Zazen After Sunset

          Dark enough,

And a young moon fresh in the glimmerdim.

          Late enough,

And the fireflies, risen from the grass, constellate the trees.

          Still enough,

And you, too, risen from yourself, untranslatable.

          Free enough,

And no longer fastened to a dying animal,

                    As in the south silent lightning pulsed,

                    And caught the heart off guard,

                     And blew it open.

                   

          

—ultimate lines from Seamus Heaney's Postscript

         

Mt. Union

Come closer and listen

Watching the theaters of evening

With the lowering sun at our backs

We could rest on this hilltop

Growing smaller and farther away

Forever

Instant Coffee

Counter shadows

from a higher plane,

the sill, the field, the past,

unexpectedly,

the smell of morning coffee

with the children still asleep,

our modest aspirations

just beyond our reach,

yet it was we,

and it was home,

and it was family.

Intellect alone

is bloodless company.

The Weather at Eighty

Rain in the distance

drawing nearer

one ridge at a time

Another friend has died

we've seen enough of rain

pooling in the fields

Rain in the distance

drawing nearer

one friend at a time.

Click Bait

June sundown in Upper Turkeyfoot

Nothing

     for TikTok today,

Nothing

     for facebook or Reels,

No double-jointed shenanigans,

No faceplants, no ballbusters,

Just the red fox

     slipping into the weeds,

Just the long-legged turkey

     fleeing into the barn,

     scattering cats,

Just the big red sun

     dropping into the trees,

Just my own echo

     when I call in the dog,

Just me again

     with you on my mind.     

Gravity

Everything,

we've learned,

falls apart.

Forgive us then,

if near the end,

we fall in love.

Each Other

Hale-Bopp, 1997

 

You saw it too  

 the comet  

its double tail  

even in daylight  

We've never said so  

to each other  

but it's almost enough  

the could-have-been  

How We Do

Fox with a wing in its teeth

vanishes into the fescue.

There goes its white-tipped tail.

Moments later

it's like it never happened.

Ride on.

Unconditional Love

I pinned my laundry to the line

and stood in the storm-watch wind,

luffed and transported

into Grandma's backyard

under buffeting sheets

and Grandpa's workshirts,

blue arms waving,

"Carl" winking in an oval,

Grandma leaning out the kitchen window

in the smell of baked cherries,

waving me in with a smile,

the long arms of my workshirts

rising and falling in the wind.

Vista

Cash Valley and The Narrows, MD, as seen from PA

Stopped by the long view

and by the silence

when the wind drops

we are reminded

that the quality of life

depends on the value

we place in each minute

and that the sacred

lies in the ordinary.

Existing

Rolling back, 6/2/25

 

We were wary of the past

But now we are different

Beautiful moments

Can grow out of listlessness

Pausing at sunset

We felt the earth roll

Everything a little slower

All of us free to change