Category: Poems

  • dew + skills + sunshine + laughter

    042813 Sonoma Coast 114

    Roll away the dew
    Wildflower seeds will renew
    Sacred hillside life
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/24/13

     

    “The skills you need

    to know what you do

    can be different than

    the skills you need to do what you know.”

    Mark Katz                                                                http://conta.cc/Zx7tnI

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/25/13

    042813 Sonoma Coast 026

    Rays of sun shine down
    Orange blends yellow blends white
    Warming the weary bones
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/26/13

     

    “Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge

    is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.”

    Albert Einstein

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/25/13

  • Life is too short for a love that lasts so long

    Rhododendron-3

    This is a very good thing.
    Health and someone to share it with
    Lack of health and someone to share it with
    Life is too short for a love that lasts so long
    Love, and my dear loved one, show the eternal truths
    This is a very good thing.
    Health or no health
    Happiness or no happiness
    Life and no life
    These are each our being in a moment of eternal truth
    This too is a very good thing
    Health is, until it is taken for granted,
    But never again
    The foibles of our lives are learned in these moments of no health
    Love, and my dear loved one, show the eternal truths
    This is a very good thing.
    The blessing is not only the health, it is the love and connections with the loved ones
    Life is too short for a love that lasts so long
    This is a good thing in its way, in its connection, on this day.

     

    This moment is a place we’ve never been before.

    Rhododendron-4

  • Empathy

    [inspired by “The Power of Kindness” by Piero Ferrucci, 2006, Penguin Group ]

     

    Enter resonance
    All relationships are now
    Empathic presence

    or

    Present empathy
    Intertwined us together
    As a sacred gift
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/08/13

    Spring scenes Santa Rosa 2013-24
    Empathy requires
    Unconditional regard
    For the one person
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/08/13

  • Bodega Bay

    Bodega Bay California 040613-04

    A bird on a rock
    Green ice plant purple flowers
    Bay waters flowing
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/06/13

     

    Bodega Bay California 040613-35
    You would think I would
    have run out of tears by now
    Fog rolls out to sea
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/06/13

     

    Bodega Bay California 040613-09
    A black bird flying
    landing among pink flowers
    Then bathing nearby
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/06/13

  • Too many things have happened

    It’s Monday again
    Like an ant walking in line
    I pick up my load
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/13/10

    She wakes in the night
    Ignore the stupid machine!
    And go back to sleep
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/13/10

    Angel turns her back
    How long will it take to move
    Past sorry to something?
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 03/26/13

    Rhododendron-4

    I am an optimist and I lived my life in joy
    Too many things have happened to me and the ones I love
    For me to worry about any one thing
    with a greater perspective or trauma
    than its place in the wholeness of my life
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/05/13

  • Orion Poems

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><>
    Orion running
    Perpetually as light
    In the morning sky
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 10/01/07

    Orion arise
    Beloved in the night skies
    Running running on
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 01/16/08

    Standing on a different
    Part of the planet
    Looking at a different
    Part of the sky.
    Moving through each day
    Step by step and breathe by breathe
    Learning what there is to learn
    By listening and not judging
    Passing up the opportunity to be right
    Taking the opportunities in being present.
    Standing alone with others
    Having an openness that could have been lost
    Watching the passing seasons
    As the stars rearrange themselves
    Orion passes from view
    as strength sometimes hides
    The constellation reappears
    But never changed
    Or did it grow stronger?
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 05/22/08

    In the winter sky
    Beyond frigid wisps of clouds
    Orion passes
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 01/09/10

    Orion fell out
    Of the sky and scorpion
    Usurped selfishly
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 06/14/10

    Orion runner
    Flies through life across the sky
    Like it all matters
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 01/04/11

    Orion’s right knee
    Gave out in the late winter
    Just as snow melted
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 01/28/11

    Orion places me on the planet
    But the planet moves continuously
    But I can’t change
    Change is so hard for each person
    We are what we were
    We became what we were meant to be
    We were meant to be what we tried to be
    And what our stumbled path led us into
    Change, space, place, and self
    Being now, living now, listening now
    How?
    I can’t express myself except sideways
    Through poetry which no one reads or cares about
    Listening being wondering
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 03/26/11

    Orion returns
    In September ready to
    Wrest kindness from wrath
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 07/26/11

    At noon the sun will
    Pass before Orion’s belt
    On its day’s journey
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 09/20/11

    Orion rising
    Sideval situation
    Betelgeuse and Bellatrix
    Above Rigel Alnilam Alnitak and Mintaka
    Where is Saiph?
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 09/28/11

    Blazing shooting star
    Under Orion’s right foot
    Lights the hunter’s way
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 12/13/11

    Always Orion
    Running across the night sky
    Orion always
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 03/04/13

    The sky does not change
    Like the earthly dwellers do
    Orion still runs
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 10/14/13

    Orion at dawn
    Moving across a dark sky
    Lifts my lonely heart
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 10/18/13

    Orion does the
    Same thing every day, running
    Why can’t I do that?
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 11/01/13

  • Living like a leaf

    The most beautiful natural colors

    Holding in my hands
    Like a sparrows speckled egg
    Fragile full of life

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 02/28/13

    Hiding in my heart
    Memory or foreboding
    Please stay there for now
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 02/28/13

    Happenstance in dance
    Brings vitality and joy
    Healing in movement
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 02/28/13

     

    Butterfly haiku-5

    Like butterfly wings
    Crumpled on the narrow path
    Bright spirit fades out
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 03/02/13

    Always Orion
    Running across the night sky
    Orion always
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 03/04/13

    Thoughts to good to be
    Fantasy musings waiting
    For healing in me
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 03/04/13

    SUNRISE

    Far as I can see
    I know is mine secretly
    I don’t own the sky
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 03/06/13

    It was a conceit of mine
    To think that of all the poor seekers for help
    There are none
    who have it worse than me

    There is a depth to a well
    Which grows deeper and richer
    As woe is poured in
    And compassion is pulled out

    The woman of Samaria stood at the well
    And drew water for Jesus
    He recognized the kindness being given
    By one who had suffered in order to stand by that well.

