Find Your Joys

The best days of my life 

Are the ones where I’m not afraid to live,

Unabated and intrepid. 

The worst days are the ones that I fear life,
Either instigated by the will of others
Or especially by my own.
Such judgment leads to condemnation.

And don’t hassle over things too much.
Chances are
Your first inclination is often the right one.
Life affirms itself
And can be contagious.

You are not alone.
You will likely find
Other like-minded people to live your life with
Or they will find you.

Find your joys 

Burnish them

Great and small,
And share them.

White-throated Sparrow

I saw you razoring your bill this morning,
Using the budding branch of a maple tree
As your whetstone.

I have some questions:
Ø  Does doing that give your sunflower seed
a maple-y delicious flavor?
Ø  Do you suffer when the weather is cold and wet?
Ø  Do you have a best bird-buddy friend?
Ø  And where do you go at night?
Ø  Are you ever afraid or lonely?
Ø  And most especially,
how does it feel to fly?!
Ø  Is that freedom as delicious
As maple-flavored sunflower seeds?

Oh,
And thanks for stopping by each morning
And having breakfast with me.

 

 

Hate and Love

You throw your shit
And some of it comes my way
Shame shame.
And bits of it stick
On heart and hands
Of the simple and the good
It is tarry-vile and it burns
Deep down near the core
(Is that your aim?)
Near where we dearly hold
Hope hope
And it is  so very hard
To wash it and be free.
 
Why why?
I do not understand
Why you are so cruel
With your tools of power
Running hot
Stirring and brewing hate.
And gut deep I am sorry
For these times of so much sorrow
As it is painful madness
This I know
This I see.

But I do not join you
No no
Will not can not
And so
 I stand against your loathsome course
(There is even a tear for you)
I am I am
Not weak with fear
But strong with love
As there are better futures
And so a better day
And as for me
I choose I choose
I choose to go that way.

Tall Grasses

“I am happy to make your acquaintance,”
I confess to the white and black cat
-Who was purring in my lap an hour earlier
-Who was king of all he surveyed
-Doing as he pleased on the lanai
-Posing and posturing
-Making the big brown dog shake.

But now, you crouch and cower and shy
Strung taut like a guitar string
-Out near the corn patch
-Where your claw is only one of many
-Where no one or nothing shrinks willingly
-But instead fights or flees
-Here on wild neutral grounds
I’m not sure you even recognize me
As we both search our way through
The tall grasses of fear and trepidation.