Brown cat
she sleeps
and dreams of sleeping.

Every breath I take,
resurfacing to the sky,
Dying every moment,
how immense I feel.

The Smell of Rain

Can you remember
your clear child mind?
Did you remember
to refresh you eyes today? or
Did you come here
to brag about
the fee the slavetrader requested
to sell you in your yoke...?

Are you lost in a fruit-filled field,
in a panic
to find the road back
to the Machine?

Would you sell your vagabond napsack
for a diamond ring?
Would you prefer the company of courtiers
to kissing your cats’ smooth white fur?

Awake ~ Stretch ~ Remember
your bright child’s mind!
The smell of rain is better than,
endless appetite of needless desires.

City Swirl

Sitting at the counter, smelling the crisply aroma
Of bacon cooking on the grill
I look over the counter at the brown eggs
Lined up in their cardboard tray
Fragile young soldiers – awaiting their landing at Normandy
In moments they’ll be cracked and broken
Spilled out onto the ground, useful in demise.

I finish another poem,
And a quick sketch of the waitress
Serving her plates and coffees,
To the crusty old men, young girls from Europe,
And the silent feeling artist in the corner.

The smell of the old ones cigarettes
Is fine
An odor familiar, soothing, and pungent with memories
No whining about second hand smoke,
In our coffee shop.

Breakfast is often to me
A half remembered dream
Experienced alternately between the hazy world of sleep
And the happy world of stomach
With tastebuds fresh from rest
Overnight.

I finish my coffee – tip well
Calling backward good-byes as I open the door
And step out into the swirling, spinning, city air
Feeling content in mind
Sublime in spirit
Magnanimous toward humanity
Good Morning!

First Light

First light, Saturday morning
Moves across my paper and pen
Summoning mimic shadow that
Parallels my hand.

Gazing out my window, the winter sun
breaks through the retreating clouds
of last nights rain
Each sunrise
A gift torn from its wrapping.

Notre Dame

The Gargoyles sit without speaking,
Like time, like earth, like stone,
Faces descriptive,
Ghastly, yet familiar.

Winged, but flightless
Save the wheels and spires
Of mind and spirit
                   Soaring, swaying,
                  Masters of gravity,
So high up in the sky.

The Gargoyles sit without speaking,
Like time, like earth, like stone,
Faces descriptive,
Ghastly, yet familiar,
Form and likeness of living things
yet in awareness... stone.

Snowfall

Snowfall... morning... my eyes
I look straight up
deep sky and distance
flurries like madness
chaos on wind.
Snowflakes in time
drift down toward my mind.

I can see one, or perceive all
but not both.
One moment it’s here, no immediately there,
yet further... it’s past, no, it’s gone.

I strain to draw it all in
the snowflakes, movement and patterns
but it eludes me.
One clears, the other blurs
and I’m left, contemplating time
and the ways of the mind.

That one after another
not sequence but motion
and life is just movement
not snapshots, or stills.

It’s here, there, gone
that’s the truth of this world
we live in

The only way I see all
All snow,
         All motion,
                          wind,
                                    chaos,

All flurry,
         activity,
                          grey-blue and white reality ...

Is to be still,
and centered,
myself.

Summer City Commute
Part I: The Trainride

Students and workers
united in the push, to get
to where we need to go. ~
Every color, every size
of citizen
of the Republic.
Each one able
Each one moving
Each one trying to make
their life ~ good.
Yawning women
talking with their hands
to each other.
Quiet men,
thinking about last nights
conversation with their wife.
All in our small hurry
All sitting, thinking
reflecting
Looking out the windows
of the trolley car
holding our bags and parcels
Watching pedestrians
and trying to figure
All this out.
And still get to work or class
on time.

Summer City Commute
Part II: The Busride

Maverick smells
of something usually
something bad
not cleaned up.

But on we get
happy to have a ride
and the Vietnamese women
smile like ease.

