tiny sail boats out to sea

Oh, let us walk hand in hand without haste

into the dusk and then into the stars of night
after doting, through the sun lit day, at peddles
fallen from trees dancing in the breeze
as they gently move about like tiny sail boats
on the ripples of an emerging spring

let the silence from our lips speak of our hearts’

beating to the joy of their rhythm as they listen
to the songs of the feathered residents wandering
about with us knowing we had come to see them
play in their abode while serenading us through the day

for I know that your heart laments of soon

departing souls from the tethers of this world
for they have walked days and nights together
like we just did but many more than we are old
so let them sail on those tiny sail boats out to sea
with love and holding hands to where the sky rides
on the oceans's tide, too soon to be, also, you and me

 

 

*dedicated to my wife’s lamenting heart for her mom and dad,
  sixty six years together and in love, both soon to sail their boat
  out to sea, possibly together

 

learning to love

do i care the way i should, the way i can

and is the object of my caring affected
by the giving of myself not in the way
i wish them to but in the way that
affects them best, selflessly

when i whistle and a cardinal whistles

it responds because of my whistling
i understand not what i whistle
but try to replicate its tone and riff
and surely the cardinal when it whistles
back, it's speaking or singing a song to me

when i stand beside the great cherry tree

in my back yard i respect its stature
and its wisdom and i wonder if it
recognizes me, standing there, admiring
its expanding and stretching of its arms upward
trying to touch the strolling clouds

i know when i caress my two pups and stroke

them with a tenderness of care while whispering
in their ear of how their unconditional love affects
me, i tell them how they touch my heart and
the spirit of my soul and so they look up at me,
kiss me with their tiny tongues upon my chin

at this time, my dawning years, still i try to understand

of love, in all its forms, so that when i tell you
‘i love you’, you’ll understand from whence it
comes, it's not just of my heart but from the bones
of my bones, blood of my blood, the depth
of my soul and when i speak these words to you
you’ll want to whistle then raise your arms up to try
and touch the clouds and you’ll kiss my cheek