emptiness fills the absence

 

a sunflower when sun’s rays don’t pierce the grays

of the day or the pike and walleye when the river

has been polluted or dried from a dam, birds when

the conifers, oaks or maples have been felled

 

and in the absence of this comfort, this familiarity,

emptiness fills the vacuum, vibrancy of spirit wanes

and the sunflower wilts, the pike and walleye no longer

run with the river’s stream and birds seize to sing

 

it is this i feel, my love, in your absence…

 

grateful for the presence of love

 

three in the morning, try to close mine eyes

to traverse through the dream world but

tears fill my eyelids so am unable to close,

my thoughts are embroiled in lament

 

life does not afford the present, the next hour,

let alone promise tomorrow and so my

reflection is on how the thinning hair on my

head is turning the color of the snow outside

 

if i am given another day, i will put my arms

around my partner, my love, i will kiss her and

will tell her how much i appreciate her, will not

allow the moment be devoid of gratefulness

 

breath of life is love

 

i shall gather my tears of yesterday

and marry them with my smile today

thus my sorrows will be erased so

that tomorrow will be born of joy

 

will breathe in the air of today

so that if tomorrow never comes

my soul shall remember the wonder

of life and sense the love in my heart

light has pierced the darkness

 

darkness for almost a half a decade

now a glimmer of light has pierced through

we must walk into the light and gather its

rays so when and if the darkness arrives again

we will not succumb nor let it take hold

 

tell our children the truth both orally and in writ

of how we turned our heads, closed our eyes

and we let the darkness take hold while many

of us sat in silence while some closed the blinds

to let the darkness in

 

once the darkness took hold our eyes closed

and we could not see the steps of the path

before us, we could not see our hands or the

faces let alone their souls of those who

closed the blinds

 

we must pass on this message to our children

so they can pass it on to theirs and they will

be the forbearers, the carriers of lighted torches

where darkness shall not again prevail

 

 

good riddance

 

today i am sensing the feelings of the sunflower

who in the morning awaits the sun to rise above

the horizon and hover o’er, be touched by the

warmth of its sunray fingers

 

feel a sense of relief like a balloon whose air has

been released and a big sigh of pleasure follows

while it flails about in the azure sky until slowly

and gently it is welcomed back to earth

 

like an eagle soaring o’er the valley, river and tree

and with a tilted crown and nurturing eye set upon

the nest it has lovingly perched on a sturdy limb

below where wide-open beaks await mother’s feed

 

a bittersweet of subtle joy comes o’er me today, for

i feel a relief from a portentous ill that has enveloped

my being in the last four years and has put a strain

on my spirit, my emotions and heart

 

i have shed more than four hundred thousand tears,

have lamented with many ‘Mamasitas’/Mothers,

wherefore, their children have been ripped from their

arms and whose hearts were and are torn apart

 

we’ll now share in our tears and little by little, relieve

our fears, say good riddance to the bastion of pain and

evil, embrace each other at a distance, rid us of two

 evils; an insidious pandemic and one personified   

 

my favorite tree and me

i sit at the rooted feet of my favorite tree overlooking

the pasture where wildflowers surround us like subjugates,

harkening for us to take pleasure in the dance they perform

with the breeze for me and my favorite tree

 

we sit here still in calming peace to embrace, to welcome

the day so serene and give of ourselves, becoming selfless

with all of this

 

we cherish this moment for no other will be the same and soon

the leaves shall fall from its limbs to sleep onto its nocturnal

wintry rest and i will shed my incarnate being to rest upon

my eternal sleep

 

both shall awaken again, my tree with its buds blooming in the same

realm in Spring, me in a different place but for sure embraced in love

that i take with me to my resting space of Spring

my wish for you today

as the day today begins to come to an end

as the day today begins to come to an end

my wish is that, if but only for a moment,

the spirit of whoever you are who is reading

my words, will have witnessed a moment of joy

 

that the presence of love will have touched

even if by slight, your heart, and for that

moment there was an absence of pain, of

anguish and sadness, the presence of peace

 

for i believe that of this presence is what

our next sojourn is made of, that the fiber

and fabric of the universe is of peace and

calm, of joy and love 

human, wildflower within

 

