The sea
Ocean
Water
is like Love
Can’t stay away from it
Want to experience it
To be near it
To be one with it
It rejuvenates and completes
Yet has the capacity to Destroy
And still we continue to seek it out
To go to it
and long for it
when it is not at our feet
All the time knowing it can drown us
In an instant
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
There are weeds in the garden
yet hair on the office chair
Dust on the piano
but not on the computer keyboard
Some things ignored, some completed
I hear your laughter here in the silence
and I am grateful
you are back nestled under my wing
I set you up to fly away
And when that day comes
know you will always have
a nest here to come back to
And when your heart broken in pieces
you will find solace without
violence
Carry self-acceptance
and love of self
Fly out into the world
without bitterness
or desperation
And color the palate of the sky
with your broken, beautiful wings
There are weeds in the garden
there will always be
Fly little bird
but not too far away
from me
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
That golden orb
lay down so eloquently
the bottom of it
pulled down by the sea
or perhaps the rotation
of the earth
that which we cannot see
And I shared a bench
with an old man
who did not speak
But I heard his heart
when his eyes were alight
no grief
We took in the moment
each of us our own thoughts
dreams hopes desires
beliefs
Sunset by the sea
I gave gratitude
for you and me
for spirit peace equality
A couple lay in each other’s arms
a family played joyfully
mother and son
daddy and baby
a circle of souls
waxing philosophically
three women late in their years
a wet-eared puppy
That golden orb
not a backdrop
but the focus of the moment
holding us all together
to bask in its enjoyment
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
There are exotic places I’ve been
There are exotic places I dream of
in my cubicle at work
And there is the beauty outside my front door
It makes my 2.5 days of available Paid Time Off
bearable
Twilight’s blue sky
two stars I make wishes to
A spring breeze
carrying live Saturday night
music to my ears
keeping all but one mosquito
away
Palm trees like I dreamed of in
childhood
swaying right before my eyes
The smell of a charcoal grill
and something I would probably
not eat
wafting deliciously in the wind
The Magnolia tree
the flowers flitting so
intoxicatingly
waiting to be plucked
illegally
Norfolk Pine fingers
dancing in twilight wind
A storm miles away
it can’t touch me
but I see the lightning
as if it were touching my skin
I breathe in this night
I breathe in this beauty
There is hope in this world
and I can feel it from
within.
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
When all is quiet
and there is no work to be done
My mind flies high
soaring against the sun
my heart is full
of all of you
all who have reached out
both old and new
For all the tiring
desperate trying times
Among them has been
no searching for earthly
companions
In that aspect I win
So many open souls
willing to give a hand
reaching out
keeping my mind
from falling back into
the chasm
I want to thank you
as I feel the sun
I want to thank you
for everything you’ve done
I might not have always seemed grateful
but I am here
reaching back out to you.
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
For Judith
Who I will never see again
You hang like a lost memory
near the gates of your
oak laden neighborhood
I picked you up there once
because your car was in the shop
or something like that
I still have the photo album
you gave me as a gift
which sat in your car for months
long after we’d stopped volunteering
together
Those days at the nonprofit
you were my solace
you were the one I sought
when I walked in the door
Southern charm and recipes
your clothes ever so pressed
and conservative
yet so approachable
Thick black hair
tiny shiny beautiful
unpretentious jewelry
Your soon-to-be son-in-law
said he hoped his daughter
would look like you when she got
old
But you were not old when you
died
Divorce
cancer
you left the shop
We tried to reach out
But you were too proud
or sad
I should have joined you
for Thai chi
I should have begged
one more time
to have lunch with you at
Joey’s
You always got the soup and
half sandwich
but could never eat it all
Judith I fashioned a character
after you in one of my unfinished
novels
Judith where are you
now
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
Can I stop time
and keep you this way a little longer?
Keep this moment and innocence
here and now
hanging just in front of me
suspended
until I feel I can move forward
when there has been enough time
to share and give all I can
to laugh and love with all you are
I have stopped time before
in my mind
But there you go
growing and changing
before me and away
and the minutes and days
fly by
with the speed of light
uncontrollably
irrevocably
To stop time
There is never enough
If only I could
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
The moon and I had a moment tonight
while I was bathed in its vanilla light
it hung gently between two trees
and it spoke reverently to me
Why are we here? I asked
telepathically
And sooner than it took
the glow of its crest
to reach my hollow chest
I heard the answer
And I knew we were
all here
to savor to care to be
together
most imperfectly
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
I left my heart here
to drown in the sorrowful ache
that a steady rain of your absence
soaks
Like a bloated sponge
unable to hold one more drop
yet it does
somehow
The heart is a willful thing
it lets go but doesn’t forget
the sound of the rain pelting
and the sheer joy of the moment it ceases
and the release of some part of that ache
Every time you come back
and we embrace.
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
Upon waking the birds sang
a light chirp and consistent rhythm
cracking life against the dawn
But then a distant siren approached
becoming louder
and silencing the sweet sound of
morning
Rescuing a fading life
And when it passed there was no sound
at all
Except the chattering of a wondering mind
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
Busted Flip Flops 