The 100 most recent posts
Earth Day - I dreamt there'd be a day
In some none too distant future
When an architectural abstraction
Outlived all the fishes in the sea
Now I cannot sleep
dis connect ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #184 - I look
Neither inward
Nor outward
I connect
Not with being
But a fetish
This realm
Of virtual
Manifestation
And while I look
And while I connect
I am lost
To the moment
To my own presence
To being itself
While all around
Existence dances and plays
Without my participation
Blue on Blue in Blue - Saturated in hues
Blue on blue in blue
Ah, but for the greens
Exposed to amber orb unseen
The garden under blue
Then crimson weave's surround of blue
Whimsy is a Child - Whimsy in blues and balloons
Lines light and playful
As a child's smile
In twilight illuminate
Mother impatient
For changing lights
Her girl content
With latex-captured breath
Follow Me - Light filters down
To dim blue depths
Where it pools
In lazy patterns
Upon empty lanes
Marked here and there
With blood red tiles
And doors
And wicker lines the walls
I grab a basket
From a hook
Gather light
From the pools
To carry further
Into navy
And the black
Where deepest shadows lay
Confinement - Bound
In heart and spirit
Lost
On a forkless path
Stop
Look for a door
A ladder, a rope
Turn
Seek another path
Upon retraced steps
Wait
For alternatives
To appear
Move
Follow the instinct
Which began this path
Despair
There is no despair
Only tenacity
Shadow Maker - Sometimes the light
Is too bright
Too hot to bear
So I shelter
In a shadow
Of my own making
I see this now
Without judgment
The light remains
The shadow is
Temporary
Blue - I get the blues sometimes
Not that there's anything wrong with that
Blue was my favourite colour as a child
Even now, in the blues, there is a beauty
And options
Risk ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #183 - Where might have been cacophony
Strokes live within the harmony
Such vital vessel filled
To the edge of overflowing
Yet some subtle restraint
Where plaster once was white
Vibrant colours paint
A whole which comes across
As beautiful
Go Fish - It startled him
The monumental lines of architecture
Seemed to flex
As a bow drawn by its string
Then paused there
Taught, straining
As if for a steadying breath
The release
Was even more startling
And he felt the shock wave
When the discharged tension
Shook the earth
As the mammoth thing
Quite simply
Leapt from the ground
Windows - Windows from some unknown world
Unto some other unknown world
None which I have ever known
And may not ever know
Though with imagination
Images gained from books and film
I construct a room to serve
The needs of sultans and imams
Rich tapestries and silken rugs
Exotic woods and metals
Carved and cast exquisitely
Servants and the visitors
Pilgrims and the diplomats
Bustling in the courtyard splendour
All in reverence to the will
Of God and those who know his ends
Within these windows and their view
The Flow of Intricacy - I dive deep
Into the intricacies
Lose myself
In the minutiae
Step back
Allow details
To live and flow
Breathes the rhythm
Breathes the rhyme
In the subtler play
Of space and time
Pendant Gem - In the darkness
And the light
In the vibrant coloured
Sunlit rays
The moody greys
Of cloudy days
You my pendant gem
Lay close
Upon my heart
Reminder of
The subtler art
Of love which is
The beauty known
Regardless of
What eyes can see
How Far We’ve Yet to Go - In an old place
Beneath a brooding sky
Threatening clouds
Keep their promises
I reflect
On battlements
And palaces
And understand
We've come not so far
As we believe
Shadow ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #182 - >Arms wide beckoning
All of being
Dark to light
Illumined texture
Shadowed depth
Through synthesis, form
So am I expressed
Unconfined
By black or white
No, I: all the subtle tones
Of possibility
Medieval Walls - There was a time
When walls made sense
Defending a perimeter
Patrolled and guarded
By men well-trained and armed
Against cavalry
Infantry and archers
Today
This wall is both beautiful
And a reminder of that time
Gaudi Twilight - Comes the azure
And the lavender
With a twilight calm
While Gaudi
My new friend
Beckons me
From near
And afar
La Lluita Persistent; The Persistent Fight - The struggle continues