wildflowers grow in all their colors

attracting the eye and smell of the

bees and hummingbird and they

are sated by sweet nectar

 

the grasshopper jumps up to enjoy

the leafy petals and stems that are

tasty to him, sits on his haunch to

nibble

 

and the mantis comes to observe

the wonder of the multicolored hues,

sits back to meditate and cogitate of

all this and why it is this way

 

mother Nature gifts all these riches

to which is her nature and so is the

sun, the wind and the rain for they

are here for each other

 

if only ‘man’ could be in the same

whereby, with each other, be of the

nature of ‘humankind’, relieve those

in hunger, t’if a field of wildflowers

 

appreciate the present

 

i just went outside at 3a.m. to let my aging girl, Jasmine, so she can 'potty' and i looked up to see if i could see the conglomerate of shining stars. I spoke to 'Mamasita' now in another realm, heartfully whispering to tell her, 'Iilove you', telling my brother who left us too young, 'i love you', to a couple of good friends who also left too young, telling them, also, that i love them and i'm thinking of them.. i also and most importantly, thanked the maker of all this, for my life,, the gifts of my lovely wife, my canine children, my family and friends that are still with me in this mundane existence walking about on this rock traversing in space. And so i breathed  in deeply to ingest, to consume the verve and spirit of 'life'. t'was cathartic

 

now let's see if i can transition my body, mind and spirit from this stage of reveries to one of dreams.

i am you, you are me

 

i’ve seen so many faces in my life and time

grateful for smiles but too many frowns

with enough pain to go around

 

have sat in silence to witness and listen

to the whispers of life in attempts to

understand why i think, why i breathe

 

the tree that hovers o’er me has shared

some of its wisdom imparted by the gentle

breezes of the wind only if i sit quiet, still

 

the running stream waves at me to catch my

attention to tell me of what it has seen

through its bends and turns

 

one day i shall put into words what mine

eyes have seen, my ears have heard, my

hands have touched and my heart has felt

 

whoever shall read the writ of my words will 

look up from them, breathe in deeply and sigh

for they will then realize they are not alone

river runs without me, still

 

went to sit on the river’s bank

where i used to more frequently in

earlier days when my spirit needed

to be healed, be rejuvenated and

needing to understand myself, my

place in Nature and the universe

 

sat back on the incline of the bank

listening to the running water clash

upon stones and fallen branches and

the chorus of feathered friends perched

on branches of weeping willows that

hover somber o’er the river and me

 

i look down the one side of the river

bank and notice a pair of empty shoes

skillfully placed together and asked

myself…where and I hope not, that

whose shoes they belong, they did not

decide to leave them behind forever

 

sauntering up to go look closer to the

shoes i feel cool grass blades between

my toes and looking down and i have

no shoes on then realizing i had dozed

off into a spiritual trance forgetting I’d

removed my shoes to feel the earth

 

am grateful that the river doesn’t have

a foreign interloper swimming lifeless

with the catfish on the bottom with the

muck and so i walk over to pick up my

shoes to stroll another day amidst the

somber willows, the river and sky above

love of calm

 

again, i’m feeling a calm, a restful spirit

though the years are running hurriedly past

and my reveries are filled with memories

as i sit here still pondering life

 

the wind is blowing with the years

and the leaves dance about while the

now golden sea of grasses sway like

waves

 

the clouds soaring by now grey in the sky

and denuded trees of their leaves,

the now bear limbs no longer give shelter

to the squirrels or blue jays

 

at dusk, the sun lights the sky with fire

and the moon arrives early making haste

of the presence of Orion and Polaris careful

not to fall into the pan of Ursa Major

 

so in this elderly abode where i reside

i am grateful for the years on this ride

and when it comes time for my everlasting

sleep, i wish my spirit to remember Love

just a stroll

 

i found this path i wish to walk upon

and i would like for you to take my hand

let us stroll amidst the radiance of colors

life is sharing with us

we may step on a stone that is sharply edged

or come onto a large boulder or fallen branch

must be maneuvered around yet we know this

path continues beyond these challenges

with us holding hands while traversing on this

path we feel each other's support and more

importantly sense our pulses, hearts beating

as one and together carry on

let us look up and around, witness the russets

red and gold of Autumn, listen to the orchestra

of singing feathered friends and fauna rustling

about snickering and watching us

there is much to be said about a quiet stroll with

another spirit to share a moment, being present

while gathering visions of Nature's dress, consuming

memories that feed the heart and soul

fickle now my days

 

