Norway Pass

                                               Wind playfully tormented the rainfly on our tent,

hard ground rejected our affections and

sleep was left to entice but not to satisfy.

In the morning, the sky opened up,

Mount St. Helens revealed itself

to our startled  vision,

inexplicable force now resting,

inferno of fire and ash,

desert maker,

usurper of once mighty forests,

the fiery breath of god.

Many years between then and now,

we succumbed to the enormity and power,

we were enticed by the depth of the silence,

thankful of our brief yet wondrous witness

to the majesty of the planet.

Dungeness

Driftwood told us many stories

of storms and riotous oceans

and bottomless pit of winter nights

when the wind mourned loneliness and

stars themselves shrunk from the tempest.

Stones ground to a smooth polish

from water's relentless perfection

displayed their wondrous colors,

surely the creations of celestial dreamers

in their god-like sleep.

Seals broke through the water's surface,

their shimmering sleek heads danced and

spoke of the playfulness of nature

with marvelous tales of undersea kingdoms

where porpoises ruled and

children found solace from nightmares.

At the end of this finger of rock

the white spire of a lighthouse

maintained its vigil and remembered

icy and thunderous shipwrecks
along the Dungeness.

A Single Leaf

A Single Leaf

A single leaf

carried by nomadic winds

across thirteenth avenue,

caressed by the nakedness of traffic,

longing for a bit of earth

to fall into.

Hiroshima

Hiroshima

The city that death enveloped,

where black rain descended when

i was barely ten months old,

unable to grasp the horror.

At sixty years,

finally make my pilgrimage

to ground zero and became witness

to the madness that only war enlivens.

I made my pilgrimage

to ask forgiveness

for human folly and

speak silently my prayer for peace.

Dancing Shoes

 Dancing Shoes

Two pairs of shoes

in the corner of the room,

waiting for the authors of their dance,

carrying the spirit of the feet they enclose,

captives of two lovers,

one in bed

in her sweet reprieve from exhaustion,

the other

trolling the shape and texture of existence

with his camera.

Art is Carnivous

 

ART IS CARNIVOROUS

Art is carnivorous,

art preys mercilessly

upon the artifacts of culture,

digesting them and

ultimately spinning the remains

into dream-like consequences

that magically join

in grand coital reverie

with the human heart,
art keeps the hope of life alive.

The City Engulfs Space

The city engulfs space

like a vagabond,

distorts time,

ravages sleep,

infests dreams with

voluptuous void,
induces a vague forgetfulness.