    <><><><><><><>><><>>><><><><><><><><><><><><>

    Living right now
    Usually mundane
    But sometimes sublime
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 03/08/13

    Living right now
    Moment to moment
    Without anxiety
    And foregoing anticipation
    Has great value in its simplicity
    Living right now
    In the moments of pain and heartache
    Is exquisite in a way
    The heart can break
    Then move to another moment
    Living right now
    When life is good
    And simple joys appear
    Makes such moments
    Worth all that life can give
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 03/08/13

    A different plane
    Of relating has emerged
    Deep sorrow deep joy
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 03/08/13

    Fall leaves

    Living like a leaf
    Letting the wind have its way
    Warmed by sun each day
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 03/09/13

  • Your Sancho Panza

    (Written 08/29/2000 upon departing from Children’s Services to work for Family Law.)

    One child. One Voice. One Adult
    This Time together
    The time we spend in each other’s lives is all the time we have.
    What we bring is not what was. Nor is it what will be.
    What we bring is what we have here and now.

    We preserve in our minds and our souls what is life giving,
    or what drains our spirit.
    Our spirit however, controls how we retain, what we retain.
    Can adults give this piece of spirit to a child?
    If we did not believe we could, we would not be in this work together.

    Children and their parents and families are powerful and dynamic.
    Those who would assume they can enter in, as a positive force,
    should be both aware and brave, and a little foolish.
    How else could they proceed like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza
    into all these windmills
    inhabited by little people?

    There are lessons too many to explore in all this we do together.
    There are lessons we wish we could impart with ink and paper and formal formats.
    There are still more lessons lost in our hearts.
    Oh, how we wish our fervent words
    would magically be understood by parents, and administrators.
    Like the Don and his friend on the donkey, we trudge on.
    Some of us even change horses.
    Yet we find the same windmills!

    Occasionally the winds of change blow through our view of the world.
    It takes our worldly experience, and indomitable hope,
    to recognize opportunities within the winds of change.
    Don Quixote jousted with the winds of change.
    He saw a windmill, but attacked a dragon.

    Each of us sees all kinds of dragons. We joust at them.
    We cry when we fall off our horse.
    We rise up again to find more children to rescue from the jaws of the dragon.
    Your Sancho Panza is sitting next to you.
    Your Sancho Panza is standing before you.
    I’ll be around to share in your jousts.
    Riding a different horse.
    Together we do change the world, one child at a time.
    If you don’t believe that, ask your Sancho, who’s sitting next to you.

  • a tree by the side of the road

    On the cusp of a hill where the fog rolled in
    A seed found root as they often will
    Winds of years blowing through
    Low clouds touch the sapling’s ground
    Bring fullness to a tree as myriad branches grew
    The works of man were built despite the tree
    Below the hill a road was built
    Carriages then cars then freeway sounds
    All under leaves that finally wilt
    The fog still rolls its moisture low
    Leaves and branches struggled until
    Against incessant smoggy flow
    The smoke and ash a tree did kill
    For years the drivers rolling past
    Saw the skeleton tree up in the grass
    A landmark of wood on the side of the hill
    To mark a journey’s end either slow or fast
    Bumper to bumper the drivers passed
    Or cruised by going fast
    Some would note the skeleton tree
    And take comfort that it was allowed to be
    But someone decided that this old tree
    By the side of the road should no longer be
    So the saw did short work to make a skeleton tree
    Just a stump on a hill no one would see.
    But there are some of us who’ll remember still
    A marker on the side of a hill
    That marked our days and journey’s end
    Just an old dead tree in our thoughts had a role
    There’s a ghost of a tree by the side of the road
    That lost its skeleton but kept its soul

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 01/17/13

    (I wish I had stopped and taken a photo, but I never did)

    San Antonio Rd Petaluma, CA 94952
    or
    9008 U.S. 101, Petaluma, United States

  • What a simple heart can do

    1426 Moffett sunset and beyond-14

    What a simple heart can do
    As the world turns round again
    Hold to love and truth
    And someone else’s hand

    What a simple heart can do
    When despair and hope begin or end again
    Hold to someone else
    Who’s heart breaks here with you

    What a simple heart can do
    Nearly but not close enough
    To protect a gentle one
    Who’s joy should come again

    What a simple heart can do
    When miracles run short
    Is hold to life and love
    As simple hearts must do

    A simple heart can channel
    the love and hope and healing
    moving fear and hurt through
    confusion and uncertainty

    a simple heart is a life force
    to share the goodness and the joy
    of two hearts come together
    simple though they may be

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><> 12/17/12 1:45
    UCSF Meditation Room Parnassus-10