The Seed

Have you ever sensed

Something deep inside—

Even if it’s just a teensy seed—

That there is more to you

Than meets the eye?

Oh yes, much, much more,

More than you think,

More than you imagine,

Just waiting for the gentle rain

To make it sprout and grow.

No need to push and pull,

Wish and want, hope and strain;

That little seed is much grander,

And contains much more

Than dreams can or ever could.

Fear not! The powerful force

That makes the seed sprout

And then burst into flower—

Wild, colorful, fragrant, sweet—

Is bigger than heaven itself.

Nutella Haiku

Please pass me a spoon

Please pass me the Nutella

Never mind the spoon

 

 

Stillness

in the gray hours of early morning,

My restlessness awakens me.

I reach out almost unaware

For some soothing hand

To still my unease.

My heart longs for peace,

A peace that grows from within,

Spreading its angel-wings

And calming my unrest.

I lie here, not moving,

Barely breathing, still.

And then it comes to me,

That soft, gentle touch

Of gentle tranquility

Washing over me,

Within and without,

Comforting, settling,

Reassuring, quieting.

I rise up in peace.

Ode to the garbage collectors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hail, intrepid garbage men!

Orange jumpsuits, sturdy arms

Swift, strong legs,

Driving your orange truck

Emptying orange cans

Into grinding metal jaws

Picking up stray pieces

Of paper, plastic bags

Leaving the street clean

Running to catch up

With the truck as it

Slowly moves toward the

Next group of cans and bags

You come in the dead of night

And I often wake up to the

Roar of the engine and grinder

I’ve even been known

To go to the window and watch…

There’s something so, well,

Dependable? Comforting?

Orderly? Clean? Energetic?

Well, yes, all of those…

I always go back to sleep

With a feeling of contentment.

Go ahead, step out

A comfort zone is not a good place to be.

If you don’t get out of it, you’ll get booted out.

That’s what happened to me.

It could happen to you.

 

What do you do when something safe

Starts to look and feel like a curse?

Especially when it’s your life?

Did that ever happen to you?

 

Can you see the signs or are you blind?

I couldn’t see the signs or even feel them.

Seems they had to hurt first

Kind of like a kick in the pants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I got rattled enough to do something.

Get me out of this humdrum existence!

Put your damn toe

Outside the chalk circle!

 

It wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d expected.

In fact it was quite, well, interesting.

I started to see real me

Get to know real me.

 

So go ahead, get out of the comfort zone!

Everything’s OK out here, it really is.

You might even find out

The gem you really are.

Peace and Quiet

Total silence in my room.

Well, if you overlook the

Occasional siren or the

Constant hum of traffic

Passing by.

 

But there are no voices,

No loud music playing,

No hammers banging,

Knocking the next door

Walls down.

 

So very peaceful.

I have no desire to move.

I sit here on the sofa

And content myself

With the stillness.

 

It’s enough for me today

To know that the ocean

Is just a block away.

I don’t need to go there

And dip my toes in it.

 

It’s enough to know that

There are people shopping,

Eating in restaurants,

Going to the bank,

Doing what they do.

 

This is what I do today:

I sit here on the sofa,

Glad for the semi-silence

Glad for time alone

Just to sit here.

Meditation, Madame Monet Sitting on a Sofa – Claude Monet

The Flame

Everyone has a flame inside them,

Well, sometimes it’s barely a flicker

Or maybe it’s just a teeny spark,

But it’s there, just waiting for a breeze

To fan it into action.

 

Once it’s in action, don’t let it go out,

It’s yours to tend and care for…

Don’t let the rain pour down on it…

Keep it dry and hot and springing up

Higher and higher.

 

Then one day it’ll burn so high and strong

That nothing can put it out, ever.

Not the rain, not a league of firemen,

Not even your own occasional lapses…

It has a life of its own.

Book coming soon, and poetical distractions…

I’ve just sent my book off to a trusted, intelligent friend (who is also a writer) for a final read-through. I’m certain she’ll have some good suggestions for me to get the thing finally wrapped up.

As soon as I sent it to her I missed it, which is pretty funny because it’s still right here on my computer. But I don’t want to mess with it at all until she’s done with her review.

But I really wanted to work on something else. I HAD to work on something else…besides my blog. So I dug into some files of poetry that I’ve written, and decided to put them into book form and maybe write some new ones.

Then I got the really insane idea of illustrating them. I mean, this is truly insane, because I don’t know how to draw in the sense of actually drawing…you know, with perspective and everything.

I guess the reason I thought of this is because of possible copyright issues with using pictures from the internet and also because I can’t afford to pay an illustrator. Oh well.

I used to fiddle around making little drawings of household things and heads…yes, little heads of all sorts of people that I made up in my mind. I can’t find any of them, but I think I could probably reproduce something like that. Maybe it doesn’t matter that I don’t know how to draw. We’ll see.

Well, I’ve gotten a bit off track here, but what I wanted to say is that I don’t think it’ll be all that much longer until the book is published, unless of course my friend says, “Hmmm, I think it might be good if you rewrote the whole thing.” Ha!

Love

When you get a glimpse of what LOVE really is…

Then you discover that it’s not only something you can do…

It’s something you are.

It’s not something you have to try to get for yourself…

You already have it and always did and always will…

Because it’s who you are.

Then everything changes, loving becomes sheer fun…

You don’t even care any more if someone loves you back…

You’ve already got love.

You can never lose it when you know what it really is…

You can’t help feeling loved all the time because it’s who you are…

It’s as natural as breathing.

 

Haiku for Wednesday

The stars look so close
You feel like you could reach up
And stir them around

Line from Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night”

Painting: “Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh