The 100 most recent posts
Sweet ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #411 - Sugary mouthfulsGlee in ev’ry single biteWarms this adult heart
Bicycle~ Pic and a Word Challenge #410 - Simple steel designKeeps Chinese world in motionFlying Pigeon bike
Frame ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #409 - We share a gaze He a brave stanceAt the Entrance I from the streetEye to viewfinder Framing the frameWithin a frame Click Decades pass Scanning through the scansSeeking inspirationFrom days all but forgottenMemories vagueImpressions with […]
No Greater; No Lesser - It’s easy enough to forget Not all the world lives In a land of strip malls And freeways With manicured lawns And high rise apartments Where a bicycle May be a family’s Only mechanical transportation […]
Innocence - Innocence Knows no boundaries Knows no hatreds Knows no wars But it is not all coy smiles Happiness wrapped In a best friend’s warm arms Even the innocents Know hunger Even the innocents learn fear […]
The Morning After - They say there’s got to be A morning after Just hold on Through the night I say the best work Comes in the dark of night And the morning after? The words are posted So […]
Colours that can Be ~ NaPoWriMo Day 30 - What better moment Can there be Than when my eyes Can see All the many colours That can be Perhaps only That moment When I can love All the many colours That are me
Companions of Existence ~ NaPoWriMo Day 29 - This orb This life giver This thing of mass And light And heat And meaning That sets consciousness Alight This battery The necessary and sufficient thing To create all things Material Etherial Conceptual Spiritual Generator […]
Serenity ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #408 & NaPoWriMo Day 28 - The sky Wanes to night While I Rest on cliff’s edge Above the serenity Of calm waters Allow the last vestiges Of daylight To dance Their vibrant death When I Turn for home And the […]
Muzzle Velocity ~ NaPoWriMo Day 27 - It came at us so fast Muzzle velocity Non-linear So many breeches So many crimes So many offences So much hatred From every direction All at once Diverging Merging Breeding Pick one Out of the […]
The Liberator and The Dictator ~ NaPoWriMo Day 26 - The liberator And the dictator often Become the same man
The right Kind of Time ~ NaPoWriMo Day 25 - I see us On the scooter Isolated in space But time Isn’t the right time The right kind of time While the vision itself Is indistinct Blurred Which leaves me Confused Nothing’s quite adding up […]
Sunrise ~ NaPoWriMo Day 24 - Hello sun I welcome you this morn Greet you with a warmth Equal to your own daylight embrace With gratitude For illuminating The Earth Which was dark For lightening My spirit Which was heavy For […]
Raptor Song ~ NaPoWriMo Day 23 - Wings whisper through air Black Kite shouts discordant scree Fearful pigeons flap
Hardened ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #407 & NaPoWriMo Day 21 - Wild seas dash upon the rocksWhich seem brittle and brokenBut hardened they areResilient and determined A stone will falterHere or thereBut the armour never fails In the endIt is the storm that breaks Upon the […]
Hope for Scorched Earth ~ NaPoWriMo Day 20 - Replies the fireweed Where wildfire had scorched the Earth Resistance is life
Paradox ~ NaPoWriMo Day 19 - Imagine ordered chaos Frenetic stillness Waiting for an event Ever in progress Then find five men at rest In the midst of disorder and tumult One obscured Ever changing Ever the same A paradox of […]
burdened ~ NaPoWriMo Day 18 - The burden For those Who carry No burden Irony In a sea Of burdens I drift with the flood Of beauty in the human spirit Even in weighty moments of need
Constructed Reality ~ NaPoWriMo Day 17 - This light This scene This Earth Only we humans Can make of this Hell In nature’s kill Know instinct is integrity In consciousness Is born the lie Cruelty, and malfeasance At dawn I climb the […]
A Boy and his Kite ~ NaPoWriMo Day 15 - A narrow street An ancient town A boy and his kite Off to play An ancient game I an old man Feel the joy inside Paper and sticks Ribbon and string Dance in the wind […]
Beauty ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #406 & NaPoWriMo Day 14 - Beauty in soft light Nature’s array of sandstone Photographer’s eye
Small Miracles ~ NaPoWriMo Day 13 - Two eyes in the night One winking Over stone Subtle miracles each The way of physics Matter Quanta, atoms and molecules Gravity Gravitas Billions of years The stone Another, subtler, miracle The way of atmosphere […]
Transcendant ~ NaPoWriMo Day 12 - “She is like an angel,” he says, awed I nod my head As her boat recedes, into the night I check the display, hoping I caught it It’s there, as I search for words Transcendant […]
Subduing Mara ~ NaPoWriMo Day 11 - In times of trouble Or anxiety I reach for Earth From which I came And which sustains me Where resides peace
