Trees

 

Many pines remain 

in Pine Top, AZ,

and you can still find birches 

in Birch Tree, AR,

but, for most of us,

we only have photo albums

to take us back to our roots.

Our palms remain hearty.

Thank goodness there was no

Dutch Palm Tree malady,

although I’m pretty sure that

it wasn’t Dutch Orange Tree disease

that caused all those uprootings in SoCal.

There is a Santa Rosa plum tree,

which I planted,

on the 118th day of 1975,

over the septic field

in the more-or-less-an-acre 

at the end of Hyland Way,

a cul-de-sac in

Penngrove, California.

That tree still lives,

at 50, well past its plan,

somewhat like me at 81,

yet we both still bear fruit.

I am certain that part of who 

I am is in that old tree 

and that tree is in me.

Opportunities

 

The sky is vast, sometimes
seems not of our world.
Even as the clouds weep,
during a desperate hour,
and the earth cries out in pain,
there is time enough to
love throughout the day, to
find calm midst the suffering.
Every day is Earth Day,
each minute a chance to
redeem ourselves,
all of our seconds
opportunities for
kindness.

Night Tune

 

In that time some ancients

called the death mist,

others the black sun,

he knows it as

the ‘tween times,

before new day has begun.

Ideas spring unbidden,

prompted by moonlight.

Great rhymes are found,

written down, or lost.

It’s the night shift,

poems bathed in shadow,

starlight used to burn

the words in stanzas,

each spinning on its axis,

a muse-ical nocturne.

No Bother

 

It is possible

to face annoyances 

with other than

pique, fury, rage.

It is possible

for every living soul

to have innate Buddhist wisdom,

being and acting as harmless

as they know how to be.

It is possible

to smother anger and hate,

to cover them with

charity, tenderness, benevolence.

It is possible

to practice radical humility,

to notice what is convenient for us

is inconvenient for others.

It is possible

to slow down,

walk more slowly on the earth,

be healing and strong,

rejoicing in the day.

My Instrument

 

Pause 

It’s a useful tool,

the simple act of pausing,

calms what happens next. 

When I’m too revved up,

it helps to take deep, slow breaths,

knowing all is well.

I meditate, breathe,

feeling the divinity,

in touch with my joy.

There’s one perfect life.

I know that life is Gods’s life.

That life’s my life now.

Annoyances

 

Small Annoyances

Cats

must think that

newspapers,

magazines

and IPads

are hazardous

to

our

health.

In themselves,

cats

are never annoying.

They.

Just.

Do.

What.

They.

Do.

Cats don’t care.

However,

whatever the question,

cats

are always the answer.

Sounds

 

Rain

Overnight rain falls 

with its own unique sound, 

blankets the dryness

of yesterday’s ground.

I see and smell it

more than hear,

childhood memories receptive,

some of them messy,

a few so beautiful,

knowing that beauty is deceptive,

even the strange,

not-quite-morning light,

which God has arranged

to begin my day.

Common Sense

After a somewhat lengthy journey,

spanning my entire life, actually,

listening only to the sound of my feet,

I think I have arrived at wisdom.

Tomorrow morning, perhaps

I’ll  arrive at it again.