Outside the halls of learning
Where words are emblazoned
Even shouted in the square
Beyond the walls designed
To confine them
Baby I Miss Your Touch - Oh, darling
Across these many miles
I have the touch of your words
On my heart
The touch of your voice
In my mind
The touch of your spirit
On my soul
But what I want
Is the touch of your hand
On my flesh
Come back to me, my love
I miss your presence
With all my being
Night ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #181 - Café por favor
The regular stop
In the deep of the night
Homeward bound
Warmed inside
Blur - I am but a blur
Passing through the periphery
Of this world of men
Until their eyes
Are trained on me
And I become a creature
Of penetrating interest
A creature
Which is not me
At all
Better the blur
Catalunya - A place in the world
Embattled and oppressed
Like so many other
Places in the world
Nonetheless
Vibrant, passionate, alive
Worlds I Can’t Imagine - I see the world
In ways my ancestors
Could not imagine
But I wonder too
At the worlds now gone
I cannot imagine
Beautiful Blur - Sometimes
It’s a blur
All of it
As if through a window
Stained by fog and rain
A beautiful blur
For which clarity
Is not always
An improvement
Courage ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #180 - We span the ages
you and I
across all sense
of time and space
our stories twine
And I can’t say
where it began
or where it ends
or if it ever will
It drives you to
the edge of mad
(where you found me)
but with your ever
growing faith
it’s clear
Life is not so
rational
as you would like
Discontinuous
In fact
Haze ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #179 - Through the haze
Of day I peer
Now what is near
Seems quite clear
But far from here
Is more obscure
Detail lost
Colour sallowed
Though sun breaks through
Its presence mellowed
Yet, still
There's something
Beautiful
In forms which rise
Up through the gloom
And promise too
Of brighter days
When glory plays
Beneath the rays
Sunrise ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #178 - I let the day go
Leave the past
In the past
As the harsh light fades
I live in the magic glow
Of this brief moment
Let the darkness come
Like closed eyes
And a deep breath
A new glory follows
A light to be filled
With possible moments
Upriver ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #177 - Against both tide and current
Headway slow and steady
Though the river hurries by
Rise - I see the beauty
It's not so very far
And a road which leads
From shadow to the light
From the broken lands
To where snow-capped pinnacles
Rise
Though I see
Not so very far ahead
I take the road
Into the valley maze
And trust myself
To find the way
As a Child - I danced as a child
I loved as a child
I laughed as a child
Now as an adult
I am dominated by the fear
I learned as a child
Entangled ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #176 - Entangled in dreams and traumas
My is heart betrayed
By actions driven
From deep inside
The darkness
Unplubmbed
So
Finally do I
Enter the dark
Holding the light
Of my broken heart
To heal the injuries
And discover the truth of dreams
The Inner Life of Healing - "You are never really gone," she tells me
"The times you 'go away'," she goes on
"Are like your body, treading water
While you process all you've learned"
Now I watch my waitress
And I wonder if she is also processing
The traumas of a dimly remembered past
While serving another table's drink orders
From Deep Within - At the end of the day
When the darkness comes
All I have to guide me
Is the light which shines
From deep within
But that is plenty bright enough
Colour ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #175 - These moments of some small artistry
Grasped upon and toyed with oh so playfully
A passing thought
Become a pleasing naught
For there is no deeper meaning here
Just some pretty colours challenging the black
Amid the balanced forms I've caught
Bent - This world through lens of mind
Is bent
To be a thing my eyes
Can see
Not quite what is
Reality
So bend my mind to fit
The world
Then see only the things
That fit
Ignore the things that don't
One bit<
That River Flows - That river flows
While I
Stand by
Upon the banks
Watch my life
Drift idly by
But why?
