Spring Thunderstorm

in ,

A wayward sigh escapes youAnd truly blends with ease Among the sights and sounds around you, greying skies and rustling leaves

as your body starts to shiver you can feel it’s looming near the calm before the storm has come, it happens every year

there is an ever-present beauty in the calm before the storm anticipation, stillness and the thoughts of keeping warm,

although there’s clear and present danger in getting in her path there can be great enjoyment in watching Mother Nature’s wrath,

the calm is coming to end it’s more than plain to see as lightning breaks the clean grey slate of sky behind the trees

the rain begins to mist the wind begins to howl lightning brightens threatening skies as thunder snarls and growls

the postman looks up to the sky and shakes a tight-clenched fist for the raindrops dance upon his head falling stronger than a mist

somehow fear eludes me as I take in all the sights and suddenly, looking to the west I see soft clouds of white

blue comes shortly after then warm rays of sun just as quickly as it came, the thunderstorm is done.

20130301-145622.jpg

All That Really Matters

in ,

a perpetual strangertraveling down this dark and narrow, twisted trip of blissful contradiction with heart wide open

absorbing all this life has to give while wandering the razor's edge in peace and harmony

ever so thankful for wounds that sting and the laughter that heals

in all these many years I've never lost faith that each step brings us closer to that place of perfect completeness

where we wake up in wisdom to cast all aside all of our favorite demons and finally realize that love is all that really matters.

Nothing Else

in ,

As the sun's raysilluminate your being and warm your face pause to take a nice long drink of life, close your eyes and smile. Know that this moment in time is real and all there is, really all there ever was and will be Nothing else matters. People will feel how they feel and will believe what they want to believe our only job is to be Fall leaves will continue their dance in the crisp wind, the squirrels will continue to play and the woodsmoke will wisp long after we're gone But now, there is the sun and the Earth beneath our feet and our breath. Time is still and nothing else matters.

20130226-054125.jpg

Native Sun

in ,

I am four generations removedfrom a world unrecognizable, a world without walls, truth of word and of law but ultimately just another domino to fall in the name of progress

Imagination can only give a glimpse But the seed of memory is strong in me Often bubbling up as effervescent Wisdom whispering in my thoughts

The forest is where I come to worship its great canopy, my cathedral branches gently swaying in the breeze to the melody of birdsong, its beautiful choir I connect with Nature in all her majesty, the supreme intelligence behind it gives order to the chaos again grounds and humbles me leaving everything right again

just a brief respite from our unbalanced existence but it helps to quell the sadness of the sorry state we’re in then the Native Sun tells me to open my eyes and see that humanity is finally beginning To awaken from a slumber long huddled in Cimmerian shade

Our family is being remade before our very eyes And the children of new world are an amalgam much stronger than the first, now a harmony unimaginable can be visualized Shimmering in the not so distant twilight, and felt flowing towards our shores Truth and destiny cannot forever be hushed

And to the Native Sun I whisper back, “please hurry”.

20130226-051912.jpg

Silent Salutations

in ,

Our days are filledwith silent salutations as our nights wander on to tomorrow's shore dreams lap at the edge of desperation as hope promises an ever-open door

dragonwell fills my yi-xing pot as aromatic steam curls in lofty streams making me, for a moment, forget the grey no insinuations, pretense, nor enigmatic dreams

the landscape is awash with black and white on a breeze floats a harbinger of days ahead a whisper of how mistakes can wither and drop dead from their vines to nurture the wise ground and give such sweet reprise to those who still believe

20130225-210034.jpg

Alarm Clock Dawn - Prologue

in

Whether we acknowledge it or not, as human beings we know in our hearts when something isn’t as it should be. This simple act of knowing can manifest itself in any number of ways, its nagging effervescence bubbling to the surface of our minds. Once realized, we are free to change our course of action, averting an often disastrous outcome. Change is frightening to us, and more often than not we choose to ignore this voice or, even worse, we to try to silence it. By turning a deaf ear to that voice, though, we deny the very nature of our being. If ignored often enough, we gradually lose the ability to hear this “small voice” and with it our power, finding we have no other choice but to face the consequences. The frustrating thing about being a student of history is watching this denial play out time and time again. Humanity, it seems, is trapped between the grooves of a broken record. Over time, these grooves have been ground so deeply that it seems impossible to escape. The more advanced a people become, the narrower is their path of righteousness. Ironically, a civilization at its greatest is always at its most vulnerable. It is so easy to begin believing that you are infallible and, thus, lulled into the false assumption that the glory days will never end. Herein lies the first stumble. In the last century we made some great strides as well as some mighty stumbles. Our advancement was blindingly fast by any previous standard. In a few short years we had gone from our first flight to escaping our atmosphere and seeing the magnificence of our beautiful planet from space. While the powerful nations of the world carried on in great material prosperity for a number of decades, it became apparent to some that the economic system that fueled this great quantum leap had in it one fatal flaw. Our global economy relied on perpetual growth for its success, but the resources on our planet were not unlimited and were dwindling fast. It didn’t take long for governments and the corporations that influenced them to realize this, and there became a great power grab for our dwindling natural resources. Horrendous wars were fought and many people died. Naïve inhabitants of the poorer nations were quickly sold the dream of becoming part of a utopian middle class, a prosperity that they could never attain. This made it easier for them to be exploited as cheap labor by the wealthy and powerful nations. As long as the global economic engines continued to hum, the world looked the other way, distracted by their orgy of consumption. Ninety-five percent of the world's wealth was now concentrated in the hands of two percent of the population. A sweeping technological renaissance was sparked overnight. Every few years there was some new gadget unveiled that was supposed to make our lives easier. It started with improvements to products we already knew. Radios were miniaturized and the miracle of television was brought to the market, quickly followed by computers and nuclear power. In hindsight, this technology became a tremendous distraction that only helped them blind us to the nightmare that was unfolding. We were all such willing participants in the deception. It only took a few years before all of this technology was absorbed into every aspect of our lives. We were neatly and dangerously divided into two easily controlled groups: greedy producers and insatiable narcissistic consumers. Together they molded a society, once rich in culture and substance, into a well-oiled machine that did nothing more than spew out and consume all the things that they told us were supposed to make us happy. For many years we thrived on narcissistic consumption as though we were the center of our own universe and our wants were all that mattered. Despite our best attempts to silence it with possessions, something deep down inside cried out in pain. Its voice, like a nagging whisper, told those of us who were brave enough to listen that we had strayed. The intelligent among us knew if we didn’t make our way back to the balancing point, we would soon embark on a nightmarish adventure well beyond our wildest imaginations. The most lucid among us realized that it, very likely, was already too late.

20130102-115839.jpg