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...

Felis Catus

The cat patrols around the
House, on stealthy paws,
Always watching, it acts
According to its own laws,
Allows itself to be petted,
While hiding its claws.

The cat relaxes, purring,
Sits on the windowsill,
But its eyes always search
For something to kill.

Prime Minister's Hammer

Despite mounds of problems

Yet to be debated, or solved,

The rulers have declared

Their government dissolved...

No matter what those in

The opposition cry, or say,

Power wielded tactically,
Cynically, 
In a parliamentary way...

Hermit Priest 山伏

Meditating on top of a rock,
In the rarefied mountain air,
Silently searching for
A god that's not really there.

Stubbornly and patiently,
The hungry, tired, ascetic
Maintains a lonely vigil,
Hoping to become prophetic.

1914-1918

Armed men, dying in muddy trenches,
Leaving their loved ones in sadness,
All of it caused by imponderable,
Lethal, European political madness,

The Somme, Paschendale, Verdun,
Soaked in the blood of luckless boys,
Torn apart by World War One...

The Power Of The Leaf

Emotional de-escalation
Achieved quietly,
With soft words,
And cups of tea.

Pedal To The Metal

American motor dream,
In the spaces so vast,
Where you can drive it,
Straight, far, and fast...

November

Green turned to yellow,
Then to brown, then lost,
Plants shrivel and adjust
To the falling frost.

Generational

Grandchild, considered for a moment,
Summons an unspoken recognition
Of one's continuance, and at the same
Time, one's gray-haired condition,
New life and old life, passing the baton,
In a never-ending cycle and transition.