Ask I
Just join the flow
The river says
So I
Close eyes
Like the water
Enter life
Become the flow
Then I
Realize
Like the river
Being flows
I the water
Gather all
The river knows
'Til I
Reside
In moment's rhyme
The end of time
Bridges - Across the impassable forbidding I open myself wide To possibility Begin to see the bridges With my heart With my spirit
Valley ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #174 - Through the valley
Between the rocky mounts
Where days go by
Too fast to count
Then what remains
But moments lost
In timeless frame
I let them go
And count no more
Just live them all...
Fences ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #173 - Beyond the fence
Which keeps me out
Or holds me in
I'm not sure which
There is a place
I want to be
Or fled in fear
I'm not sure which
Until I breach
And clamber through
Then come to know
Beyond the fence
Glacial ‘Til - In a land of ever ice
The snow survived
The summer heat
Since long before
Both you and I
The glaciers die
The cold retreats
To summer's entreat
They're gone before
Both you and I
Vanishing ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #172 - As the sun
So the pilings
So the day
So my life
In a whir of calm
And failing light
The river
Never stops
An Ode to The Seven - I see The Seven
In the land
The textures
The gestures
The shapes and lines
And the colours
Oh the colours
Ever vibrant
Even this brown earth
They painted
With expansiveness
Let the grandiose
Dominate the brush
Then I
So happy
For just a hint of them
Through the glass
Held in my hand
Words ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #171 - I am no Poet
Least not in
The classic Poet's manner
I've never studied
What the Poets say
Nor worried much
How they place their words
Or why that way
I do not know
How to write a sonnet
I am not sure
What makes pentameter
Iambic
I hope that's OK
Empty Sails - I sailed across
Obsidian sea
On breathless eve
With pastel sky
And the moon
By just a half
Whispered lightly
On the sly
Love awaits
On farther shore
Beneath the peaks
Upon the sand
It will not linger
For a moment more
Nor even greet you
When you make land
If no love
Has filled your sails
If no love
Has filled your sails
Pitter Patter - Pitter patter
Falls the rain
And the leaves
Splish splash
Boat at anchor
On the sea
Roly poly
Float the logs
Storms set free
The Susurrus of Grey - On a day I wondered
If the rain might never end
The clouds did not break
The sun did not shine
So I sat with the rain
Found the beauty in the greys
With the susurrus of droplets
Falling on the gentle sea
In the peace I found there
The spark of a mirthful hope
Perhaps it would be better
If the rain did never end
Implacable - It is the hard
Which asks me
To be soft
The unyielding
Asks me
To yield
So I become the cloud
Pass over the peaks
Flow through the valley
I align with the supple forces
Which overcome the implacable
Blanket ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #170 - On a crisp chill morn'
Paradox so comforting
Fresh blanket of snow
Move along - It's time to set
The wheels in motion
Time to move along
Not so much
To just be rolling
Much more to have
Intent
No need for
Destination
No need
To have a plan
Not yet
But scan
Horizons
For potential
For places I'd like
To get
Wheeling Through Space and Time - Planets in the sky
Stars along the shore
Flickering
And I
A constellation
A God
Wheeling through space
And time
Across the eternal
Infinite
To View or be Present - In the sky
A convulsion of light
While below
The Bow
Winds its way
Down the valley floor
With the forest
Standing sentry
And I
Delight in the roar
Of rushing water
Coursing over stone
For a moment
At least
As content
To view the scene
As to be in it
Falling - I tumble
Into an unknown
Wrapped within
A cacophony
Of confusion
Resist
And be dashed against
The rocks
Let go
Allow the chaos
To coalesce
I rejoin
Resolving flow
Into the known
To Climb into the Light - Deep in the shadows
Through the gap
Where the main road flows
I catch flashes
Of the light above
So pull aside
And clamber up
Into the light
Where a breath-taking world
Awaits
Spray Borne - Spray borne of the pummeling
Where river falls upon the stone
Captures sun and holds it there
