We here
in this moment
Microcosm
of wider world
How do
you like it
We ask
each from threshold
We issue
answer in a thousand tongues
Language
grunts moans murmurations
Signs
we carry lead us on
Colours
rainbow bold or fading arc
Humanity
naked beast still loading
Who among us thrives
when one philosophizes
while the other feigns deep listening
Thanks for the adjunct, I said
though to myself not aloud
We were sitting together on a bench
You opining
I half listening
We two half friends
balancing between true life and mediocrity
Heron and me
Wind and sea
Space between us
Watcher and watcher watching
Am I alone here
Or part of a whole
Belonging is fleeting
Questions lift and fly
Melody of swash carries
Choirs from other shores
Night birds glide to clouds
I survey you surveying
Graceful hunter
Sky draws her shades
I choose a stone to throw
Offerings of kindness
Rising in many voices
A choir of improvised repertoire
Without a director mouthing
Cues or wielding a baton
Movements of compassion
Calls for vigils of the voiceless
Sufferers hidden or locked away
Unimportant stragglers occupying
Shadowy edges of humanity
Fields of creativity
Undulating without want of rest
Collaborations across borders
Unheard of and unknown linking minds
With restlessly famous
Nests of hummingbirds
Barely larger than fairytale thimbles
Revealed as unexpected gifts
These hours and days of altered stasis
Toss madness with solitude’s clarity and wonder
Amid quiet crumbling beauty
we tread with light deliberate steps
watchful for what could happen
for some unexpected opening in this damp and fragile earth
into which we may fall
Here lies evidence of possibility
we see through our sunglass obscured eyes
all there is to see of what remains after abandonment and its aftermath
decay in slow motion
a death in silence
What will we have learned having come as witnesses
to imagine what was and then what has become juxtaposed
And can we say with conviction in our voices when we emerge
from this moist sinking landscape
to walk again on the even ground of modernity
that we understand
Who left first and who was the last to cross the bridge
Who won
How shiny was the prize?
Ah
I have realized
again
and again
breathing out
breathing in
when I venture out
when I come back in
whether harsh with cold
or soft summer wind
whatever day or dare or game
we find ourselves stumbling in
Nature wins
Nature wins.
Open minds–
How do they look
when presented in neat rows?
Learning glows
inside skulls.
So far I know:
Bones are fragile
Life’s value low.
I leave small things behind
when places quietly intone
beckon from lonely shadow
some tangible confirmation
I noticed them waiting there.
Pencil Notes 