The 100 most recent posts
Layers ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #283 - Gentle seas
Jagged peaks
Sky in turmoil
So go
The many layers
Of I
Leaving - We argue
Whether it is
The destination
Or the journey
That matters
But sometimes
We need only observe
The point of departure
As it recedes
Into the distance
Penultimate Sunrise in the Big Smoke - It was the last full day in India. The smoke had been chokingly thick for the entire month, and Delhi hadn't even been the worst of it. Still, I'd found a decent rate at a hotel on the edge of Old Delhi's fantastical Chandni Chowk markets for the final days before my flight home. Chandni Chowk is a huge maze of ridiculously narrow and crowded streets packed to the gills with commerce and humanity, place without solitude or silence.
Release - I look back
In order to move forward
Bring the past
Into the present
Record the history
So I can release it
Carry the memory
Leave the emotional toil
Of glories and traumas
Behind
Stolen ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #283 - Stolen land
Stolen lives
Stolen dreams
Stolen hearts
Stolen culture
Stolen children
Stolen justice
Stolen time
Stolen generations
Thieves unrepentant
Cavern ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #282 - In the dream
I entered a cavernous space
Light streamed in through windows
Set in an impossibly high wall
It curved
All around me
The inner workings
The floor boards
I almost expected to see
Dali and a squadron of flying cats
So odd a place this was
Until I realized
It was me
I was inside myself
The walls and ceiling
Were my own skin
Seen from the inside
Pipes and beams my bones
But inside
Where my consciousness
Now found itself
Was a vast cavern
Of emptiness
Paddle ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #281 - Day's end
A gentle paddle
On glassy seas
My body
At peace
With my mind
With the land
With the water
With the sky
My spirit rises
To the surface
Of my being
My consciousness
Swirls in the essence
Of all that is
Like eddies
Hugging a paddle
In a vast
Bottomless
Sea
Curvature of the Earth - I stand atop a high place
Marvel at the curvature of the Earth
A reminder that I stand on the surface
Of a very small sphere
In an infinite space
I look deep within
Marvel at the unknowable infinity of being
A reminder that I stand as a presence
Manifested of an essence
Without dimension or time
For the Looking Glass - Would you return my
Gaze were it not for the lens
Friends for an instant
But I've known
No peace greater
Than the joy of
Flight
In motion
There is
Stillness
Flight - Stillness
Is a peace
I've sought
And known
But I've known
No peace greater
Than the joy of
Flight
In motion
There is
Stillness
Construct ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #280 - So much depends
On the construct, Love
Conscious
Unconscious
Conditioned
Unconditional
Unshareable
Unless a context
Shared
Frame ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #279 - The Past
Cropped and framed
Colour corrected and edited
Burnished and patinaed
To make a picture
That tells the story
I wish to remember
Creation ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #278 - There is nothing so beautiful
As a moment offered in whole
To the act of creation
Except perhaps
One given
To love
Leaves ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #277 - These leaves may seem
Like a reminder of past glory
These leaves may seem
Like a reminder of future possibility
But the leaves
Are just leaves
All the rest is just stories
I tell myself to make sense
Not of leaves
But of existence
Poetry ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #276 - Words arranged in verse
Form a matrix of possibility
An author's intentions
A reader's interpretations
Layers deep
Miles wide
All this also present
In a single word such as
Aum
Love
God
Beauty
Perfection
Each a poem with all the
Subtle renderings and possibilities of
Angelou
Frost
Dickinson
Shakespeare
Plath
The final meaning rests solely
And rightfully with the reader
Yearning for the Light of Darkness - An ornate lamp hangs
In a gentle place
There to illuminate
When darkness falls
A beautiful ornament
In the clear light of day
Would create a spectacle
In the dim hues of night
And now I wish
I had seen this room
Bathed in the prismatic glow
Which defies the dark
Beauty & Love - Every culture
Every person
Knows beauty
In their own way
I remind myself
Try to find
Beauty's heart
In every way
That is the place
Where we are all one
That is the place
From which flows love
The Extraordinary Beauty of the Everyday - The thing about travel is
Something so everyday
As a group of friends
Hanging out on a street corner
Seems extraordinary...
