Poetry for Scientists
-------------------------------- Parental Conversation Don't buy that microwave oven. But Ralph Nadar says it's ok. It leaks radiation. They use them in hospitals. They kill you slowly. There's a good article about them in the paper. Why is it, because I'm not in the shape of a tv, my own Mother doesn't trust me? She accepts a stranger's opinion over mine; he doesn't care about you! I don't look like a radio, newspaper or magazine, I'm her son. She said the government wouldn't allow something dangerous to be sold. I said who brought you John Wayne and the atomic bomb? And why do they dye green peppers green Mom? ******* Legend Luna August 10, 2000 There's a big red lever sticking out of the world in northern California. With the correct effort, the world could be rolled away onto a different path. It takes 100 lbs. of pressure and a fingertip to set it moving. She pressed. ******* Rescue August 1, 2000 This Merry-go-Round spins in one direction, while I run in the other. Although the horses go up and down, we go nowhere. I reach for the brass ring. Snagged and left hanging by a finger, for a moment I'm a still place among the moving planets. ******* Photon Text August 3, 2001 The sun confides in planet earth; protons make up the constant conversation. On waves of laughter, photon bits come playing with the grass, bring words of encouragement to the sea; leave sagas of enlightenment in the mind. When the sun has said everything it needs to, who will carry its messages to other places? If we are good listeners, maybe we get to tell the story. ******* May 24, 2001 Is this a real world? They advise it is illusion. Look for that which sustains it. Is this a transitory place? You may want to appreciate the here and now. Enjoy the real illsuion. ******* What happens to sound at the speed of light? ******* How can a photon travel so fast and not knock a hole out of the back of your head? ******* Wag May 1995 Chippy lying in the road, ear to the ground listening to the universe calling, did you graduate to two legs, or stay on four? A poodle on the east side maybe... Have you been a bad chippy, doing nasty chippy things, thinking evil chipmunk thoughts, and right now becoming a lowly blade of grass? Your tail shifts, are you still with us, or was it the wind going off with your little rodent soul? Tonight when I return, you'll be rolled-out-thin mammal dough on a black tar cookie sheet. My little chocolate chippy, it's your wagging tail that holds you in my rear view mirror, that holds me to this pen. ******* She rides a two thousand year old arrow; target, the morning sun. Pulled back tight, this bow could launch a forest; it shoots forth what is trued and trued again. Nothing can deter this journey: arrow archer sun. ******* I'm absolutely sure you should beware of those who are absolutely sure. ******* VGER The closed flower that awaits the certain sun holds fast, hangs tough. protecting itself with petaled armor. Siphoning the rivers of the world, it draws up dross to become beauty. Silent strength and bravey is the flower's nature. When the sun comes up, the gloves come off. ******* Hands to Face Mother Nature was statled when she pirouetted past a mirror in the twentieth century. Pulling back, peering in, she adjusts her focus. Eyes wide, she smiles at her beauty and says, it is so. Delighted, she puffs up and makes faces trying on all of herself. Ions of looking outward; barren moon, burning stars, the emptiness of space. She relaxes into satisfaction knowing how beautiful she is. This is me as I am to others, she thinks. Bringing her hands to her gaze, she repeats, this is me, and we are the reflection in her self-awareness. ******* |
Poems from the Heart
------------------------------- May 24, 2001 The all-inclusive everything; the all-powerful, the omni-present and infinite God. Isn't this just another form of greed? Couldn't we settle for a half-pint, average-intellect, semi-divine being? Slightly imperfect, incomplete, not well travelled, created in our image? Could we live with divine impermanence, miscalculations, and limitations? Contests, exams, interviews: get the best God you can! ******* Signs of Evolution August 15, 2000 By now you understand everything. You know just about everything. Some signs are: most everything has a funny side, laughable; everyone is forgivable, if you look long enough; earth is a free will zone; God is good and loves us; we're all in this together; another's happiness is ours eventually; love makes life worth living; mundane reality feeds on the denial of self realization; holiness is reflected by the degree to which we help others become free and happy; love of self heals nearly all the world's problems, and freaking out is no longer an option. ******* In the Same Way August 16, 2000 My ideas are small. They fit on this page with room to spare. Some become powerful when they stumble upon the truth. In this fertile