cajun family
personalities
dealing with
alchemical transmutation
transactions
changing of values
history for money..

wildly popular show..
biting humor wraps
sly bidding and exchange
greed rises and falls..
initial bid and response
a scaling gap
startled unbelief..

increments then decide
decisions' sharp edge
money or heritage..
convenience argues
bad choices faced
painful needs are voiced
a values paradox..
microcosm of life now...?
snapshots of our mirror...?

news this morning
the next big thing..
intuition and experience
reported as smothered
a tidal wave
sheer numbers and weight
left finally defeats right..
data's new patterns
never before seen
a computing triumph
without much doubt..
but taking a moment
reading between headlines
something's unseen
intuition a bird
soaring much higher
finding new branches
a perch beyond
discovering bold patterns..
patterns
among patterns...

an unwelcome call..
a search for work
repairing roofs
indented by hail..
survival
his time and occupation
today..
wonder is what
use instead his time
might find..
or is this call
our common
fleeting pain and
two possible doors
to explore...

generous and expanding
white's brilliant reflection..
many shaded towers
edges enclose with
high definition..
sometimes
a precursor to unwelcome
beauty..
hailstones
waterspouts
tornados..
we too
accumulate faces...

sameness is light
difference comes from
filtering light
curving...
no sameness without
difference
no difference
without sameness..
this is
waking...

science today has
an announcement to make
a new particle
whose import has soared..
discovery with fanfare
rapt attention to a
divine imprimatur..

holding all together
with binding and mass
the particle's shadow
now seen..honoring
blinding acceleration paths
with furious endings in
colliding spray and crash..

science reports their
celebration's surety is
quite close to a certain 1.000..
reaching 99.9 and more
these notorious claims..
still an infinity away
others might say..

doors to questions now
swing open..
science with its symmetry
deserves accolade today..
yet is this point of arrival
one of immediate departure?
a new fork in the road?
historical discovery
of one humble particle
afloat on an edge..
unrecognized edge of
vast dimensional light?

the modern ills we face
all have ancient roots
back to one old Tree
a Tree of this and that..

from the Tree a virus spread
with special virulence now..
anxious ills and worry
fueled by this and that..

few seem to know
a medicine is extant
and really here closeby..
yet mysteriously hidden
alas..in our plain sight..

a preliminary dose
is a simple location..
to find a bit of this in that
and that in this..

a spoonful will send us
on our way..
a transforming surprise
an immunizing gift..

a gift when recognized
clothes armor to confront..
new dark incursions
of the virus we now name
the familiar this and that..

yet now we might be offered
a second dose
stronger than the first
a sudden recognition
there's really More than
this and that..

this special More that
we now swallow..
a More of special beauty
enclosing only gentle hints
of our former
this and that....

a mountain firestorm
suddenly attacked..
terrorized a city's
mountain shadowed
edge..
home destruction abounds
insurance assures and
eases much pain..
might humility now also
give voice..
please allow fire
a path...?

in our daily
repetitions
our comfort is
habitually nestled
in a sunny welcoming
of familiar pathmarks...

this smoothness short-lived
when unease finds play..
a once familiar mark
registers differently
our fittings and
complacency disturbed
distressed...

a grasping then
for restoral..
sometimes when darkly
shocked
in disturbed awareness
we are astonished
a minor tweak
resolves into a
path entirely new...

a family album
perhaps especially
or happenstance discovery..
breathless vistas
seashore places
evening laughter gatherings
stark recognitions not
mistaken..
precision abiding..

and then
sudden emergences from
nowhere..
habitual viewing torn
prompting new explorations
awakening patterns unseen..
iceberg revelations
now realizing our settling
assumptions
deceptions and unexpected
origins..
other slices
parabolic mysteries
left and right..
perfect picture now..?

an assembly or
better named
a clump
of multifarious flotsam
presenting its untidy self
on a recent passing
streetcorner..

a hesitating photo records
a drifting pinecone
centering a stained
and shredding newspaper
a broken sharp stick
red rocks of scales and shadings
flecking dried green leaves..

order imposed by
framing and shaping of
the sidewalk corner..
might other forms emerge
with a focused patience?

a partial headline reads
...sound without the wires..
news of expanding connections
outside a material realm?
headline seemed embedded
in thick advertising bulk
announcing a continuing
culture of material weight..
much else of red and green..

the centering pinecone
occasional pineal symbol of
higher dimension entry..
somehow rightly here
in the dark center
of this mess

this a brief experiment
not yet for most an answer
a question now of mining
finding patterned varieties
in large nature's trove..
patient visions residing in
gathered fragments
if gathered they be..
expectations of more
in what persists
of this and that in
time...  :)

golden setting sun
converging telephone wires
point to golden end
and gathering darkness
unnoticed small bird
high on pole
a sole witness
tech and nature
pointing...

