knew,
that which few could feel,
the pain of love that defies hatred;
it is the perfect force
against the consummate evil,
a power beyond measure
the treasure of hearts, a slow formed pearl of life.
For Maya, it was within, flowed in a smile
that could delight.

I had nearly forgotten
how her smile could light my eyes...

Words are poor messengers,
as she ennobled them they gained
alacrity, like arrows that pierce to the heart.
She trained them in an obedience
owed to cherished bonds.

Words came willingly to do her will
and will was woven into a way to see
life's balance; that we must be
that of which we are made,
a fire spirit unleashed by birth,
to burn unbounded space with endless light.

She became a candle lifted by winds
a star danced upon the movement of time
grown into an echo of her own voice.
In her company we both listen and remember
from that day to this, how she held us en rapt
calmed frights we held like childish nights
and showed the way to spirit's own peace.

Like the tree that bends
to agree with wind-filled time
the shape shown to the world is splendid
for its profusion recalls moments
wondering could we stand, and having stood
claimed tomorrow in the name of an ancient wish-
All will know, the great lesson of the heart:
That we share a solitary ship.

One world afloat in an eternal sea
whose fate connects us all
by abundant gifts and a need for forgiveness.

Ohh, and I had nearly forgotten
how her smile could light my eyes

blue notes for old red stars

In deep sky a trance unfolds,
a dance of ancient light;
tomorrow's rains gather
to cloak the portal to mystery
so much as in life, they do not stay.

Patient lights of an endless reach
teach me again, how delicate and small
is this form of man, how God-like the gift
of imagining.

Creation in  Six sharp notes
rest on the Seventh
as a cascade of creations
seize the front of the mind,
make blue notes for old red stars.

Making the world I would see
through eyes closed  in peace
where All value the need to bring
closeness to purpose- and know
the purpose of life, is abundant life.

Deep in the night, I cut away
the clouds that pass between
things we see and that which can be...
it is a time to swirl with galaxies unborn
and consider the virtue of a wistful tear.

Cat-ku

 the cat's dark tail
flowing curves surround ...
 a girl's laughter


gliding the wall
the cat's shadow stalking...
the cat's shadow


wide cat eyes
staring at my face...
and beyond

answers...

The singer asked a question
that was not in the song, but
whispered between the notes, carried
aloft on a flight of  silence;
then low soft tones raised the
search again, and the moment before
the moment after, when time
made fingers in wind-blown sand.

When the singer asked a question
that was not in the melody, but in a feeling
like falling sands,  to help us understand
that it is the  beautiful dreams -that need us-
to live.
Lost in every breath
is a spent moment, until  found in hope
and gleaming stars that remind
that everything  exists
because we do--painted by the same brush
that thrusts a vast array of galaxies-- we
are in the answers.

a sudden cloak

In the silence of a moment-after
when realization sucks air from a room.
Once filled with hope and future-
suddenly still, and everything in it
takes on a color of change, a pale
leeched aura...

In this moment,
come in the vacuums of all that was wished,
is the strength we find, when there is no choice
but to accept that emptiness sometimes fills a space of life.
For even to hide is to know the unavoidable awaits,
and we are children hovered  'neath covers.

Then, a sudden cloak overtakes the outward rush
and oblivion is forestalled, put into its tiny shell;
for the power that lingers through all else
the moment of agreement, of touching wills,
pierces the armored fears, and brings
a singular thing kept through life's unbroken strings.

In the blanket of the heart and its peace,
it is love, and it fills an emptiness
as nothing else may...

dried by tears...

Treading water in a sea of time
sinking as fast as falling can fall

pull of doubt overcomes the lift of faith
so diverge spirit and body, we age
despite the glow of love risen to skin.

Stepping upon a starry ceiling
so diverge the pathways
grave bound body and eternal spirit

Do we yet know the heaven within us?
The happiness we seek is a dormant shell,
dried by tears, in ground we fallow in sadness.

trip lightly along the arc of night,
the shadow of an endless tide, and travel
to shame slow-footed space and time
the hyper-light of thought, to a place
beyond creation, without passage,
whose predicate is an unfilled wish