Happy to be here, I guess
a new start
Happy to have a "T" pass
and a friend to ride with.

Late for work already
I make my way
Eager to get to
the last place I wanna be.

Old man with a bag of food
gets on talking to himself
looking at me
I don't understand ~

Ancient Asian man
with a tiny mouth grinning
takes his place by a
man reading news.

Granny climbs off
cataracts healing.
More Asian ladies get on
taking her place.

Miniskirt girl
walls off with her hand bag
to office, to work
we now reach the bridge!

Beautiful bridge
All blue sky and river
Sand pile, missing
their heads from the edge.

Bumpy road
give us a break!
We're late enough already
We're already late!

"Back door!" they get off
"Here. You forgot your purse."
Young sexy couple
stand by the curb.

Well, you get the picture
You've been on the bus
Bellingham Square, next stop ~
then on with this rush.

Discussion with nature

Old Willow, Why do I worry
About all things, everything ~ Old things and new
About the people walking by ~ the color of the sky

Old Willow, Why do I worry
When the ground I sit on is cool, and the sun shines in patches around me
Leaves turning brown, red and yellow, as they should
And the crisp air I breathe is free.

Why do we worry, Old Willow
Is it our nature, our burden or curse
How can we learn to be more like you
Calm, when the wind is calm
Dancing, when the wind asks you to dance
At peace in reality, as you seem to be.

You ducks eat the duck weed ~ no worry
Even though I might eat one of you.
You calm things, you kind things,
Pond birds, gliding across tranquility.

Red leaf, just fallen from tall tree
You I envy most
Such a short but full life
Green life bursting through branch in Springtime, awakening high up in the foliage
Alive without question, waving to the sun,
Calling to each living thing, unafraid, even as Fall comes.
You age yet pop with beauties color, I am, you say,
Then drop, swirling, spinning, floating to the earth joyfully
This Sunday morning.

Old Willow, Why do I worry
For the future of the earth, whether rightness will prevail.

The ducks still swim, and dip their handsome heads under water ...

The squirrels still chase nuts, hiding and forgetting so many, for winter ...

The leafs still fall ~ that one just there
Orange painted oval, swirling in ecstasy ...

And you Old Willow, the wind moves your wands
And you cast out your spell,
On the pond, on the trees,
but most especially on me.

Why do I worry, Old Willow
Am I not natural too?
To grow old and wise and wrinkled, like you.

Won’t I duck my head for food also this afternoon,
And fly hand in hand with my mate, like the birds.
Won’t we hide nuts for the winter
Have I hidden enough? It’s already late!

And won’t I grow in Spirits’ beauty, and burst with ecstasy, saying:
I am alive. I am me.
Then let go this life; spinning
And let go this life; plunging through air
And let go this earth; sorry, to see all my life’s joys,
All my life’s colors and ecstasies
Turn bright orange, red and gold,
Spinning back to from where it came
On that cool winter’s air.

~ Poem written at the Public Gardens on a Fall morning

Black Iron Bridge

The sun burns down
behind black iron bridge
and warm nightfall
surrounds me.

Oranges and pinks
pale yellow and purple
Gulls wheel darkly
across the fabric of the sky.

Tasting the flavor
of my restive cigar
I see dreams like eternity
in my mind...

How do the birds fly, and...
Why does the wind stop, and...
When are the colors born, that seep into the dry cloth
in back of my eye

Warm night, follow orange sunset
Still night, follow me home
Being, I’m a color, kicking stones
like a red, a warm orange, pale yellow or purple
I’m awake
the first star in the night sky.

Chinese Zodiac

The sun rises
over acres of grass
and hundreds of horses in stalls.

The rooster shouts
to his children in cages
pigs, goats, rabbits
fattened and served on plates.

And the buffalo, mowed down like grass
and the snake and rat are exterminated

The untamable dragon... extinct
the wild tiger... almost

As the monkey,
and his best friend dog
cover the planet.