With just the slightest

twitch of an eyebrow, Toby

surveys several

grazing deer, weighs his options,

decides he’d rather

catch z’s than chase fleeing deer

 – an excellent model for me.

                                                                                                                               JDG

It won’t be long now

before the school year begins

and summer’s pleasures

will be replaced with early

rising, lost text books,

missed buses, feigned illnesses,

and parental hair-pulling.

                                                                                                                    JDG

It was the quiet

at midday that took me back

to another time.

Absence, rather than presence,

opened memory’s

door and let, not an image

but a feeling, slip right in.

                                                                                                                   JDG

Not so long ago

they sat at my dining room

table and we laughed

together at our mishaps

past and present. Their

chairs are empty now and I

sit alone, but their stories

and their laughter linger still.

                                                                                                             JDG

One by one those jays

approach, heads turning this way

and that. It’s clear they’re

on a mission as they draw

ever near. One quick 

swoop followed by another

and, poof, the cat’s bowl is clear.

                                                                                              JDG

It’s always the same, 

the feeling I get on that

final turn toward home –

no matter if the sweet scent

 of honeysuckle

or the smell of burning logs

fills the air. The moon

may be a sliver, the day

overcast or lit

with sun,  I may have been gone

a moment or not

been home for weeks, but always

I feel lucky and give thanks.

                                                                                                                           JDG

A backyard drama

unfolds as squirrel, blue jay,

and cat vie for space.

A temporary truce is

found as all depart

the feeding ground and a wee

sparrow settles in and eats.

                                                                                                          JDG

The very fact I’m

here at this precise moment

is wonder enough

for me. How many moments

 had to be just as

they were for me to glance up

right now and see that

blue jay suddenly swoop down

and snatch food from my cat’s dish.

                                                                                                                 JDG

Not the slightest breeze

ruffles the song-filled air this

simmering summer

morning. I suppose there’s much

to learn from those whose

songs take wing on humid days

like this, but from me

no lilting sound pours forth – just

an exasperated sigh.

                                                                                                                   JDG

If I finally 

let go of all those undone

things I really meant 

to do, in that one moment

procrastination

itself would be set aside

and I could move from

“meaning to” to simply “do”

and from there to “having done”. 

                                                                                                    JDG