...even beautiful
The thing about extended travel is
Once familiarity renders
The extraordinary as everyday
The sense of beauty in the mundane
Remains...
...and travels home with me
Moments We’ll Never Know - You with the sad eyes
Who found the glass
In this swarm of activity
And I released the shutter
Capturing your moment
Of I know not what
Tired?
Beaten down?
Or just weary
Of yet another tourist
Stealing a moment of your life
For a purpose you'll never know
A Smile Above the Breakers - Hers was an exquisite beauty
Not the kind to command
Covers or runways
That puts a name
Up in lights or lead a headline
Her beauty commanded a second look
The kind you missed on a first take
And yes, it was there on the surface
But more, it ran deep
In her bearing
In the way she made others
The center of her world
Her smile flowed
From every feature of her being
To receive one was to be blessed
An Unknown Shore - I've washed up
On an unknown shore
Clear of the wreckage
From which I'd drifted
Alone on an empty sea
Bruised
Scarred
Burnt
But OK
I spit sand and salt
From my parched mouth
Thirst
Then
Hunger
But first
Reconnoiter
So up now
Onto the roiling sea of dunes
With their smaller wavelets
Of grasses in the wind...
On Bridges - There is a bridge I know
It can take you from somewhere
To somewhere else
And back again
If you care to
As I suppose
All bridges do
But I am neither here
Nor there
About the here
Or there
I prefer to be centre-span
Leaning over the rail
While worlds at odds
Pass below and behind
Their conflict bridged
There I stand
The quiet observer
To tally the to and fro
Of lives and matter
On the move
Matters of both
Consequence
And no matter
And whichever mark I tally
Important or insignificant
Or just some passing fancy
It is all just so damn
Beautiful
Being Still - I remind myself
There is always a bridge
To some place better
Than I am now
Sometimes all it takes
To cross the bridge
Is to recognize
I already have
I remind myself
There is always a light
To help me see
Who I want to be
Sometimes all it takes
To see who I will become
Is to open my eyes and realize
I already am
The Way is not a practice of movement
The Way becomes easier
When I discover gratitude
In being still
Angry Sound - angry sea
angry sky
in between
the boughs all fly
tree trunks bow
wind tests their roots
and salts the air
with whitecaps flare
so here am I
lens held to chest
braced to keep
a steady frame
while all around
the chaos roars
a shutter click
renders it tame
fortress ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #274 - towers and citadels
ramparts and parapets
fortress on the hillside
set afire in the morning sun
battles fought
war rages on
death visits here
still more to come
one strong heart
with will of stone
resolve of iron
but moments late
her final breath
his broken cry
their eyes now glazed
by death and grief
Nature’s Sutra - rain falls
pittering the leaves
pattering the earth
nature's sutra
gently chanted
outside my window
inside
warm
and calm
quiet mind
full heart
present in the moment
find a way - life finds a way
in the most inhospitable
conditions
places
times
to
survive
thrive
flourish
so too
can I
Right ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #273 - Sometimes
You don't quite
Get it right
But it's OK
To get it mostly right
Or at least somewhat right
Just so long
As you're
In the right
Freed ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #272 - In the darkness
An inner light
Dim but ageless
Beyond is daylight
Through a window
Barred
Trapped
Inside
I quell the panic
Concentrate
On the small dim light
Until it grows
Illuminates the darkness
And the latch
To the bars containing me
I am free
Remembering the power
Of even a small dim light
Starlight ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #271 - A light which burned
For ten short years
Burned thrice as bright
And yet...
