After a late afternoon rain,
the cicadas
cease to sing. Their
shrill and steady
hum no longer crowds the air. A
strange emptiness
is left where there
was none before.
It’s funny how you come to miss
the very things
you never thought
you could or would.
JDG
As soon as the rain stops and sun
appears, I fling
open the door
and bid the kids
depart for the world outside. I
claim the fresh air
will do them good
and the sun holds
benefits too numerous to
list, simple facts
they decry and
choose to resist.
JDG
If I could learn not to leap to
thought or deed, but
to simply pause
and breathe, if I
could be with what is, just as it
is, then I’d know
I had arrived
at wisdom’s door
as someone new to me. I might
need to visit
me before I
open any door.
JDG
I never set out to do much
more than write a
poem each day,
but, as often
happens, much more came my way.
What might have gone
unseen before
now stared me in
the face. Taking a minute to
write a minute
gives gentle shape
to every day.
JDG
As we go through our days, putting
things together
and taking them
apart, watching
for any sign that things may fall
apart before
we’re through, we might
miss how we are
simultaneously being
made and remade
both building and
being built too.
JDG
Those aren’t porpoises frolicking
in the water.
They’re yellow labs
let loose at last
to leap, to swim in circles, to
nip at gnats and
chase after low
flying gulls. Shore
fish scurry to safety as a
solitary
stick drifts away.
No retrievers, they.
JDG
Of the many ways of moving
through this sun touched
day, I choose to
be carried by
the breeze – to skim, to soar, to glide,
to sail, to ride
currents I can’t
even see. Now
and then I’ll gently flap my wings,
but mostly, for
today, I’ll just
let go – and float.
JDG
Raven pecks his way along shore’s
lapping edge as
red-winged blackbirds
chase each other
through swaying grass. Over-seeing
gulls survey it
all, as do I.
Raven rises
up and squawks at me to let it
be. Why fiddle
with words when you
can just observe?
~~~~~~
Raven pecks his way
along shore’s lapping edge while
others sit and sing.
JDG
Even the seagulls seem in no
hurry as they
glide across the
sky. I’ll take my
cue from these wise birds and let the
sun and silence
carry me. Seldom
do we have the
chance to glide and swoop and dive in
such timelessness,
to spread our wings
and simply soar.
JDG
(with thanks to Martha Tyler for making this timeless time possible)
Cotton clouds lie low on the blue
horizon where
water joins sky.
A few soaring
gulls and a vast silence witness
this wedding of
blues, one rippled
and one smooth, ’til
some gulls call out a blessing or
complaint amidst
the joining of
such elements.
JDG
aholdingplace 