Koto in Autumn

Purple are the notes on the air

Shining in the minds of those who hear

Drops glistening as rain

Delivered by the koto

Of the forest goddess,

Her voice as golden ribbons

Weaves silk among the drops

Whimsical dances calling

Calling the Autumn rain.

Butterfly Mantle

Shadow and innocence

Color and darkness

My mantle swirls around me

Heating my skin one moment

Exposing it to the caress of night fog

The next,

These butterflies woven

Into the silken black of my mantle

Are striking

Bright blue with yellow highlights

A dream of joy and summer innocence

Taken alone

But they are one with the darkness

Lending strength and grace

To the airy black mantle

I wear in the night

As if wings of my own

Wrapped around me

Dance with my shadow

To the tune of the wind,

I stride into the night

Of wafting fog

Strong and playful

My mantle swirling.

O Captain, My Captain

Best friend and mentor

Captain of mine

Through forest we’ve journeyed

By sea we have traveled,

You have taught me

Of forest lore, of sea lore

Of science

You have shown me ways of leadership

Of teaching and compassion

By way of our journeys

You have taught me of life,

In partnership with wooden boats

Upon the Salish Sea

You have taught me how

To read the waters

The wind and currents therein

You have taught me how

To treat a crew

With laughter, song, and persistence

You have taught me how

To tie knots

To ravel and unravel

To bind into stronger harmony

Lines of both fiber and humanity

To bend the like and unlike together

Wood and water and us

Bound by lines of braided knowledge

And salten trust.

Drops of Water

Drops of water

Persistent and rhythmic

From rain that has been

Lingering into the future

And rain that is

Gently falling,

Drops of water

Ring as they strike still pools

Resonating as the plucked string

Of the koto,

Drops of water

Deliver me peace

Wash away cares

With a splash on my nose

Simple purity

As laughter.

Spiral Galaxy on My Ceiling

Spiraling into a galaxy

Of light and also

My mind

My gaze follows the spiral

The spiral of light on my ceiling

Dazzling then focusing

A tool of beauty and inspiration,

Remind me of the spiral galaxies

Such glory at such distance

Mind boggling existence

This phenomenon of which we’ve learned

Wherein the varied stars are found

So hot I know but cold from here

Blue or red or orange or white

The varied hues of star light

Greens and pinks and purples

Of light artificially colored or masked

Masked by vast galactic clouds

Clouds of dust and gas

Such glorious visions

These colors and concepts

The towering, glowing, clouds

Where stars are borne

The blazing baroque remnants

Of a star that’s died

The multitude of lights

Of temperatures and sizes

Of followings of planets and comets and satellites galore

That constitute the body of stars that lived and thrived

In the time that photons

Messengers and harbingers

Left their stars so long ago

So very, very, long ago

What state the stars are in now

We cannot know can only guess

As we interpret the messages

Of untiring light

That has come so far

Through the vastness of space

And the inexorable passage of time,

I look at my ceiling

At the multicolored lights

My eyes first spiral in and then focus

And in my mind unfurls

The wonders of the universe.

Volcano in the Night

When fire falls from the sky
And blackness rolls over the hills
A shadow cast long and deep
Cast by a plume that ominous looms
Has blocked the moon from the night
The silver is gone, the black reigns
And red arises
The blood of the Earth
Heat, scorching heat of life, of rage
Molten stone that shapes the land
Red of blood, of heart's desire
Orange of warmth
White hot purity blazing
Black of endings which begin
Sharp the stone til worn by time
Dark desolation awaiting
Awaiting the return of the lichens
Proud and stark the stone against the sky.

Happy Birthday Dad

Leave and Return

For the taste of salt on the air

For the cry of the gull on the wing

For the lull of the waves as they roll

I shall return to the sea,

For the freedom of flight by sail

For the chuckle of the water on the hull

For the hum of the jib in a puff

I shall sail again,

For a clock that runs by the tide

For a day that ends with the sun

For a tomorrow of new beginnings

I shall leave this land,

For sunsets that glimmer on the waves

For phosphorescence that dances in the night

For stars that shine in an open sky

I shall sleep no more beneath this roof,

For the changing of the seasons

For the phasing of the moon

For the lingering of the sun

I shall leave and return.