unseen
Like beacons in
The darkened sky
Which lived and died
Aeons ago
But whose light
Has reached us
...Only now
Though in that beam
Cast by hands and heart
Long gone
My spirits rise
I find again
...Delight
In starry night
Whisper ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #270 - Geometries of Euclidean beings
Dominate the irregular perfections
Of organic patterns
And I
I lived my life
So very small
Now left to wonder
Shall I leave it
Having never roared
As so many others
Come and gone
Faintest whispers
On the wind
Geometry ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #269 - Geometries of Euclidean beings
Dominate the irregular perfections
Of organic patterns
And I
A lover of both
Math and nature
Am left unsure
Which is
The greater beauty
Is such judgment
Even necessary
Or wise
After all
Beauty itself
Is the construct
Of an eye
And a mind
Who am I to say
What you should find
Beautiful
Perpendicular ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #269 - Parallels & perpendiculars
Take me away
Lead me astray
Through lines
End games
I do not know
From where I came
Nor necessarily
Where it all goes
Only that all imply
In my faraway mind
Movement & change
Scale ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #268 - Once the light entered the bowl
Something magical happened
Something I'll probably
Never fully understand
The light coalesced
Hardened
Formed swirling tendrils
Of incandescence
Well
I understood one thing
Light was alive
No
Not alive
Conscious
And what I was witnessing
Was the comingling
Of unmanifested being
One each to a tendril
Swimming as if a school of fish
In a golden bowl
Struck just the right way
By the sun
And then it was gone
Light
Was merely light
Again
But some trick of the cosmic tail
Had let me in on the secret
Because in an instant
I'd known
Light
Is love
And love
Is light
When we are unmanifested
In this purest spirit form
We know this as surely as
The necessity of a breath
We know it in a way
A brain cannot grok
But our manifest purpose
The meaning of our existence
Is to remember
And for a moment
Looking into a sunlit bowl
I remembered
A glimpse of the unknowable
Out of the corner of my eye
A memory I struggle to keep
Every day
Light ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #267 - Once the light entered the bowl
Something magical happened
Something I'll probably
Never fully understand
The light coalesced
Hardened
Formed swirling tendrils
Of incandescence
Well
I understood one thing
Light was alive
No
Not alive
Conscious
And what I was witnessing
Was the comingling
Of unmanifested being
One each to a tendril
Swimming as if a school of fish
In a golden bowl
Struck just the right way
By the sun
And then it was gone
Light
Was merely light
Again
But some trick of the cosmic tail
Had let me in on the secret
Because in an instant
I'd known
Light
Is love
And love
Is light
When we are unmanifested
In this purest spirit form
We know this as surely as
The necessity of a breath
We know it in a way
A brain cannot grok
But our manifest purpose
The meaning of our existence
Is to remember
And for a moment
Looking into a sunlit bowl
I remembered
A glimpse of the unknowable
Out of the corner of my eye
A memory I struggle to keep
Every day
Vibrance ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #266 - Recall the vibrance
Once displayed in many hues
Now no more than trace remains
Though brightness scattered
Here and there
Decay sets in
Drains true nature
Of its lifely due
Thus am I left
With naught but mem'ries
Fading fast
Remiss this guard
Of summer past
Which lingers still
In so few leaves
Fallen to the forest floor
There soon enough
Back to earth
Will they be drawn
And all that was
Will then be gone
Unsent ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #265 - Don't Walk! The sign blinked
As he thumbed out his last text
"I'm running late. Almost ther"
Sunshine ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #264 - It waited for her
The little yellow chair
At the back of the house
In the little nook
Hidden away
From anyone's eyes
Late afternoon sunshine
Filtered through
The winter boughs
Eaves and overhangs
Sheltered her
From the usual Vancouver rain
But today
The sun
Fell on
Her little sunshine chair
A cigarette
And long moments
Filled with thoughts
Without consequence
Smalltalk daydreams
To pass the time
In seeming silence
While she chattered
With herself
About nothing...