fickle, oh so fickle are the days where

one day my spirit is enthralled just by

opening mine eyes to awaken to the

morning’s delight, walking thru my day’s

sojourn and then waving at the sun as it

lays to rest for the day and i smile at the

stars and moon as they arrive to watch

o’er life’s nocturnal stay

 

the next day my arms and legs, my mind

recognize the many years worn and the

feebleness of my body and spirit to rise

and greet the day wondering what will

 come of it, not in joyous exuberance but

in the challenges that may occur to wane

my lifting spirit or to cause my heart to

lament and mine eyes filled with tears

 

i beckon the spirit of the universe to share

with me its wisdom as to how to make a

choice that will lift me once more to that

time when once my youth filled spring of

spirit abound and these cruel years of age

with the pangs be assuaged and the angst

of life’s slings mitigated, so that my years

left, and i will rise to the delight of day 

and sleep gently in the night

 

 

life can be thorny

 

a sunflower became entangled in a thorn bush

whilst the wind blew strong but the flower

was saved from being uprooted because of the

sturdiness of the bush and so it was grateful

to live and thrive another day with the sun,

and the moon and stars at night

 

smile or be kind to someone today,

be their thorn bush…

for love sake

 

the flower loves the sun, the sun loves the earth

the wind loves it because it rotates then lets it blow

in day and night where the stars love the dark

and moon loves the sea for its waves and tides

 

and the tree loves the rain, the birds love its

branches and as the wind lift their feathers to

fly high up to the mountain tops that kiss the

sky as the clouds hover by

 

and my heart and spirit love all this and i wish

that when my dreams then become reveries as

the morn arrives and i awaken to a heart next

to mine that loves me, in the like

remembering innocence

 wherefore, is the innocent spirit of my youth,

when i used to run fast and carefree and

my heart would flutter with love knowing at

at home were family, neighbors and friends

 

i would run bare feet through streets and parks

stop by a small creek, get on my knees and drink

from the stream, feel refreshed then run home

to the waft of mamasita’s tortillas

 

music filled the air, the space inside our casita,

mamsita was always singing and we would

join in, my five brothers, sister and i, to sing

along with talented harmony

 

yes, I miss the innocence of those days where

the truth of the heart superseded the struggle,

the strife, the anguish and pain of sorrow when

having little to eat, yet we had each other

 

 

grateful for love within

 

if the spirit of the universe allows mine eyes

to open for another waking day, i shall try

not to be overjoyed when i see the sun rise

for then my sadness will be great when it

descends onto the horizon

 

and when the moon and stars give light

to the noir of night, i shall beckon my heart

not to flutter too much in delight for then

i will not wish to close mine eyes and gather

peaceful dreams from the world beyond

 

but through this challenged sojourn, i shall

not diminish or mitigate the sense of love

that resides within, for it is for this, that i

truly am grateful to the spirit of this universe  

in giving me another night and day

smile, remember me

 

remember me, i was that face you walked by

and your eyes chose not to capture mine

 

i dared to smile but you did not acknowledge me

and because of this my day went unfulfilled

 

remember me when last I said hello and you

did not respond, so my breath became shallow

 

i am that faceless number that is posted in your

nightly news but you know not why or how

 

i am one of those many thousands that soon will

be forgotten except for them who knew and loved me

 

when next i walk by, please smile at me or say hello

for not only will my essence be, you will remember me

a day with music

 

my heart is rendered harmless

my spirit rests on a cloud of euphoria

and my cognition is suspended in the irrational

when mine ears capture cat strings plucked by masters

 

is it the timber and vibrations of pure sounds from music

that make my heart flutter and my breath quicken when

recognizing that the presence of my being is also of the same

waves modulating, wherefor, the intrinsic make-up of the ‘all’?

 

i believe this to be true, for the more i understand the wisdom

the ‘wind-whispers’ bring to mine ears whilst strolling in the path

where trees sway freely, and the birds sing their songs of joy

as the sun rises to awaken them and then the moon and

the stars provide for their nights’ nocturnal rest