Order in Disorder

There is order in disorder,
So not to worry about meaning…
It will find us.

I have selected a random (really?) location,
Trail side on rocks
Once cast up
Then worn down.

A very tiny spider
Walks a single invisible strand
Back and forth
It is very alive.

Lunching with the trees
That dropped their leaves and waited
Patiently
For my arrival.

Applesauce

It was a time of innocence,
That was your gift to me
Your work and sacrifice.

Your applesauce,
You made each summer
From apples you bought
On rambling trips
To orchards in Vermillion
With your sister Eunice
Canned in our kitchen…
It protected me
For a few fine years:
Before the bomb
Before the blast of puberty
It softened the blows.
You kept me safe
For as long as you could…

It is a time more guileful,
And gifts are given and received more cautiously
Though we work and sacrifice and carry on.

My applesauce,
Picked from apple trees
that likely remember when,
And cooked in modern day hot waters
Can do so little
Comparatively.
It only opens the door
Ajar
And lets me look back
And see your apron through the steam.
　

Sparks into the Sky

The trees are blushing this morning.
A sudden burst of early light
Has revealed them
Strutting modestly
In their flaming foliage
Mature in their nature
Radiant in their exuberance
Dancing close to the fire
They throw sparks into the sky
Without a care
Without a care.

Hopes of a View

It is a day like any other
But this day has a vantage point.

Not unlike
Climbing the tallest tree,
With hopes of a view
Closer to the farthest horizon,
Yet yielding nothing
But more trees
Beech green and gray
Oak stretching tall
Pine whistling secret melodies.
Their past is written
In concentric loops
Both tight and loose
Dendrochronologies stored in locked trunks,
They show nothing of the future
They offer no divining stick
Hedging toward a likely bet,
Their stories tell only what was.

A leaf drifts.
It wobbles down
Turning slowly on a brief breeze
Then lands upon a compass rose
Of other leaves and sticks
And points the way
On a map I know I know
But cannot read
And so I am left to discover
My course
Somehow
Having been so chosen.
　

Where Peace Resides

I do not know
For sure
Where peace resides.
Is it on the in-breath
As we take in our lives,
Or on the out-breath
As we release out petty struggles?

Perhaps it is found
On that threshold
At that inspired instance
As in
Passes to out,
At a more perfect moment
That is created,
Celebrated
In the quiet brilliance
Of being?

And for certain
We are blessed
Now and again,
When out hearts
Are able to see,
On the inside
And the outside
And the in-between.

Lichen Peace

Lichen Peace

I will bring you water

And you will grow our food,

Together we are better

In a world of peace.
I will ground us to the rock

And you will sop

The radiant sun

Together we are better

In a world of peace.
Together we will prosper

As we share

And work together

In a world of peace.