Bright ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #263 - Diminished light
Yet through the cloud
She breaks
And scatters rays
Upon the rippling sea
So I may cast
Into the heavens
Wonder at such spectacle
Take the beauty to my heart
Where meets my soul
And damn if such
Is not the better part
Such soothes the grief
Of one life's sad lament
Whose diminished light
No longer casts
Onto the stilling sea
Sufficient light
To bounce a single ray
Confused and lost
Mind gone astray
Now take another breath
Do I
Remember bounteous light
Which shimmered off
A rampant sea
And know that souls
Are infinite
That one life lived
No matter grand or small
Is but a drop
Where raindrops fall
So many more still yet to come
And this one
Though diminished now
Once was bright as raging sun
Frozen Home - Drifting
In a sea of calm
Warm vibrance
Descends on the horizon
Belies the heat
And intensity
Of a glaring sun
Just departed
Its light dwindling
For the moment
Only a thin sliver of hope
Graces the sky
Soon enough
The stars
The constellations
The galaxies
As the grand parade
Of existence
Once again
Fills the cosmos
Freezing ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #262 - The freeze is coming
Soon will river ice over
You below the ice
Ice ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #261 - His was a visage of ice
Cold, chiseled
A frosty burn to the touch
Which not even the fire
Of his desire
Could melt
It protected him
It destroyed him
It hardened him
It betrayed him
For anyone could see
Just below the surface
The heat his coldness
Would never emit
The Calm After - Drifting
In a sea of calm
Warm vibrance
Descends on the horizon
Belies the heat
And intensity
Of a glaring sun
Just departed
Its light dwindling
For the moment
Only a thin sliver of hope
Graces the sky
Soon enough
The stars
The constellations
The galaxies
As the grand parade
Of existence
Once again
Fills the cosmos
The Promise - There is a promise in the road
Not a destination
Every place I may want to go
Is a waypoint
On the way to another point
Neither the journey
What is to be gained
From moving
For the sake of movement
But once the wheels
Begin to roll
Changes begin
The promise manifests
What I see; How I think; Who I am
Future ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #260 - Hither I leave
This valley of death
And I will fear no future
For I bear not the past
Carry only hope, and my staff
Tenacity
Diminished - Your light dims
Now a moon
Which was once
The sun
And in your eyes
I see you know
Can feel the shadow
Falling on your spirit
Confused as you are
By confusion
Where once you knew
Clarity
As time and mind
Slip away from you
So too do you
Slip away from me
Morning’s Welcome - The sun crests the sea
In the light I see
The beacon stayed true
To guide us through
The darkling pass
We navigated
The long night
To morning's welcome
This new shore
Beckoning
A Nearby Star - Perched on a mossy cliffside
Basking in the warmth
Of a nearby star
The scents of sea
And conifers
Carried on the breeze
While I
Close my eyes
Breathe in
All of existence
Gathered in a moment
Curvature of the Earth - I remind myself
That this Earth
Is but a small globe
Spinning and spinning
In infinite space
And I no more than a mote
A sprinkling of star dust
Coalesced in flesh and bone
Which one day woke up
Asking questions about
The universe and itself
Is there more than that?
I may never know
Perhaps I simply forgot
Hope ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #259 - I remember a day
When our star burned
Bright and hot
In the cold, crisp air
Delightful frolics
While the clouds softened
Saw blade peaks
Rather than coat the sky
With remorseful grey
Like today
I remember a better day
And another to come
A future memory known not
By prescience nor forecast
Only, hope
Patience and Peace - I remind myself
Time and water
Carved this canyon
From solid rock
Though patience
And softness
Cannot resolve
Every problem
The peace flowing
From their practice
Bears a reward
Of its own
As I watch
The sun set
Upon the stone
The river cut
The Greatest Gift - On this day of giving and receiving
The greatest gift
Whether given or received
Is no different
Than any other day
Love
The Maze - I was already deep inside
And lost
Before I realized it was a
Maze
But there are times
Places
To not mind being
Lost
The walls seemed sculpted
Textured
With saturated tones of
Warmth
And so I walked
Aimless
Lost in the beauty of the
Walls
Until suddenly I was
Outside
Safe, yet wanting to go
Back
Sometimes it is
OK
To lose my
Self
Beauty ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #258 - There is beauty
In all things
Even death
To understand this
Is to master life
To master life
One must master death
Landscapes - These things we do to landscapes
Of space and time
Of politics and social norms
Of family and friends
