take the little happiness you have found
and carry it in your breast pocket
that it might keep you warm
through these, the ice ages;
a new sun will rise
once the old one sets
and the world will be renewed
in colour and sight and sound
until you forget the former existed
and joy will be your foundations
until your time comes to an end.

these morning shadows
they’re just as long as afternoon’s
but they move differently
like children without the weight
of the protracted and heavy day
stretched out ahead;
they are light and grasping
hopeful ghosts of impermanence
waiting to become night
as they fall together
losing themselves
in a greater darkness.

And there is beauty in the streams we stop to admire… silent reverie broken by water’s fall on snow and ice…we are witnesses given over to a joyful nature.

Simple things –
A blue Jay at the feeder
Calms my brain like water
Poured onto a brush fire;
There is life outside of me,
Unconcerned,
Without anxiety (maybe)
Standing as example
Breathe…
You live in love
Expressed daily
In the small things
In the big things
In embrace
And shared meals
Breathe…
There is a Jay at the feeder

what kind of fool
is suspiciuos of joy
that they would seek
to be comforted
from its horrors
to be reassured
that it is not real
and the world is still black
beneath its bright blue shell?

and what kind of nightmare
would wrap their arms around
and whisper calming lies
to sooth them into complacency?

it seems exhausting
and doomed to failure
a pathetic dance of idiots.

Surrounded by life

Surrounded by love

I am;

Hearts beat near me

In tune with mine

And I’m reminded

That this,

This is good

To be

Connected

Still standing

As testimony

To an unwritten future

Moving forward

Wide-eyed and eager…

Hopeful.

I learn through pain

Like a man who

Punches himself in the face

Again and again

To believe it will hurt

It has always been

Like some self-inflicted sin

It is the arrogance

Of not trusting the lessons

Of others

Over experience;

What foolishness.