Tumbleweed (Part 1)

In motion is when things
Go better, it seems,
On skates or wheels or wings
Moving excitedly through the air,
But not necessarily
Headed for anywhere...
Randomly speeding scarily,
Just as fun as a circus ride,
So much better than being still,
Or static-bored, nowhere to hide
From the toad who will
Squat on your soul, and otherwise
Smother the light you could shine
For all to see, driving
Down the country median line,
Away from the cloying, cleaving
Ones who drag and deaccelerate,
Unable to forgive your leaving.
In motion you can feel and see...
In motion is when you're finally free.

(Geoffrey Hamilton, 1955-2011)

Cause Of Insomnia

Watching the T.V. program
Awake, middle of the night,
Can't get to sleep,
Something's not right...
Maybe it's knowing
That as hard as I try to keep
From thinking of impossibility
And the way things end,
There will be no bestowing
Of slumber tonight...
Maybe it's a feeling deep
Inside, over the loss of a friend,
Realizing he'll never see again
The programs the T.V.s send...

Morning In Makalapa Hotel

"Jet Fuel" coffee and pills
For a breakfast,
My jet-lagged head fills
With "Aloha Friday"...

The lobby is full of tension,
Tansience and flux
And noise, not to mention
The java-smell of I've-got-work-to-do...

Bad Flight Into Paradise

Flying the red-eye into Aloha-land,
Got the much-treasured aisle seat,
But it won't recline
And the movie screen's busted,
Then there's my maladjusted spine,
But the rest is just fine...

How To Live Longer

Those who can neither
Forget nor forgive,
Face a long and bitter
Time through which to live...

Cattle Car Senryu

Economy class Seat 43F
Seat seems roomy until
The tray table comes down...

Puffy

Just some pretty clouds passing by
On a day somewhat better than others,
Time spent idly under a summer sky,
The "gift of now" comsumed, assuming
More will surely be supplied
On schedule, in full measure,
Each and every day until we die.

Seven From Across The River

1. Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them. (George Eliot)

2. Let no one weep for me, or celebrate my funeral with mourning; for I still live, as I pass to and fro through the mouths of men. (Quintus Ennius)

3. Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. (Susan Ertz)

4. A friend who dies, it's something of you who dies. (Gustave Flaubert)

5. Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies. (Elie Wiesel)

6. Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it. (W. Somerset Maugham)

7. Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. Be grateful it happens in that order. (David Gerrold)

Grasshopper

Happy time slips by under a beach's Sun,
Its flow can't be slowed -- Bummer!
Smokes and cocktails and mindless fun,
The Lost burning-out the remnants of Summer...

Cloud Cover

What a glorious feeling!
...I'm walking under a
Brilliant insistent summer sky,
Filled with mobile clouds,
Under a merciless hot
August Sun...
I'm walking across a parking lot,
Headed back to nothing special:
Another day at work...
And the parking lot is is hot!
You could fry a dozen eggs
On the Hellish asphalt...
Well, the clouds are mobile,
And they're moving along with me,
Casting their shadows ahead
Of my walking direction,
Providing, in effect,
And almost miraculously,
An angelic umbrella of shade
From way up on high...
What a glorious feeling!
To see the clouds' shadows
Marching-on before me,
As if I were the recipient
Of some sort of Heavenly UV-escort...
But, they won't believe me,
Back in the office...

Japanese River Festival

Floats of flickering hope
Launched, gently, by hands
Of those who abide and cope --
They watch the summer river's
Current urge-away the floats,
The candle's flame shivers,
Flickers, but burns its flame,
A testament to expectations
That happiness will stay the same...

David Hume, 1711-1776 --- Seven Quotes

1. Avarice, the spur of industry.

2. Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.

3. Heaven and hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and the bad. But the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue.

4. Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.

5. Truth springs from argument amongst friends.

6. What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call "thought".

7. That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise.

Golden Eye

When thought is cancelled out
By emotions, what will remain
But the shadow of a fizzled brain
When logic overrides the heart shout
Muffling screams and strain
Dialectics win, without a doubt.

Insect Transition

Dead cicadas on the ground
Are signs that summer
May soon no longer
Be around
The cool will grow stronger
And heroes of Fall
Will newly be found.

Dinner For Phillip Marlow

One could do worse
Than eating a meal
A private eye would make,
Bourbon on the rocks with a
Medium rare steak --
Good fuel for snooping
Criminals' layer-cake.

Daily Routine

Life is full of features...
Change, opportunity -- grab it!
But most of us don't,
We're creatures of habit.