Delight in all the colours eyes can see
Arrayed in spectral artistry
Rapid ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #169 - A chasm in my spirit formed
Through which my rage and pain now roils
Channeled through such rugged gorge
It churns and gouges rocky walls
With ill effect upon my soul
I hold on tight
This tiny raft
Upon the raucous
Seething froth
Ride the fury
Through the pass
All the while
Seek inward calm
Vital Tumult - Have you ever noticed
How exciting the tumult is
The uproar and confusion
How vital and present it feels
We battle through it
We quell the uproar
We resolve the confusion
We overcome
And it feels good
Even in the midst
Of the worst of times
These are the best of times
So I wonder how it is
We fail to acknowledge
Just how much
We love a good war
We are a species
Of adrenaline junkies
Bent on our own destruction
Because it makes us feel alive
Words Escape Me - Words
Sometimes
Escape me
Overwhelmed
As they are
By the inexplicable
So I settle in
Allow the divine
To speak for itself
Creation - No matter how many times
I look at a moment
Or a thing
I find something new
No matter how many times
I look into myself
Listen to my spirit
I find someone new
These are all
Acts of creation
Rather than
Discovery
Be Still - I find myself in moments
When even my hyper-active mind
Knows to be still
And listen
Let nature speak
From Grim to Glimmer - Finally! The grey grim relents On the first day Of a new year The last act Of a once reticent sun This vibrant glimmer This display of possibility
Dawn comes - The dawn came
And though the clouds were thick
And there was not much light
And little hint of the sun
The long night had broken
People woke from deep slumber
Able to find their way
Even before the morning fog cleared
The darkness
Became day
The grimness
Became hope
Bridges ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #168 - We build a bridge
To cross the gap
Or tear it down
No going back
Below the deck
A roiling rift
Divides our world
Apart, we drift
But let us take
A moment, slow
To contemplate
Terrain below
I'm sure we'll find
On valley floor
Our common ground
Then peace restored
Chasm - Roar of the river
My own deafening fury
Churning water cuts a chasm
Seething anger rends my spirit
Standing on the ledge
Letting rage flow away
Wounds upon my soul
Close and begin to heal
Power - I stand beside the chasm's tumult
Powerless to end the flood
Or even mitigate the flow
Spectator at the edge
Close enough to feel the spray
Of power's fearsome rush
Rolling through the Ebony - Rolling through
A land of crushed ebony
Tarry asphalt dividing
The slender white lane markers
And scrubby tufts of amber
I scramble up an ebony mound
To find a landscape of ebony mounds
Growing to distant mountains
All of the same ebony skin
"At least," I think, out loud
Into the air so dry
It swallows up the words
Right off my tongue
"the falling sun seems less
Like a fire
On a cast-iron skillet."
For All I Have and All that’s Yet to Come - On this day
Of joy and giving
Of gifts received
Of blessings offered
I am most grateful
For all I have
For all that's yet to come
For all the possibility
Which I can not yet see
Most of all
For the love I give
And am given freely
The love pervading all
On this and every day
The grace we share through love
Stillness ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #167 - On some unseen horizon
Beyond my peace of mind
Where shadows play
In savage grey
And hope has not yet
Even hope
No flutter on the water
No ripple in the wind
No fish or whale
To breech the sea
No gull on wing
To cry the air alive
No colour falls to eye
In this world
Of nothingness
In stillness
Drifted I
On the Cacophony of Being - This spirit of life
This beauty
This pain
This anguish
This love
This cacophony of being
That is I
That is experience
That is action
Tension of light and dark
Tension of right and wrong
Never grey
Never muted
That mud of fear
That mud of anger
Gripping at my heart
Gripping at my mind
But I will not
Go under
But I will not
Lie down
Or die
In the silence
Of living
Without venture
Plateau - I dig down
Unpack another layer
I dig down
Unpack another layer
Another
Another
Another
How many layers deep?
