PIANO HAIKU

source

Keys - rippling zebras,

each hoof-note adding thunder

to their fiery song.

***

Tinkling through open windows

      piano music

on a summer afternoon.

 ***

Brave at the sundance

one piano key in the

universal song.

                                                                                ***

for The Sunday Muse   

In My Dreams

source

I’m writing poems in my dreams.

“Write them down,” I nudge, 

but, waking, they too swiftly fade,

hollow hoofbeats into the misty dawn,

and then they’re gone.

I’m visiting old lovers

in my dreams, as if, in death,

they now know how I cared,

how all would have been different

if only we had dared.

for Joy's Flash 55

He-Tin-Kis Park, Ucluelet, B.C.

Chris and I went to take Menina for her weekly walk yesterday in Tofino's sister village, Ucluelet, where she now lives. It was a glorious ramble, along a small beach, and through the forest. We saw such amazing trees! I wanted to share our walk with you. I thought it might lift your hearts to see the beauty of Mother Earth, which continues so generously, even in the midst of climate distress. Mother Earth is so brave that way: her mandate, and the mandate of all earthlings, is to live.

The Girly

who is happy in her new home,

especially as she still gets to see

her aunties every week.

We're happy about that too!

I was THRILLED when a heron landed 

some feet in front of me 

on the beach and I managed to get 

the closest shots I have ever

managed of this wonderful creature.

Sigh. I am content!

I wasn't quick enough to get the eagles overhead.

Dogs, herons and ancient tree beings. It is a wonderful world!

Sharing at  earthweal.com , to remind us of this beautiful world we want so much to heal and help.

Only Memories Can Stay

Ice caps melt, forests burn away;
only memories of cold and trees can stay.

I once was loved; he left one day;
only memories of love can stay.

There is a time for being young;
so swiftly old age has begun;
only golden memories of youth
are mine today.

There have been losses, yes, so many,
but looking back at all I've lost,
I see only all the gifts that
I was given,
and never count the cost.


for dVerse: Impermanence

Deep Time

After 4.55 billion years, give or take 50 million,
it only took us 200 years
to bring us to the brink:
the voracious industrial maw gobbling acres
without a thought of restoration,
of what can be sustained,
or the cost to whatever future
we have left.

(Some indigenous people caution us
to step lightly, that we are walking
on the faces (and futures) 
of our children.)

The future is here, now.
We inherit melting ice, wildfires,
carbon emissions, a heating planet,
warming seas.
Refugees are on the move,
fleeing famine, flood, fire,
war and terror,
seeking safety, finding none,
borders closing, as the hope withers
in their hearts.
In the eyes of the suffering children
we see reflected
the world that we have made.

We have 100 seconds
- one minute forty seconds -
before climate catastrophe
is everywhere.
The leaders are not listening.
Dollar signs blind them
to a truth few want to hear.
Willful ignorance enables them
to fill the pockets of the few,
while the masses suffer.

Deep time is revealing its finite horizon.
The 6th mass extinction is upon us.
Some of us recognize
that this extinction
includes us.

It's a hundred seconds to midnight.
It was two and a half minutes two years ago -
anyone getting nervous yet?


for Brendan at earthweal : A Clockwork Green

Wild Thing

                           

                                Photography by Sarolta Ban

                                View website HERE

Out of the whole wide misty world

you found me,

cocked your ears,

put your paw forward,

did a little play bow,

enchanted me.

I took you home.

You grew and grew.

You were a wild thing.

Now I am old

and you are gone.

I sit on a log in the sun

and remember when

we lolloped together along the beach,

you with your goofy grin,

my wild heart exulting,

when you and I 

and the whole wide beautiful world 

were young,

and your wild song

had only just begun.

                                  



for Carrie at The Sunday Muse

The top photo reminds me of a photo of my grandma when she was about 50. She was sitting on the ground on a misty stretch of prairie, looking into the distance. The wolf, of course, reminds me of Pup, who often put his paw forward, like this, uttering a soft "whuff" to get my attention or make a request. Sigh.

How to Walk in the Woods (and the World)

How I walk in the woods (and the world) :

I announce my presence without speech,
beaming love to all (tree) beings:
"I come in peace, with respect."
I hope they hear.

I walk gently, quietly,
exchanging smiles and breaths.
"Good morning," I say to all passing
trees, people, dogs - (especially dogs).
"Beautiful morning!" I exult, and
"You're the most beautiful dog!
Have a treat!" The dogs all smile.
Sometimes the people, too.
(Maybe I need to carry chocolates
in the other pocket?)

I look for the small beauties,
and they are everywhere -
babies' smiles and sweet little growls, old man's beard
on cedar, the first unfurling white spring blossoms,
green things, poking their heads up
after the long winter.

I turn down unexplored pathways,
eyes open to the magic.
I listen for the messages
the forest has to give.

I take my inspiration from the sky.
"Look up!" I tell
the merry passers-by.
"There's a Sky-Show going on,
this very second,
just for you and I."

I am back from a cool poetry workshop given to we seniors by our Poet Laureate Joanna Streetly. The exercise was to think of something we love to do, and to jot down vocabulary and ideas about it. Then to write a poem using those things to illustrate how we apply them to our way of being in the world.  I chose walking in the forest, as it is easy to transfer the wonder to walking through life with eyes "open to the magic."

for Brendan at earthweal