Islands ~ NaPoWriMo Day 10 - There am I An Island of consciousness Standing on an Island beach On a planetary Island in space Circling a celestial Island in a galaxy On the outer rim of a galactic Island in an […]
Melfort Bell ~ NaPoWriMo Day 9 - The buoy sings In broken meter While gull cries As steel Rings out its soul’s lament Rolling on the seas becalmed Which lap gently at the marker Slings languid clapper Side-to-side Until it dings Seeking […]
Comes the Night ~ NaPoWriMo Day 8 - Comes the night With celestial swagger Its vanguard in scarlet, violet and indigo Descends the void dotted by galaxies and stars, a planet or two Beyond the dim beacons built by small creatures To penetrate […]
Power ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #405 & NaPoWriMo Day 7 - Storms brew Days end Energy crackles above As I close my eyes Images of shackles Men Women Children Marching To their disappearance Open Again I see Only power Ominous Irascible Malicious Irrational Malevolent Lines of […]
Patience ~ NaPoWriMo Day 6 - In a city of thrum and hum Always in motion Always in commotion Whose voice knows only to shout Islands of quiet patience Await their moment To rejoin the miasma Of humanity
Serenity ~ NaPoWriMo Day 5 - Languid moments follow Sun’s final thoughts Bounds the sky From golden to indigo Wherein abides such grace There I, manifest, serenity
Innocence ~ NaPoWriMo Day 4 - The wide-eyed innocence Beyond recollection Beyond nuance When the world could only register In stark simplicities Mommy/not mommy Pain/tickle/ooooh! Shiny! When I was free To express Every goddamn emotion I felt In every moment A […]
Bell Ringer ~ NaPoWriMo Day 3 - The puck hit him Square in the facemask A one hundred mile per hour slapshot And it really rung his bell The world shattered for him Spun like an off-centre top about to fall Vision […]
Departure ~ NaPoWriMo Day 2 - I depart For farther shores In rearward glance The past recedes Leave behind Mistaken thoughts Their wrongful acts Now turn away Forge ahead Find a path to better ways
Arc ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #404 & NaPoWriMo 2025 - This arc through space and time Thirty poems yet to write But after this Just twenty-nine Some days The words may come As if a gift Some days a labour Subtler beauties missed But still […]
Shambles ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #403 - There was a sense to him Of a man once capable Whose deep and organized intellect Now descended into a tattered shambles Of non sequitur and conspiracy theory Consciousness corrupted by cognitive bias Offering easy […]
Rings ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #402 - This flow of time Leaves rings behind There to learn From rearward reckonings Patterns of existence Wrote stories Rendered in forgotten stone One small soul sundered Moments lost To oblivion ‘Til some sad spelunking Anguished […]
Unconfined ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #401 - I sunder the barriers Of my confinement Rise through the debris Of my former prison Grow roots in the sands Which once shifted beneath me And in the open air of freedom Stretch beyond capacities […]
Reach ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #400 - I reach For the heavens Anchored to earth and sea Not yet ready To soar beyond the clouds Though I have touched The sky
Listen ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #399 - In the chaos Amidst the storms I listen For the words Arising from The love within In them find A path beyond Suff’rings past Carried in the present
Vessel ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #398 - I stand On the crest of a rocky wave Take in the calm of the sea The warmth of the sun Breathe a sigh Allow all thought To drift away On the tide Of emptiness […]
Horizon ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #397 - Across the sea a beacon shining There horizons of my calling From where the light is ever dim Leave for beacon’s shores Now here upon this rocky land Sailed beyond I’d ever planned Landed on […]
Hope ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #396 - I’m not sure what I fear Something in the darkness Where the light’s too dim To illuminate So I rely on the beacon To guide my way Toward a point of reckoning Fear with every […]
Time ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #395 - I often wonder What the world might look like If my heart beat in time With a hummingbird’s wings Or if one short breath Flowed at the pace Of a river carving a canyon But […]
Shoreline ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #394 - I stand At the edge Where calm laps against Ragged black Feel both Light and darkness entwine Eternal cycle In the center I connected to All The One
