Intent

I seek a

non-anxious presence

in an anxious world,

trying to remove

the trying, with

effortless effort.

I can read the

invisible ink.

Clearly, love and light

and good are real

in the world,

tangible enough

to do battle

with evil.

Like the ink,

invisible,

but present

nonetheless,

reaching inside,

warming and shaping,

even healing.

Anyone afraid

can doubt this.

It takes courage

to drop the safety

that we think

we created,

to put away

the armor

and become soft

and vulnerable.

Hump Day Haiku

when the moon was hung,
what was left for Him to do?
Oh look, a rainbow.

An Ovillejo

Rainy Days and Fun Days

The clouds curtain the sun.

Oh what fun.

It could bring joy, it might bring pain.

Let it rain.

Oh please, have it fall, let it drop,

Never stop.

Into mud puddles we’ll kerplop.

We can be as children at play,

soaked and laughing throughout the day.

Oh what fun, let it rain, never stop.

Haiku X Seven

Dry season is here

There’s smoke on the horizon

We must mend the roof

Still snow on the peaks

Summer thirsts for its melting

Let’s clean the windows

The Navels are eaten

Valencia’s not yet ripe

What of the apples?

Red flowers open

Pomegranates in waiting

I must make sun tea

Pink roses whisper

Bougainvillas scream color

Pastels still enchant

Spring’s flowers soon fade

Summer blooms remain hidden

Seedlings need water

Epi’s bloom briefly

Cactus flowers much the same

I must call my Friends

No Doubt

Hexaverse:  A poem containing stanzas of 5 lines, then 4 lines, then 3 lines, then 2 lines, ending with one word. The syllables in each stanza correspond to the number of lines, i.e. 5 in each line in the first stanza, 4 in the second stanza and so on. This form may contain more than five stanzas.

No Doubt

Go slowly, be kind,

for everyone you

meet is fighting a

hard battle, struggling

between heart and mind.

There are two ways

in this world that

we can know things,

heart, and heart-mind.

Each moment,

we get to

start out fresh.

Hoping,

Trusting.

Self.

Earliest Morning

Cruising the coast highway
from Del Mar to points north,
the rolling Pacific, to his left as it lay.
The westernmost mountains to the right,
the shore and sand giving up the night,
not another soul yet on his road,
marveling at the complex dawn,
colors both soft and bold.
so many layers, varied tones.
Black becoming purple begetting rose,
future yellows and gold but a notion,
some time to go before the sun
took its first glimpse of the ocean.

Sunset gets all the press, he thought.
(probably due to advance sales agents)
Oh, sunset has its own virtues,
if one likes that garish kind of thing,
beach goers gathering in hoards,
oohing and aahing,
pretending to see a green flash,
quickly dispersing to watered down happy hours.

Dawn gets little notice, no great raves.
A shame, really, but also a grace, one to savor.
It might not be the same
If the marketers got a sniff of it,
folks setting alarms, out in bunches,
making it a crowded game,
flipping down their shades at the first sign of yellow,
probably adding some kind of Bloody Mary rite to it.
No, let the dawn stay hidden,
a gift for the early risers ,
like those who pull over
and write an ode to its beauty

To David & Adrian on Their 19th Anniversary

To David & Adrian on Their 19th Anniversary

May you have 100 years,
filled with smiles, never tears,
Man & Man, Boy & Boy,
what a song, ode to joy.