In Tulê Fog

In the south field
Tulê fog obscures
Scores of infinite
Futures to yield
Doubt --out there
Beyond the creek
Where it bends west
And I seek some
Best sense of the 
Year ahead-- even
An hour is immense.
I feel future floating
In  mist -- it consists
Of  features unformed,
Until the sun nears
And land is warmed,
Time moves and
Tomorrow appears.

Ivy About To Bloom

We are not entirely real,
Or with each conscious
Contact the world would 
Wound us, bruise us.
What emerging monster
Or blossom is it?
Will the lane ahead remain
Unlit or reality yield
A way, a path revealed
In ivy buds
And never lose us?
Maybe yes, maybe no, but
I'd like to think so.

Barn Drawer Tools

I open a barn drawer and
Tools ask, "What do you
Want us for?" -- a task, a
Chore, seldom called for,
But delighted you are there
For scraping, planing,
Chiseling and all remaining
Arts of heartfelt repair. 
"We know," they say.
"It's why we stay in this
Barn bench drawer, in dust.
Old things need renewal, 
What we are for. We must--
Table, the old door, we must."

Mazda

Zoroastrianism has three major tenets:
Good thoughts;
Good words;
Good deeds --
And has roots in the Bronze Age, which
Predates most everything except maybe our VW Bus.
Its central force is Ahura Mazda.
Ahura means mighty.
Mazda means wise.
I claim no wisdom of my own, but our 
Car from this this century has air conditioning.
It is a Mazda.
 
 

Rain Lily

A single long event,
Earth so far, evolves
This rain lily
And humanity.
But what of what
Has not occurred?
I have no word 
For what is not.
And if a thought
That never happens
Never happens again,
Is that repetition?

Sweep Second Hand Redux

Some things
Are impossible
To find on purpose.
Composed
Of stunning antiquity
And futurity--
Particles, antiparticles
Shot from both
Ends of time--
palindromic rhyme,
To you and  me.
We seek  causality.

Over Rainflowers and For Love

I began a journey long
Ago,  am  old  now --
I know, I know-- but
Something strong, bold,
Gave purpose, emerged
Out of all --right and wrong--
All lyrics, songs in life.
Enthralled,  I  still have  some
Some strength  if  called,
Whenever  or  where, and
Shall in all my best be there.

Geometreefrogs

We collect on a canna lily leaf.
We compose a triangle --
Equilateral, like our society.
Euclid drew it from his mind.
Evolution left us somewhat
Behind there --we are mostly
Mouth, legs and guts and
Find triangles better-
Managed by our butts.  

Still Untitled

  Untitled

Life caught in
Certain molecules

Fuels this thought.
Its trail of atoms

Causes change in
The past, future

And is what 

Happened last.

1970 Poem

[Wendyclip, 1970:]


We stopped on a
Steep little street--
Runs right down to
Dingle Lane.
They intersect 
At a drain and 
A narrow tunnel.
I believe this town
Began as a funnel.

Peace, Please...A 1967 Memory

Seawater, held in
The arms of wind,
Went inland   and
Filled  night  with
Fog, an unlit hill in
Berkeley  --clothes
Optional,  if  not
Theoretical-- as
I recall, lovers kissed.
They wore moonlight
And mist, as youth
Does, and knew only
Where the inside
Of everything was.
  

The Genie Is You

To feel time
Is to hear the
Genie addressed
In future memory--
The wish and
The wish recalled.
The wish is always
To be the genie
Who makes dreams
Come true --and
That is you.

Midnight

We are like our
Newyear's bell,
Rung to a world's
Time and tuned
To one brass note,
But each ring is
Followed by a new
And different quiet.

Tachycardia

A hummingbird's heart
Beats a thousand times
Each minute -- I ask,
"Isn't that unbearable?"
"Oh yes," she answers.
"But there are moments
When it's merely relentless."
Courage, and encouragement
Come in all sizes.

We Are Here

Turn up the sound, switch to full screen. This is live feed from orbit. Watch Earth move.

The search for a closed scheme
That provides a  complete  and 
Self-consistent  explanation  is
Full  of  flaws --in itself, an
Incomplete statement, consider:
Conscious beings -- universe
Generated  self-awareness,  no 
Minor by-product of mindless
Forces,  no  trivial  detail --no.
We are truly meant to be here.
And yet, it is we who invented
Meaning  --good  thing  too!

Attercopus, WWW

400 million years:
DNA absorbed in
Viruses  spread
Protein templates
Spider to spider
Resulting in silk
Spirals, parallel
Lines, spinnerets
And why I got a
D  in  geometry.

Immensity

Inland under rainshadow,
Over coastal cordillera,
Plains and mountain passes,
Over this immense land
Raindrops stop
Gently in our hands.

Triple Word Score

I see your lamplit face.
All space is the same space.
Subatomic time is
Constant among galaxies
And these brains of ours, so
Ideas addressed in neurons
Are heard also among stars.
I am able to look across
Scrabble at you and know 
The reverse is also true. 

Quantum Wave Adjustment Kit

Being you is
Barefoot at 
Night rejoicing
Where beach fires
Compose wishes.
Being me is
Years ago noticing
How pliers
Look like fishes.







I have tinkered with this poem a long time. Posted it most recently seven years ago  and noticed it got shorter every time I wrote it. So this time I abandoned meter, which was getting troublesome, in favor of an illustration. Went out to the pumphouse and fetched my vicegrips, which are close enough to pliers to serve ably in a Quantum Wave Adjustment Kit. It also needed some anatomical labels, which meant attempting a webcam Geodoodle. Poetry is hard work!

Earnest Squirrel

He seems so much in
Earnest, tries so hard
To say something in our
Yard --the woody end--
Where the creek begins
Its bend into the stars. 

He scampers, rests--
Under a message too
Large to bear-- but
Stays near, charged
By the universe to
Share what it wrote
In his mind:

Be afraid --I am afraid.
Universe is enormous,
Full of forces that form
Us --be kind, be kind. 
  

Sub Rosa 2

Storm grows.
Two winds in
Colliding clouds
Combine above
A rose   --secrets
Retreat in shadows.