I see only the next
Unpack another
See another
Unpack
Another
Until I don't want
To see anymore
Unpack anymore
Dig anymore
Inexorable Intent - Necessity creates
Necessity destroys
Intentional purpose
Inexorable decay
Dynamic tension
Eternally entwined
Valley Glow - In light too slight
For human eye
I setup lens
With hope intent
Rack focus to eternity
Allow the night
To enter frame
Count out seconds
Three by ten
Capturing
These timely glows
One from headlight's driven thrust
Unfurls along the river's edge
Another rises up
To meet the clouds
Escape from streets
Illuminate
Texture ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #166 - All the many greys
Timbres in a spectrum visual
Monochromatic textures
In untouchable dimensions
Which I nonetheless
Touch
Reign of Tears - Tears reign
Glittering
From the cheeks
Of multitudes
Driven to despair
By the shepherds
Of fear
Reeking of the violence
Wrought by anger
And the platitudes of righteousness
The sky; the sea; the land - The sky
like a distant hope
The sea
is my rolling pain
The land
oh, it anchors soul
And I
hold the sky
Let the pain
roll away
Heel to land
find my soul
Peeling - I study the frame
Seek the beauty
In the broken
The decrepit
And ugly
I find it
Almost always
A lesson as valuable
For the photographer
As for the pilgrim
Steady in the Wind - I recall the wind
Insistent
Pummeling
Leaning into it
Just to stand upright
I recall the sun
Hard
And hot
Burning through
The cold air coursing
I recall the sea
Singing
Its white noise crescendo
The roar
Of a planet alive
I recall this moment
Blissfully
Unattached
Firmly rooted to ground
In the grip of experience
Steps ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #165 - Sometimes the light
Seems very far
And the way
So dark and perilous
And the path
Occluded mystery
I remind myself
Just take a step
I remember
Where every journey begins
I find my courage
In the many paths already taken
I’ve held the light
before
I’ve made my way
before
I’ve found the path
before
I will hold the light
again
An Unmoving Frame - I began to notice With fascination Placing a moving object Near the center of the frame Tended to convince my mind’s eye The object was no longer moving
Sliver of Light - A sliver of a whole
Adrift in a vast duskiness
Far removed
From this gentle Earth
Yes
I know something about you
Moon
But soon enough
The stars, and the Milky Way
So I want to thank you now
Moon
For the reminder to come
That I need not linger
In the dusk
Perfect - This perfect valley
In the perfect light
With the perfect clouds
Make a perfect moment
This perfect is mine
Not the valley's
Not the light's
Not the clouds'
I remind myself
True happiness
Is found in finding
The perfect in everything
Heights ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #164 - From the Golden State's
Golden heights
I kick back
Refreshed by the cool breeze
Chilling the fire
Of the hot sun
Atop the curvilinear delights
Of hillocks dappled
With grasses and pines
Where even infinity seems so close
I could touch it
Right there
As the curve of the Earth
Rounds the line
Where ocean meets the sky
Frame of Mind - Obscure :: Emerge
Mystery :: Fascinate
Cloak :: Protect
Soften :: Soothe
Dreary :: Rainfall
Soak :: Nourish
Storm :: Excite
Dour :: Beauty
Liquid Meditation - Sometimes
The clink of glass
Works as well
As a meditation bell
The first
Long
Draft
Is a
Deep
Breath
In
Attachments melt away
The mind quiets
Its obsessive
Narcissism
For a moment
Nothing else matters
But this
Single
Moment
All the Sky was Smoke - The creatures toiled
Upon the land
They built machines
To ease the work
Created engines
To drive the cogs
And fueled it all
With all that burned
For every thing
The creatures made
Five other things
Were thrown away
For every turn
Of every cog
The fuel they burned
Created smog
'Til over time
Before too long
In fact, before
The fuel was gone
Their world could not
Sustain their waste
The climate changed
With break neck pace
Curtain Call - Beleaguered pier
Time chastened
Weather beaten
A formation
Of pilings
Long past utility
Though still
They throw
A striking pose
Just before
The curtain
Falls
From Deep Within - If the sky can seem to be
So many layers deep
Illuminated so vibrantly
From deep within
Perhaps, so can I
Handmade ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #163 - I let the rough asymmetry
Of a handmade world
Wash over my being
Imprecise
Imperfect
Reminded
I am an organic being
Cradled in a manufactured world
And my notions of beauty
Have been filtered
By the means of manufacture