The things that stay
But never stay the same
The ephemeral things
Lost and soon forgotten
Nothing ever stays
But change
Which is often the point
Of these things we do to landscapes
Change the landscape
Change each other
Change ourselves
Cloud Cover - The band of ominous cloud
Hovered over the highway
Mile after mile
An oppressive weight
Waiting to fall
My mood became dark as the sky
So I chose to see the low grey cover
As an atmospheric parasol
A gift to soften harsh desert sun
Diminish the heat of afternoon
An invitation to step out of the car
I breathed deeply in the sage-scented air
Until my mood became light as the sage
Drifting on the desert breeze
Instamatic Memory Machine - It was a straight run
Down valley
And at 100 miles an hour
The landscape became a gun barrel
I rifled through
The road was freshly paved
Though heavily pebbled
So the car hummed
As it shimmied in the heavy winds
Here was I
A projectile crossing open country
Which to my being is as good
As being wrapped in a blanket
By a fire on a snowy winter's eve
Road trips are comfort food for my soul
Comfort Food - It was a straight run
Down valley
And at 100 miles an hour
The landscape became a gun barrel
I rifled through
The road was freshly paved
Though heavily pebbled
So the car hummed
As it shimmied in the heavy winds
Here was I
A projectile crossing open country
Which to my being is as good
As being wrapped in a blanket
By a fire on a snowy winter's eve
Road trips are comfort food for my soul
Solitude ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #257 - crisp
cold
wind
sun falls
like a poet's first words
illumination lacking warmth
so I shiver
wrapped in a blanket of silence
broken only by the wind
bending the tall grass
rapt in a solitude
broken only by gulls on the wing
bending the air to their whim
Touching ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #256 - In that blur
Of existence
When space becomes time
And time becomes space
When love becomes all possibility
And possibility infinite
And time timeless
I will find you
And always will
Because this is the thing
Between you and I
The connection without reason
The being without purpose
Except that we are always
Together
Warmth ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #255 - Sometimes I run cold
It's hard to find
The love inside
For me
For you
For anyone
For anything
Then you hold me
Look into my eyes
Show me what love is
You wear your heart
With just a look
So that anyone can see
Even me
In the cold dark blue
Warming to the warmth of you
Bastards - She closed her eyes
Heaved a sigh
Then made the choice
She'd always made
And always would
Don't let the bastards get you down
She whispered
Drew another breath
Don't let the bastards get you down
She said
Drew another breath
Don't let this bastard get you down
She growled
Then held what remained of her breath
Until she could hold it no longer
Then simply let the breath go
And with it went all the bastards
Nightmares ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #254 - Deep in a dream
I see the ghost
Of who I once was
And the ghost
Of who I hoped to be
I awaken
To the phantom
That is who I have become
Bread ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #253 - Observe the beauty of a loaf
The tortured rending of gluten
As the dough expands under heat
Observe the beauty of a woman
The tortured rending of ego
As the gaze exploits under heat
Delicate Intricacies - Through the clouds
Came first a star
Not enough
To break the spell
Of long dark night
But still a light
Come beckoning
Then soon I saw
Another star
Another then
Now several more
The mother bear
Who points the way
To guiding light
Now clears the sky
The night reveals
A sky of lights
Infinite
And always there
Beyond the clouds
Or light of day
The lights of suns
The First Star - Through the clouds
Came first a star
Not enough
To break the spell
Of long dark night
But still a light
Come beckoning
Then soon I saw
Another star
Another then
Now several more
The mother bear
Who points the way
To guiding light
Now clears the sky
The night reveals
A sky of lights
Infinite
And always there
Beyond the clouds
Or light of day
The lights of suns
Opening ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #252 - Doors shut and barred
Windows sealed from within
A dead end
At the end
Of a narrow
Corridor
No retreat
No respite
No redress
Then a door opened
Beckoning
The voices within
Sang songs of hope
And possibility
Of healing
And renewal
Beyond the door
The way remained unclear
But the long, dark night
Of the alley
Was over
Crawling Into A Hole - A nook
An alcove
A cranny
A safe place
To hide away
While the unthinkable
Becomes inevitable
Anachronism - When the architecture
Makes a passenger jet
Lifting into the sky
Seem like an anachronism
From a time passed
So very long ago...
