Leap Of Faith

It does not do any good for us,
Each other's pleasures to compare,
Or measure what small quantities
Of kindness we hesitated to share,
It does no good to fret over dreams
We can neither retrieve, nor repair,
Rather, let's embrace, and ignore
What lies behind, as much as we dare...

Gathering The Cord

Even though I
Blister and tire
Need to chop
Wood for the fire
Lungs pumping
Full of the cold
Heart pounding
Almost uncontrolled
The falling ax
Blade contriving
To split enough
For my surviving
Ends with ache-sweat
I'm totally spent
Wondering where
The afternoon went
Breath puffing small
Clouds of steam
In the gloaming's
Defracted gleam

Lovers' Promise

Give me your hand
And while we're at
It, if you understand,
Your heart, and we
May get lucky and
Find our way to that
Distant happy land...

Yokosuka, Verny Park, 06:43 AM

They gather in the park,
With dogs on leashes,
Still halfway dark
In the early morning,
The recently retired
Still unused to the
Excess time acquired,
To be consumed
Before they're expired...

Could It Be Gland?

It wells up inside
Pressuring for release
And until it's done
I'll know no peace

Pre-Kinetic

A stand-off emerged,
And thereafter froze
For an instant, before
Coming to blows...

      

When North Korea Strikes

A missile headed our way, and
There's no real point in hiding,
For the impact will kill all who
Remain, unrepentant, but also
Ambivalent, beyond deciding,
The falling, violent, explosion's
Results: permanent, abiding...

Upon Listening

Waiting for the chord sequence to decline,
And, when it does, it makes me realize
There is a place where wizards shine,
A place where boundaries cannot confine
The magic which the music will define...

Declaration

He'd rather be asleep,
Vice awake and aware,
Of a comfort level
That's not quite there,
He'd rather be drunk,
Than wandering in prayer,
Or chasing angels
Through the empty air,
He'd rather be drugged
Instead of seated on a chair
At a table for a feast
The holy ones prepare...

Geek Approach

Not knowing how she feels
Or where best to start
How about trying a
Double-click on her heart
See what that reveals

It's All Relative

It seems clear to me
That one man's success
Is another's mediocrity,
More or less,
Caught between
To be and
Not to be...

Traffic Control

Detour, Do Not Enter,
No Stopping, One Way,
These road signs on the
Face of my wife today...

A Version Of Wisdom

All good things come to them that wait,
Unless you wait too long,
In which case, the saying's wrong...

Ballet Of The Fallen

Leaves, red, yellow, and brown,
Lifted by the breeze climb
Up, spin, twirl, and drop in
A dance both subtle and sublime.

Small Comfort

Cold day, temple ground,
A sparrow basks
In a patch of sunlight.

Miyamoto Musashi

The sword of a samurai
Can cut sharply, decisively,
As steel and physics apply.

Is This All There Is?

Pleasure received, and felt,
For a moment, maybe minutes,
Rarely hours, all of it dealt
Out, randomly, by an invisible
Hand, in uneven measure,
We hanker for the feel good
Fuel of our limited leisure...

Looner, Lunar?

Spectacularly full, mysterious
Bright moon, in a cold night's sky,
Disappearing and dancing with
Ghostly clouds the wind blows by,
That your magic light turns some
Into wolves, I now know why...

Before A Battle On Socotra

Fear not, what deadly comes,
For meet again shall we,
Wounded but alive, under
The Dragon's Blood Tree...

TMI

More books being written than
I will have time to read,
More information being pushed
Than I will ever need,
Ones and zeroes race,
In a mindless, endless, stampede...

Science Fiction

Cursed with being able to imagine
Inter-galactic travel, yet we remain
Utterly unable to do it, still the idea
Lives, as long as dreams sustain...

Skinship

Wrapped in a hug, and holding
Close to the beating heart
Of another ... true peace for
An instant, before we part.

Atmospheric Splendor

The morning clouds
Have no clue about
How beautiful they appear,

Viewed, momentarily,
From down here...

(Photograph by Geoffrey M. Hamilton, 1955-2011)

Survival

Song birds busily gather seed,
On the winter-brown ground,
Each and every one they will need,
To survive the cold, and chills,
Of an arctic wind which kills.

Where The Heart Is

Stepping off the jet, and
Realizing the place I'm in
Is home, but at the same
Time utterly foreign,
A place to hang my hat
As the planets spin...

Letter From Syria

At some point, we realized it was not going to
Happen, despite all efforts, prayers, hoping and
The future somehow got cancelled by the past,
By an energy, dull, dark, and dystopian...