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 my own existence
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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
Mindful
Of 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
The Greatest Gift
On this day of giving and receiving
The greatest gift
Whether given or received
The greatest gift
Whether given or received
Is no different
Than any other day
Love
Fathers ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #197
Paddling
On a perfect day
On a perfect day
I remember days long past
Of sunshine and calm
Depths still clear
At forty feet
The rod held
Expectantly
In your son’s hands
Paddle in yours
The strokes
A gentle
Powerful
Grace
You didn’t care for fishing
But I did
So out we went
My youth
A stream of summer memories
New England lakes
Bass and wallabies
A pickerel here and there
The perch and sunnies
Disdainfully thrown back
Paddling today
On a perfect day
I reflect on those times
And the times that would follow
Times of storms and dark clouds
Murky shallows
When we were not always
So gentle with each other
Awkward
Sometimes graceless
The depth of you
Forever unreachable
But still I knew you
As the father who’d take me out
For no more than the pleasure
Of my pleasure
That is
I knew
Always
That you loved me
You’ve been gone now
For longer than I ever had you
For your eulogy
I used the metaphor
Of the missing wingman
A natural for the pilot father
But on this day
Of sunshine and calm
Of depth and clarity
I notice a second paddle
Laying against the empty seat
Wishing your hands were upon it
So that once again
We could take on this task of living
With the harmony of paddling
Together
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
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
Aboard a ship
No sails were set
Devoid of all intent
My mind awash
In listless thought
No acts of love
From feckless heart
Yet all the while
And deep below
This ship becalmed
My spirit spare
A current
Ran unseen
It swirled
And tossed
It mustered
Forces unbeknown
Which bubbled to the top
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
Remembrance ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #161
For all of you
Who’ve gone to ground
Fallen in a season
For which life
Had not yet come around
Bleakest autumn
Fell upon your spring
Who’ve gone to ground
Fallen in a season
For which life
Had not yet come around
Bleakest autumn
Fell upon your spring
I remember
And I write
Words seeking time
In some future dream
When the Flanders torch
Shall not be passed
We will no longer ask
The young to die
For causes wrought
Upon the lie
Of righteousness
A time when poppies bloom
In their rightful spring
Not this remorseful
Autumnal rite
No longer red
No blood be spilled
But lovely white
Our peace fulfilled
Dancing with the Darkness
Standing in the light
I see the darkness
The evil from which I emerged
Clearly
For the first time
I see the darkness
The evil from which I emerged
Clearly
For the first time
Just as I cannot know the light
Without darkness
So too I cannot know the darkness
Without light
I thought I knew the darkness well
When I was caught in it
As it touched me
As it coursed through me
I believed the darkness was me
Standing in the light
I sense the true nature of my being
Radiating this warm glow
I have not emerged from the darkness
I have shed it
Like a cloak
Beneath which the light
Has always burned
Will always burn
Has always kept the darkness
In its dark
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