Mathematics ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #251 - The mathematics
Of my conscious mind
Can be so very much more
Ruthless
Than nature's organic expressions
The subtle calculations
Of an incomprehensible unconscious
Little wonder
We have become such an affliction
On an incalculable beauty
Fluttering - She fluttered an eyelash
Yes, just the one
Not a wink
But a feathery whisper
Undetectable
To those not seeking it
As she knew I was
And my heart replied
With a flutter of its own
A quickening
Which rose to my flesh
Undetectable
To those not seeking it
As I knew she was
Emptiness - Of all the hardships
Created by the pandemic
It was the emptiness
Of time and space
Which nearly did him in
The connectionless void
In which the bump of elbows
Became an act of intimacy
Which made a smile detectable
Only by a gesture of the eyes
So he filled the emptiness
With the one thing left to him
Love
Fear ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #250 - The maw which devours me
Consumes my will
My strength
Is naught but the workings
Of my fearful mind
I breathe
Speaking the words
Over the chatter of thoughts
Breathing in
Breathing out
Arc Tanget - Tangential touch
Love comes around
Sweeping arcs
Now come to ground
Skyward leaps
There heaven bound
Rise ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #249 - In the darkness
A rosette
Neither portal
Nor beacon
A reminisce
A reminder
Of the light
Beyond darkness
Rosette ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #248 - In the darkness
A rosette
Neither portal
Nor beacon
A reminisce
A reminder
Of the light
Beyond darkness
Centre ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #247 - I seek my centre
The source of light and being
Where darkness is not feared
But embraced with love and gratitude
For the insights it reveals
When accepted as a gift
Thorns ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #246 - I revel
In asymmetrical symmetry
Seek the imperfectly perfect
For there is no beauty
No moment
No experience worth a memory
Confined to the bounds
Of the expected
Or the predictable
A perfect world
Constructed with ruthless precision
Would be far too mundane
To provide the challenge
Which offers existence
Meaning
Symmetry ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #245 - I revel
In asymmetrical symmetry
Seek the imperfectly perfect
For there is no beauty
No moment
No experience worth a memory
Confined to the bounds
Of the expected
Or the predictable
A perfect world
Constructed with ruthless precision
Would be far too mundane
To provide the challenge
Which offers existence
Meaning
Nature & Time and Time & Nature - Nature and time
Eat away
At rings
Of hidden time
The history
Kept by nature
Radiance ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #244 - In the ebbing radiance
Of a world slipping into darkness
The light is most vivid
Capable of magiks
Unknown to daylight
On the Supple Application of Power - Stone: Majestic, Formidable, Hard, Weak; Water: soft, supple, tenacious, power. Be unimpressed by the formidable airs of majesty and hard power. Know, instead, the supple tenacity of small things in large numbers, the soft power which tumbles the brittle hardness.
Portal ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #243 - A bridge and long shadows
Span the gorge and river roaring
There a portal offers
Welcome unknowns
In a forest of possibility
Alabaster Fields - Ascend to alabaster fields
Where breezes rustle petal clouds
With their hoards of golden nectar
There to rob the gold
And leave the flowers fallow
Frailty - To frailty
There is a power
Borne of compassion
When compassion fails
Frailty is where the boot comes down
The hardest
Time ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #242 - I often wish
That I could perceive time
Like a hummingbird does
Slow the world down
And watch the air ruffle its feathers
On every delicate beat
Hear the swish of its wing
Rather than the hum and blur
Of time compressed beyond imagining
Star Chamber - Within the chamber
Starry light
Small portals fill
The darkest night
With glow enough
To see my way
Then find again
The light of day
Stone ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #241 - This forest of stone
Rotting on the desert plain
Rain the destroyer
Moonglow - A promise of possibility coming
Here the night made bright
Though by no small trickery
And patience
Moonglow breaks the darkness
While the stars take flight
In the cool blue of winter chill
But for the warmth of amber hearths
The Turn that is not Return - The world begins
To turn again
No longer still
Though somnolent, still
The long exhale
Following the deep, deep breath
The moment which moves
Between the change
And knowing
There is no going
back
Line ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #240 - Such exquisite line
Forms an art without figure
The face of Islam
Winding ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #239 - The road winds down
To valley floor
From there the way
Cannot be known
With scant resource
For alternates
My faith is firm
No other course
Now heart resolved
Courage mustered
With just one step
My fears dissolved
Stovepipe - Stovepipe is a planet of two suns
Rarely seen whole
Through dense clouds
Which never shed rain
The stone marker
A memorial to those who had come
But otherwise left no mark
After the third colony failed
The only visitors would be
Passersby and tourists checking off a box