Peace ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #393 - Sun departs the day With drawn-out sigh As do I Long exhalation of a day’s excesses Collected in mind, heart and spirit They flow from me An outgoing tide To lap against the shoreline Of […]
Steps ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #392 - Stars and planets step down from the sky Chasing the departed sun While I contemplate My own next steps Then decide to follow The beacon’s example And become the light Choose to rise Into glorious […]
Motherhood ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #391 - Hers was the smile Of a mother in thrall For her child’s joy Though her eyes gave way To the mother’s worry For the inherent risk of play
Eyes - It was in her eyes Where I first read Words unspoken Words arising From her mind Her heart Her spirit In those eyes Was love And disappointment Hope And discouragement To hold that gaze I […]
Nature~ Pic and a Word Challenge #390 - Time, weather, neglect Natural reclamation Soon enough resolved
Light ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #389 - The light within Too dim To illumine My confines A window Lets in The light Of the world Slight Narrow Itself confined To a shaft Enough to illumine Patterns Which become bricks In one wall […]
Vacant ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #388 - Only the stone remains Even the memories Died with those who held them Only the stone And perhaps some words Which may yet outlive the stone From electrons dancing on copper Then pen to paper […]
Stone ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #387 - Beneath a granite sky In a landscape of stone I strive for the softness Of water
Overcast ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #386 - Most things Ya don’t wanna see ’em as they are Ya gotta see ’em why they are Ya can always find the beauty in that
Windswept ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #385 - This is a bedraggled Windswept spot of rock On a far northern sea The gales blow hard over open water Make landfall with merciless ferocity And there break the will of branch and limb Leaving […]
Abandoned ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #384 - I thought of it As abandoned Until I realized It was simply empty But for the light
Pull ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #382 - The moon pulls the sea From the shore Where I find The measure of the land While the setting sun pulls me To the expanse beyond the sky Where I find The measure of me
Glory ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #381 - He seemed, at least to himself Unsteady, dilapidated Built on feeble support Detritus scattered all about him He had suffered Many storms A lifetime of obstinate hardship One day a passing glance at his reflection […]
Fall ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #380 - I fall To the merciless stone below Which I not only survive But somehow Shatter Fragments and rubble Tumble to the lake below While I stand above Shaking My fist At the world That tried […]
Upheaval ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #379 - The land needs more Than water To sustain life When the soil itself Is toxic And yet Even here Against formidable challenge Life finds a way Amongst the nooks and crannies Of possibility
The Game - He played the game All day And all night He played the game Because when he played He never cried When he played He never felt shattered Or broken Or alone He played And he […]
Reassurance ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #378 - Test the lines again Against prevailing currents Reassured secure
Invitation ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #377 - Harried by sea gulls Or so it seems Invited guests Swarm the hands That feed them
Paradox ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #376 - Life flitters on Ganga’s banks A small cascade of humanity Going about its day-to-day Details succinctly lit Or lost in silhouette The same to my mind’s eye What seems a bath Instead a spiritual cleanse […]
Ready ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #375 - At rest Between the fires The morning long past The evening to come These form flotillas Of tourists and pilgrims To view the Ganga Aarti Twice daily
These Eyes - The sun is high enough that it bores down hard through the thin but thick veneer of smoke and smog smothering Kashi, old Varanasi. In the midday heat, with camera in hand a bagful of […]
Magic ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #374 - With the sun no more Than ember in the ash We thousands mingle Muted in the solemnity of awe Amongst the minarets and domes Of ancient wonder But for a young girl With a smattering […]
Wonder ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #373 - Just one minaret Towers over us Backlit in dull amber Through thick smoke With casual demeanour We mill about As though we’ve forgotten This place’s exalted status It’s majesty Now somewhat diminished