watch the starlings
synchronizing
their collective dance..
each bird deciding for the all
each on the edge of
chaos and fall..
local decisions on moving
coupling a mysterious
non-local intuition..
all spurring our wonder
our disbelief

are we forced to consider
our analogous place
each one of us poised
on a delicate line..
each needing to master
a courage to reach
transform near fear
take that one step our own
trust knowing all steps..
holographic truth at last
each differing step
stimulating
new wholeness and light

watch the starlings
once more..
locate where you now stand
my edge in my time
absorb the starling's miracle
murmuring our own
murmuration

sandwich and bananas
shopping chore
wondering how
intention arose

flags
replicating and encroaching
sharpened green swords
monotonous and marching
poisons and a secret
carefully concealing
awaiting annual signal
when spring approves
only briefest revelation
veritable explosion of
glory
simultaneously approving
quick resumption of
marching

expecting summer warmth
cold spring wind
shiver bird ruffled

an oval antique photograph
from the century just passed
six youthful brothers
must be sunday dressed
exuding life and promise
facing forward all in line
symmetry pervading
sister mary in their center

on the photos right
a startling recognition
an image seen before
colins great grandfather
raymond often ray
in features and a gaze
seemed as colin
would have stood

photo has a crease
fading but still clear
now with photos recent
privileged to compare
colin next to ray
both fully present
yet a gaze away

rays gaze anticipating
army time in paris
fortune seeking in the west
fortunes to be found
four generations branching
to colin and beyond

colins gaze capturing
a journey now beginning
does he see montana paris
or the stars
repeating patterns forward
reflect photographic truth

music completes the pattern
with colorings of sound
rays trumpet and harmonica
introducing a guitar
which colin has absorbed

thus in his confirmation
new dimensions
now foreseen
confirming four generations
reflecting many more
expanding light and love
carrying our gratitude
for the glimpse
an old photograph
favored us
to find

(poem written for my grandson's
confirmation....)

finding terrors in
our mountain landscapes
beauty becomes sublime

fear's great desire
to stand alone
accompanying
stealthily in our tasks
advice sublime
is to enfold our fear
heart absorbing
finding then
strength and joy
new tasks
transformed

a linkage
fragmented events and
colors
growing emptiness
differences shout presence
similarities mostly hidden
finding only hints
glimpses
within those differences
glints of light
connecting at last
linkage
a parable

in our rocky mountain vistas
and certain landscape
paintings
our imaginings are captured

sometimes clear and ordered
in others stormy patterns
hiding then revealing
dark and jagged forms
almost hearing the hawk's
invisible circling call

imagining ourselves on
precipitous mountain paths
blown by shifting icy winds
vertigo and dark crevices
fearsome obstacles foreshadowing
impending loss     then

most suddenly we return
to our observation places
warmth safety comfort
as before
our imagined landscape fears
now engulfed transformed
within a joyous
pervading light
a jolting new experience
mysteriously named by some
as the sublime

the word a gentle quiet
merging
of beauty and twin terrors
fear and loss

might we then find
in this our landscape viewing
a rehearsal
for life's dark confrontations
and on a promising day
enfold transmute and
with ecstatic labor
discover true beginnings
new births
reaching this time
a friend
we know and name
our sublime

He favored this poem
but never explained
the one named Smoke
by Henry David Thoreau
remembered Walden fame
Was the poem a mirror
reflecting a life
in fullness lived?

a pilot as Icarius
youthful ascents of flight
Were his pinions melted
in one upward climb?
Then a sharp descent
may have in the mirror appeared
discovering atomic paths
searching for particles
in their hidden depths
An Icarian bird once more
in a new pursuit?
Facing dangers in
desert flashes
like Icarius moving
much too close to
elemental light?

Or else
smoke thins and thickens
No more circling above
leaving his nest now
pursuing literary truth
where darkness also
has its due
Shading light from sun
and stars
Enabling students to
see anew
Imaginations soaring to
heights and depths

But he remembers still
a life complete and whole
Does he find any need
for pardon for this
his own clear flame?

I'll end this verse with
a sound some would
call a chime
This because 'til now
just one line did rhyme!

early infestation of
miller-moths
lost cell phone
roughing the day's
smooth path
advice says these
are opportunities for
deepening
perhaps rough inside
of smooth
question for
tuesday

Same two squirrels
one took the
leap
fragile branch to fragile branch
the smaller
peered across in joyful fear
delay preserves
with disappointment
The chasm
our question of when
more preparation
working in shadow
returning
a gaze across
today?

Two squirrels
reaching high branches
safety now
ahead of a determined
orange cat
tails twitching furiously
scolding chirps announcing
the futility of
future pursuts but
knowing certain
life and reality
persist on
a razor's sharpened
edge.

Shrieking birds
front porch disturbance
lilac springtime
much does depend
on
reconciliation
this sunny
morning.