ground, we are all seeds. No matter what we become our roots are fed in the same way. Our world is yet another small seed in our garden universe. Small, yet with enough footing to make heaven take notice. ******* Gift Horizon Some kind of Love poem needs to be written. The writer doesn't know what. Like bailing out the sea, any pail will do. There's a sea that forever separates lovers so that their continual arrival at understanding one another can confirm and complete their affection. Your love for someone else is their gift to you. ******* An invitation to my surrender is extended. When You are, I am. ******* Spirit Thread Like a silver strand being pulled through the eye of a needle, the presence tugs on us, to refine and extract a single thread of being. ******* Doesn't April 17, 2000 Wouldn't one of the hardest lessons to learn be that God doesn't punish? Can't. Doesn't even forgive. Just doesn't notice. Can't. ******* Silent, not the sound that silence makes, silent. Still, not the movement that stillness brings, still. Silent and still like light within darkness. Not like sunshine, but the radiance. ******* Yes, the Devil Too August 20, 2001 When the devil autopsies every last one of our souls and finds the last tiniest hint of evil, we all become good and go to heaven. Ok? Satisfied? ******* December 9, 1980 Everything is the medium through which the creator is projected. ******* There are dreams way safer than reality. How much of the right kind of pain will buy forgiveness? In solitude is the reminder that the self is the location of the battle. A wake up call to self medicate: take yourself. ******* The self's sincerest moment with itself is an internal reassuring fulfillment, a lightness of being. These words join together in reverence, but speak in silence. ******* To Hold this Place December 11, 2001 Breathe into that which you do, say, think, see, feel, hear, are. Fill out in this way-- into being conscious, breath by breath. ******* |
Observations
------------------------------- April 17, 2001 Petals clasped, a daffodil waits to pay homage to the morning sun. ******* Forest April 14, 2001 It's come to this again: a chair, a backyard, a sunny day, trees. This pad, these words. I wonder about kids I knew in third grade, long ago and far away, and get that hollow aching in my gut. Missing kids I can't even remember-- and I thought I was crazy. Bluebirds are eyeing the real estate. Location is everything. A hollow aching still goes on inside. Spring is the most beautiful painful season. I take out old pictures and pine. ******* Don't Ask, Don't Tell Once upon a time there were tens of thousands of dollars spent on tolerance of diversity here in America. Many movies were seen, books read, papers written, good deeds done. Then someone somewhere confessed to being gay, and a leave of absence came their way... the greatest lesson of all. We could have just taught politics. ******* The Elite May 14, 2001 To be part of a group of people that no matter what happens in the world, everything will be fine for them. Everything will be ok. The still solvent millionaire who supposedly jumped to his death during the depression... was pushed. ******* The first problem in creating a world is keeping the water on. ******* Camouflage 1983 The Spotted Owl paints himself into safe obscurity, he himself the hiding place. The landscape absorbs him as he saturates his canvas. ******* She said her heart was a nice place to visit, but she wouldn't want me to live there. ******* Departure October 9, 1998 While you were gone Fall came to town; freezing wind and rain, and a killing frost. But not all was lost. When you left Summer followed close behind, taking warmth and sunshine, but never the glow. When friends go afar, they leave behind empty rooms, silent tombs, printed paths and open fields the sky may enfold but not hold in place, like friends who hug in warm embrace. ******* Time, Color and the Sun October 1988 Green is red, orange, yellow in time. Time is Winter, Spring, Summer in Fall. Fall is sunlight returning in color to the sun, that will charm the Winter to green. ******* May 10, 1980 As life is but temporary, death is but illusion. As we create, and thereby beg permanence, we remian the seed from which the fruit bears forth. ******* It was a typo. What he wrote was: Survival of the Wittiest. ******* The older we go, the further we get. ******* Pursuant January 19 Running, never moving. Questioning, sometimes speaking. Listening, always listening. Watching, ever waiting. ******* By-the-Power-Invested-in-Me Glue Words are relative, acquiring meaning by the company they keep; they are temporary families. "I do" can mean "I did".as in "I don't anymore". Words hold together by the power invested in them. ******* The Respectability of Madness In this world, symptoms are sometimes the cure. ******* Our most valuable clairvoyance is the ability to read our own hearts. ******* |