Bestowal

It is graceful to give thanks
For the blessings of a friend
For the thoughtful awareness
Bestowed with love and humility
Rather than pompous entitlement
That, of course, one should be so honored,
When in reality, it is by virtue of a pure heart
That one receives any recognition at all.
And so, with head bowed, arms open,
Giving honest gratitude for such sweet giving
One reciprocates love and gently
Holds the hand of a true friend
Letting go of the notion of being owed.

Nightfall

As nightfall sends each vision into shadow
The life of person, animal and creeping things
Takes on a different hue and begs for rest.
A calm that movement cannot fathom
And so by drifting in a patient wind
That harries not, nor does it hurry,
We find our way to slumber where
The mind lives in a different land
A language of symbol and half-truth
A voyage to the place between reality and imagination
Where we conquer fear and overtake the world.

Defining Moment

The defining moment of an illustrious life
Bends through time like a just-sharp knife
The breathtaking beauty of outward appearances
Sends chills up the spine with each step it advances
The wee ones are watching for someone to emulate
All efforts renewed time and again, as if fate
Were standing judgment and in this court
Success flies high on dreamy wings like sport.
The heart opens wide to receive all comers
Releasing love and joy as a lock moves its tumblers
And when all is said and done the memory we keep
Is how much light was shared before we went to sleep.

Next Year

What we seek in future times
The year of 2012 to be exact
The compromise to make complete
Reconciliation of the fact
For good on one side standing still
And evil holding its own ground
The magic to harmonize within the whole
Such desperation will be found
And prayers and blessings won’t erase
The herald call as we face
The fight of centuries infinitely past
To right earth’s imbalance at last.
The responsibility evades us then
Who shall make the lesson clear?
Is it time to act? If not now, when?
To put away the destruction come next year.

My Thought, My Voice, My Vision

I keep a photo in my pocket
That reminds me of every sunrise
Since the day that we first met
Because your smile was so bright
And it releases the sweet air
Of every breathtaking view of you
And I think about the tender grasp
Of holding your hand, captivated by your eyes
And what’s true today, I want to still be so
A hundred years from now
Because I love you—you are my mirror
You are my thought, my voice, my vision.

Words

Words I envision in the spectrum of time
Covertly shadowed by tempo and rhyme
Brightly and spritely they flow with meaning
A quilted environment all for the gleaning
Too full of menace, menagerie, meandering
Lightly on spice, species, philandering
All the world’s stage curtains wide now to see
The energizing pow’r of “To be or not to be.”
Climbing the ladder like Old English ivy,
Or presently plummeting down rockslides I see
The words, the worlds, graceful and gleeful
A smattering, a spattering, collected a basketful.
All of the karmic implications now gone
Thanks to the honor, none is withdrawn.
Raising a cup, I’ve no doubt to be broken,
All in my sweet life, it is happily spoken.