The Beautiful Remarkable Thing - You see a thing A million times A beautiful thing A remarkable thing It becomes a familiar thing The thing we’ve all seen In the same way Photographed from the same spot And so you […]
Three Mates and an Interloper - My train speeds through the station Camera lens pressed to the window Short staccato shutter bursts Seeking moments and frames In one second Three frames Find three mates And an interloper This image the best […]
Aloof - Alone On the platform Aloof Caught In a moving frame From a passing train Lost To space and time and mind But for a shutter’s click Else I might not have seen He was ever […]
Waiting - We wait This cold wet morning For a train that is never on time Huddled and swaddled Against the chill The platform Covered from the rainy mist But the breeze bites Even through the blankets […]
Innocence - Something aboutThe innocence of a child Whether a babe asleepIn its pramA toddler’s gleeIn their first stepsThe wide-eyed wonderOf a pre-schooler’s discovery Something to warmThe coldest heart Something to stir ferocityToward any threat Nothing rouses […]
Water Falls - Is it paradoxTo find this cascade of waterAs fascinatingAs a campfire’s billowing flame Elements in contrastMatter and energyOppositesYet akin Falling or risingBeautyIn the flowOf nature
Cascade ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #372 - I tumble and fall Down cascades of white water Dreams of tranquil pools
A Long Moment in Time - I watch the hummingbirdSipping nectarIts wings but a blurMy eye cannot find I watch the riverCascades over rockImagine a smoothed blurFor an eye much slower than mine The hummingbird sighsSlows its speech to my pace […]
Convergent Flow - The tumble and tumultThe cascade and chaos All of it is painMy being rentBy forcesExternal of choice Until I realizeThe flow of possibilitiesConverge on a single channel Even small choicesAlter my courseThrough the rapids I […]
Leviathan - Swallowed wholeBy the leviathan An expanseImprobably wideImpossibly flatExceptionally fertile Here am I On a strip of gravelRunning foreverNorth and southFeel no largerThan the pebbles Crunching underfootIn the dust And no more significant
Grounded ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #371 - Heaven and Earth Aspiration and End The latter latter A reminder Plant my feet Firmly On the former latter
Eternal Light - They spoke across a divideWide as eternityTwo dim lightsOn distant shoresObscured by the hazeOf time But for their lightThey’d have lost each otherUtterly Such is the nature of binariesEach caught in the gravityOf the other […]
Arching - Not the prettiest lighthouseHard anglesStraight linesVast planes of white So a fisheyeRounds the squareCurves the linesArcs the sky With fluffy bright clouds
Childhood Sundays - Wake Drive Sit/Stand/Kneel (repeat as necessary) HymnLord’s PrayerHymnApostle’s CreedReadingHymnWafer (amen)Sermon Coffee and donuts Drive Play
The Path to the Light - The path I find myself upon Began within a vast unknown In which I couldn’t find my heart Though the path, it seems Unwinds in random ways Through places unfamiliar A light calls out Both […]
Rainbows ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #370 - The road I travel Seems ever bound for darkened sky Though the curve ahead Suggests reprieve So I stay the course Hope good fortune Diverts me once again To better light
Xavier Rudd - Love fills himOverflowsA riverA gentle floodOf love Washes over meOver all of usFills usIntoxicant His smileRadiantA broadcast ecstacyWrit across his faceAn unfathomable beautyOf beingFilled with love I rememberBeing filled like thatBeing loveBeing gratefulFor every momentIn […]
A Better Light - Old Sol burned a hole in the skyIgniting the wake of our flight We sailed onInto the nightInto the darkness With the hope a new dayWould bring a better light
The Bridge and the Fog - He dreamed of another time A time that never was In a place that might have been He dreamed of a bridge From a land spare and dry To a fabled city on a hill He dreamed of a […]
Sigh - The shoreOf a coastal townThe sun goes down‘Fore night comes round There weRecline on the shoreTo think no moreSettle no score ‘Til youWonder what are weWhat will we beWhat do I see So IGive my […]
Adieu the Day - Adieu the dayWhich meets its fiery end Adieu the thoughtsWhich plague my dreary head Adieu the worldWhich fills me with a weary dread To bedWhere downy warmth, my flight To sleepWhere hope, my dreams alight […]
Port Aux Basques - Beside the sea Upon this treeless scrap of rock Verdant grasses grow A village built Astride storm battered stone Safe harbour for the fishers
Resolve ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #369 - Sometimes the light Inexorable Calls out All I need Acknowledge Become the light Sometimes the light In darkness Seek it All I need Resolve Shed the darkness
Pix to Words 