Day Of Life

 



Breached, the stillness gave way to apprehension.
Basalt shadows cringed at segments of sunlight
splayed around, lost from a clinging hold,
shaken off from the fluttering hem of your gown.

Stones lining the garden path
started growing viridian memories
as every step you took chiseled into their hearts
awe upon awe of what the purpose of power is,
as dictated by the silent whips of laughter from your toes.

Flowers shimmered as your shining gaze hit their petals,
nearly collapsing the buds to full bloom.
Flight paths of the wind undulated as your delicate hands
shredded them into mints of morning air,
while your digits played among themselves
and wrote their carefree excitement
on giggled gasps of lost little breezes.
And I, the gardener, your dad, had to let you have your way,
as your baby hands started gathering flowers
for Mother's Day. 

The Answer In Kamakura

i gaze at you Kamakura Daibutsu
hurting for enlightenment
where once upon a pain of those before me
the meek yielded to temptation just to survive
settling for less to cushion a falling dream
knowing that clenched hands can't pick up the pieces

where once upon a greater pain
i screamed i cursed i begged i prayed
for just one proof that They exist
amidst killings famine poverty
abuses hatred genocide
wars diseases molested lives
depravation disasters sickness lies

a cold breeze brushed a shoulder and simply asked
what are you doing about it?

The Bristles of October

To reveal the bristling matchsticks of October
the leaves must first catch fire.

Paraiso

3 Days of Summer in Sayre, Pennsylvania

leaves and blades sheen with delight
they throb and pulse in green
clasping sunlight's grip of life
soft breezes in between

flowers spread their petals full
for the winged ones' sweet sake
the wind is cued by a warbler's call
as waves dance in the lake.

sequined sheets of sunlight
on liquid surface gleam
fishes play a hiding game
with what the shadows claim

this must be the paradise
that creation had long sought
in splendor still
with man's neglect
and all without
his thoughts.

Godlings

godlings don't swim
they crawl
on the shallow waters of the sea
third-of-a-knee deep or lesser
they crawl as infant turquoise waves
lap gently on their breasts
the waves not expecting but not surprised
they lap back

the stately crawl reflects their belief
that the sea is there because they're there

when the sun-tanned arms of the gods that own them
lift them to a place where sand castles have not risen yet
they squirm to protest that they want to be consulted
on the choice
even if they hardly mind the outcome

without effort or sugar rush
they know what the gods don't know

their tiny hands
hold the sands
that hold the sea.

Dared To Own The Sunlight

He used to drink down a few hours of the day,
and smoked away a lot of years,
till she asked him to see why her potted plants
embraced the dry, deathly shades of brown.
It's a perennial, he said,but its days are done.
He almost drowned in the lavender of her silence.
There's a variety store nearby that sells plants.

They walked slowly on a shady street;
an elderly man carrying two potted amaryllis,
and a matron carrying home uncooked TV dinner.
They were younger in the past and wiser on what to share.
Time held on to the wisdom of youth to care enough to be together.

The shadows are friendly
to the ones who dared to own the sunlight;
for like any other manifestation
that is live and finite in this world,
feelings, too, would die in their sleep.

Unwhispered by the Tree

the tree knows when upon the glyphs
written on its bark a branch must grow
and where along the branch
among the knotty ridges a twig must show

with no front or back and no plans to be
the tree places its entirety
on a universe it cannot see.

how little I know of faith.

Of the Hills

if to feel life is to be young again
but to be young is to be hungry,
then to be alive is to feel the hunger,

a hunger that can start you up a hill
to behold the uncommon view meant
for the gods who dwell in high places
and maybe get a taste of the soup
offered only to those that they favor,

or to just reach the top and realize the fulfillment
of a distorted fantasy,

or to simply hear that song of peace
when left alone by the claws of commerce
where you can declare before the world without compunction
that you were somebody before you got smart,
and still be blessed.

i didn't know that life had so many hills.

To Climb The Sky Again

what if i'd try to climb the sky again
even if i know i'd start to fade
where for every failed attempt
outside my comfort zone
a leaf is lost?

but i've seen a tree with no leaves
showing off the blessings of its fruits
so this thought i must carry to ponder on
when confronted by the searing drama
of a failed ambition
or after having touched the sky
i am earthbound and in the hallowed presence
of the least of our brethren.

Kamakura, by morning

a monk, a pilgrim,
or maybe just one
who had to wade through life
like the rest of us,
his footsteps are not aimless,
for the flowers follow the path
of the divine wind.

Off for a 3-week vacation: Japan and the Philippines

ONCE AGAIN, THE SEA

(Featured Art: Cloud and Sea by Maggie Huscroft, U.K.)

And once again, the sea,
true blue source of each numbered breath,
brown-grey witness to each predestined death;
keeper of the translucent grains that Time uses
to measure, define, defy, others, or itself;
one with the element of each bead
that is always shaped like a drop
forming on my brow or collapsing on my cheeks
making wisdom stronger than truth
in the ability to separate itself from a lie.

And how far into wisdom has the sea evolved?
For the times that the land was able
to encircle the sea with lying arms
and gave it a crushing inland hug
the tear was never meant to move mountains
so the sea simply conjured itself into clouds
and flew back to the ocean.
The pain was in leaving the rest of the ties behind.
The consolation was in knowing
that one can always have a new beginning.
The reality of an afterlife before death.