Assumptions

Assumptions

in the heat of the moment

shifts focus from goodness

to a struggle for solid ground.

Assumptions

made reflectively

compare nuances of could be,

should be or uncertainties.

Assumptions

come from deep inside

history shadowing experience

built through the years.

“Assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off 

every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”

~ Isaac Asimov

Foundations

Building a foundation is no mean feat!

Takes muscle, brains and brawn

and more than one person.

Everyone best be focussed 

on the task at hand for a solid result.

This building, on Cook St., will house

and welcome families and businesses.

Watching a new building materialize from thin air, draws me to watch.

I am so very impressed.

Seeing workers of both genders in ankle deep concrete as it is piped in, to rake and level the gray mush flat is fascinating.

Makes me think of all of our ancestors, whether friends, mentors or families,

and the foundations they have built for us.

“It is not the beauty of a building you should look at; 

it’s the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time.”

~ David Allan Coe

Together

My shadow is always with me

whether rain or shine

changes focus and depth

leaning out from my feet

in the sun

my shadow is tall and strong

yet on cloudy days

my shadow is wispy thin

leading the way as the sun falls behind

stretching behind as the sun rises high

moving softly with me wherever I go

“How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? 

I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole.”

~ C.G.Jung

Unless

Somewhere

in the art of living

unseen souls shape our lives 

unless our minds say otherwise 

but with a gentled focus 

the soul ultimately shows a safer way

unless our hearts are shattered and rent 

but with each gentled mend of frayed edges 

our souls ultimately settle all things in place again 

unless our bodies are broken and fallen 

but when steadied and guided, our souls give us rest.

In the art of living

money is no object 

for the soul lives inside us 

ever an ember ready to flicker and flame into life 

unless our hearts, our minds and our bodies 

are abandoned to the whims of worldly things 

“Don’t Gain The World & Lose Your Soul, 

Wisdom Is Better Than Silver Or Gold.”

~ Bob Marley

Time Before

Flipping through glossy pages protectors of memories 

long forgotten, still cherished in the fond light of recognition

touching the past 

glowing in sepia

faded black and white

places and times 

before words intervened

when teachers were each other

toys schooled us in puzzling, playing and working

wispy faces and names 

decades of ancestry posed on a summer’s day

focused on time-stamping a moment.

“What was our life like? I almost don’t remember now. Though I remember it, 

the space of time it occupied. And I remember it fondly.”

 ~ Richard Ford, The Sportswriter

Earworm!!

Musical memories loop-de-looping 

day and night

  and afternoon and evening

    and day and night

Til a radio is turned on

    turned up or

CD’s spin awesome music of

  Louis Armstrong

     Peggy Lee or

any old song that 

  blocks

      reshapes

          shuts down

the musical memory loop-de-looping

   from one ear

     taking a roller coaster

    through coiling grey matter

 to the other ear 

  and back again

for days and days on end until

I have written this poem

before I lose all focus on the rest of today!

  

“Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. 

Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music.”

~ Ezra Pound

Staycationing

A nation away from home

burrowing deep inside self illumination

surrounded by books and blankets

hot tea in a yellow tea pot

hot coffee in a silver coffee pot 

sweet orange juice,

toasted bread from my own hands 

stepping out into wild and wet winter 

that is not winter but is golden autumn

focus on the inside-nation knowing

the outside-nation presence is there for

finding friends to laugh with, 

passersby on the street to say good morning to, 

enthralled by urban wild life 

no longer wild but not tamed 

by the nation of people walking, jogging, driving 

to and from and here to there 

stepping back inside home and hearth 

to get warm and cozy 

preparation of food for the freezer, 

      for refrigeration and 

          to share a ‘Sunday night dinner’ with a friend on Saturday night, 

gathering strength in this staycation of rest and rejuvenation.

“We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; 

otherwise, we harden.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe