implications in hello

the older i get the more i read into everything i do or say. not a good habit really. letting go entirely is what we miss out on when we fear falling through our own empty spaces. i see the way hello fills those spaces for me. but every hello carries the implication of a goodbye. but still it is so nice to smile despite any implications.

i give a salute as they pass… the path   where the deer disappear

burning sage

rising through the room. smoke through empty space. twisting toward the ceiling fan all my troubles let go of me.

the chant
…om…shanti…om…
on auto repeat

you never know if you are right

i believe in uncertainty. the one constancy in the universe. physicists know this. the average person would benefit from an understanding of the ‘uncertainty principle’. people see it in operation every day but refuse to accept it. but in life to accept the seemingly imperfect as the perfect is the secret to true mastery and compassion. nature on the other hand thrives on random disorder. animals and mountain ranges learn and adjust to every movement in the universe. only humans are arrogant enough to even contemplate control. which is why we are more likely to become extinct than any other species. me. i am a one of a kind. and so are you. before we go extinct let us write short poems and drink wine.

an unkindness of ravens
drives all order
from my mind

mask for an idol

tea cups that have been seasoned with age are the best. cracks sealed with superglue hold tight the past from the present. all my repairs ignored. meet me in the now.

wailing guitars…
loneliness hidden
in strobe lights

the cling of conviction

conventional wisdom is the lowest form of thought. i prefer the highly convoluted simplicity of the truly wise. buddha said it for me ‘know who you are. be what you know’. finding yourself is the work you wake up with every day. the rest of your life just falls into place after that. i take that walk in the woods i have not attended to lately. the wind blows me away.

winter storm
the stubborn leaves
on the oak

light breaks in the trees

something there is about the moon. poets are in love with it and nasa too. why something dead. a stone covered in dust. what about it is the attraction. its value eluded me when i was a kid. when i got older i learned that everything we are on earth is dependant on it. not just the tides. not just a pretty light in the sky. if the moon were to disappear tomorrow we would shortly all be gone. a fascination with our own mortality is what keeps us looking at the moon. but most of us dont have any idea that this is true. check it out for yourself if you dont believe me. the gravity of the moon will amaze you.

‘google it’
i tell the skeptic
cher has cherokee blood

the real you

the body you inhabit is not you. that collection of flesh bone and blood is just a potential meal for a hungry lion is all. you are the lion the forest the plains the clouds the mountains and the rivers. my smile is the pines and the birch my greeting wave.

no direction
the  universe flows
through me

seeing past all form

looking down the road until it disappears. we got the ‘flat earth theory’ that way you know. then they walked a little further. the road turned. a little further and it got straight. then the mountains appeared. before they knew it an ocean stretched out before them longer than the road ever was. or so it seemed. then they got in a boat and sailed out. three months later there was more land. another path. what we see is not all we know. but if we sit and look. it all comes to us.

after zazen
the sound of a motorcycle
takes me away

but seriously now

i joke around too much. people actually have to be told by me that i was ‘just joking’. once in a while though i hit too close to home and my jokes bite me in the ass. for instance never joke about a spouses infidelity. yeah that one can rub the scab right off the wound. best to stay with the tried and true i say.

a priest
a cowboy & a dog…
tell me if you have heard it before

bad moon rising

the wolf moon has begun its transition to a ‘blue’ moon. january is always cold but this year it has and will continue to be a howling monster of snow and double digit negative wind chill factors. so just another version of michigan winter for me. i have seen it all in my lifetime. just a layer or two more and some boots that go to your knees at least. i pull out my faux fur hat. the one with the ear flaps and four inches of cushion on top. yeah i make grizzly adams look like george clooney. all activity outdoors drains down to the ridiculous.

polar vortex
snow angels
in the highway