floating and leaving no trace
we wait for you
moon
only a glimpse captured
so far
while walking the dog
and we had to dare traffic
walk into the street
and peer around a tree
to see a sliver of
fingernail
painted red like it’s date night
only an hour left
before you begin to recede
and you’re not high enough
to see
and my binoculars
are no better than
regular eyes
until you cooperate
a hummingbird is
trapped in my chest
its wings furiously beat
against the ribs
just left of center
and the world has become
awash in water
and it floods my ear canals
and everything is muted
except for that bird
and its furious wings
It is the first weekend of fall and it is still a stifling 90+ degrees during the day, and the nights feel like bath in hot soup. Still. It’s Friday, and so, without further delay, the haiku.
—–
mantis waiting there
your hands folded in prayer
–for food, mate or both?
across the street in the dark
on a well lit playing field
behind chain link
a child no older than three
chases a fluorescent yellow
soccer ball
his dad
i won’t call him father
chases close behind
herding him toward the net
where his mom
waits
wide open for him
to score a goal
he explodes in giggles
and collapses on the ball
that is half as big as he is
and i am so glad
that they are there
Day three of the challenge. I’ll repost the rules, one last time. See the first post if you want to see who I tagged.
In a nutshell, here are the rules:
1. Thank the blogger, who nominated you.
2. Share one new quote on three consecutive days on your blog. They can be from anywhere, anyone, or anything that inspires you… Which means, it can be from yourself, too!
3. On each of the three days, nominate 3 more bloggers to carry on this mission impossible endeavor (if they dare!)
Here’s my quote for Day Three:
“Oh you’ll have your heart broken… Is that what you’re waiting to hear? It’ll be broken, all right. But you’ll never get anything done if you walk around with an unchipped heart. That the way of it, boy.”
–Peter Straub, Shadowland
This book a was a revelation to me when I was a teenager, and this quote has remained with me for almost forty years. I’ve never found it to be contradicted.
in the magnolia bloom
bigger than my hand
too much of a sweet scent
three bees gather pollen
crawling over the petals
and each other
Day two of the challenge. I’ll repost the rules, although I remind you, I’m not following the rules. See yesterday’s post if you want to see who I tagged.
In a nutshell, here are the rules:
1. Thank the blogger, who nominated you.
2. Share one new quote on three consecutive days on your blog. They can be from anywhere, anyone, or anything that inspires you… Which means, it can be from yourself, too!
3. On each of the three days, nominate 3 more bloggers to carry on this mission impossible endeavor (if they dare!)
Here’s my quote for Day Two:
Our theories of the eternal are as valuable as are those which a chick which has not broken its way through its shell might form of the outside world.
–Buddha
Another great quote about the ultimate nature of reality. I’m something of an agnostic about metaphysical matters, and I’ve always felt that people should be agnostic. In fact, they shouldn’t feel that they know. Every single person I have met who is sure about what the universe is all about has turned out to be closed-minded and judgmental, and not just about metaphysical matters. I honestly think science holds a lot more answers than any other discipline because of it’s intellectual rigor. But that’s because the driving force of science (and the truth behind this quote) is always we don’t know, but we should try to find out through experience.
we sleep and move
with open eyes
gliding through dark mists
guided by echoes
who speaks? whose voice?
is it our own or another?
we meander through
halls of mirrors
and fail to see
reflections we cast
our own shadows leaping
and trying to escape
trapped in panes of glass
and two dimensions
receding
and always on the surface
So I’ve been tagged. Don’t worry, no spray paint got in my eyes. Instead, it’s a challenge to present one of your favorite quotes and tag three other bloggers with the same challenge.
In a nutshell, here are the rules:
1. Thank the blogger, who nominated you.
2. Share one new quote on three consecutive days on your blog. They can be from anywhere, anyone, or anything that inspires you… Which means, it can be from yourself, too!
3. On each of the three days, nominate 3 more bloggers to carry on this mission impossible endeavor (if they dare!)
—-
Okay. I hate rules, but I will follow them to a certain extent
First off, thank you, Elusive Trope for picking me. I enjoy your poems and am glad that you enjoy mine. Everyone, please go and look at his site. You can come back here later.
Second, the quote. I have a quote in my sig file. I see it every time I send an email and I send a lot of email, but I don’t always think too much about it. here it is so we can all think about it.
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
–Edgar Allan Poe
It seems almost trite, but in two lines he sums up what may be the biggest tenet of Buddhist philosophy. All of the boundaries between us are illusions of our making. We are all one, all in this together. Also, it has the cool Inception/Matrix vibe going for or over a hundred years ago.
Third, I’m only nominating three bloggers in total, and they are:
Hopefully they all check their pingbacks!
dizzy from a year
in the new house
or maybe it’s
the fumes from cleaning
the stove
you see the things
that have been fixed
but zero in
on the things yet to do
still boxes
in my office
and the yard
is a mess
not dead
but struggling
outside
the finches celebrate
by eating the nyjer seed
out of the swaying feeders
and shitting in the grass
Words and Feathers 