Made for TV

It was only an old TV show. 

It showed me a plain 

that I longed for. 

desperately hot, 

hot winds that sculpt the sand, 

sparse cacti, 

tough plants 

    cling to scant shade. 

amazing broad blue sky 

where a burning hot sun reigns. 

black star studded velvet sky at night.

sands magically covered in vegetation

when clouds and rains roll in. 

Of course it was only a TV show, 

polished and stunning for the camera. 

My dreams are something very different.

“When you’re in the desert, you look into infinity….It makes you feel 

terribly small, and also in a strange way, quite big.”

~ David Lean, Film Director

(1908 ~ 1991)

The Biggest of Lies

When you know 

that the sun will always shine, 

the wind will always blow 

whether your life 

spins out of control or 

is as placid as a lake on a summer’s day, 

you will also know that your heart 

will let your spirit and soul soar 

despite the naysayer’s surrounding you. 

And when one of those naysayers is

your own voice

telling you all that you can’t do 

let your spirit and your soul 

guide the way past that biggest of lies 

to the facts that are true.

“The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes 

to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him.”

~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, novelist

(1821 ~ 1881)

Delicious Aromas

The granola toasted ~ filled 

with oats, nuts and seeds ~ 

resting on the counter 

giving up the oven to 

a loaf of oat whole wheat bread. 

The aromas of spices and bread giving home the scent of other homes. This greater and short lived joy pulls all my homes out of thin air with memories from 

farm to apartments to houses

throughout the decades. 

It always surprises me when 

I can truthfully measure 

my life in decades. 

Through travels,   

  education 

     careers,

    families and friends

but aromas are home life 

inside the memories. 

No granola in the past, 

but the spices are the same as 

   the cookies, 

     apple sauce, 

       apple and pumpkin pies

from decades past. 

“Nothing awakens reminiscence like an aroma”

~ Victor Hugo, poet

(1802 ~ 1885)

For the Noonday Sun

Spring blossoms, 

pink and translucent, 

whisked away too soon 

by cruel winds 

but autumn blossoms 

in gold and red, 

a filter for noonday sun 

give me joy.

“How beautiful the leaves grow old. 

How full of light and color are their last days.”

~ John Burroughs, essayist

(1837 ~ 1921)

Messy and Unkempt

Each day offers a newness 

that wasn’t there yesterday 

for each day is special and precious. 

Today it was the 

beauty and bounty of autumn. 

Messy and unkempt but 

banquets for birds, bugs and bees.

My pull to tidy things up 

flew away with the wind. 

The untidy arrangements 

that autumn brings to be left to 

the natural world and homeowners.

“The bounty of nature is too little for the greedy person.”

~ Seneca the Younger, Stoic philosopher 

Born: 4 BC; Died AD 65 (aged 67 - 68)

Memory is Like That

Combining it all, 

all the bright moments, 

the clouds over the sun, 

the yin and yang of it all, 

we look back 

   on a day 

      or a year 

and see only moments. 

scattered and watery,

in colour or black and white

for memory is like that

elusive and ever changing.

“The ocean takes care of each wave till it gets to shore.”

~ Mawlana Jalai- al-Din Rumi, The Essential Rumi 

In Your Bones

Acceptance is believing truth 

not the truth of someone else 

but the truth that 

lives in your bones 

that tells you 

what you don’t want 

    to believe 

that your life is of 

    your own making 

the little life that came with you 

but without instructions. 

Instructions whispered, spoken or yelled 

through each day of your life 

until all of them make sense 

but shaped with your own wisdom 

because you know the truth 

that lives in your bones.

“Knowing others is intelligence. 

Knowing yourself is true wisdom.”

~ Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

We Can only Speculate

Reason when there 

is an accident ~ 

whether a trip and fall or 

the crunch of metal against metal ~ flies out the window and makes no sense.

We can only speculate 

and try to make sense of a chaotic situation,

smooths the wrinkles in the timeline. Epilepsy’s seizure activity is the chaos.

Sleep smooths out the wrinkles 

while the time line is on pause.

“In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order..”

~ Carl Jung, psychiatrist

(1875 ~ 1961)