Grandchildren’s chatter fills the room
as rice and beans
bubble on the
stove, a warm end
to a hot day cooled by steady
ocean winds. They’re
looking ahead
to an evening
listening to a little beach
music of white
capped waves breaking
on sandy shores.
JDG
I don’t know what the issue was,
but that seagull
let the other
one know in no
uncertain terms that he was through.
He followed up
his loud squawk with
a threatening
wave of wings and pushed him further
down the shore. Sure
his point was made,
he stomped away.
JDG
Time at the beach with family
is time out from
the daily grind.
It’s when we get
to vacate our usual ways
and swim and sun
and rest and play
for a stretch of
time. I confess after a day
or so, what I
need most is time
out from time out.
JDG
A stray gray cloud glides across a
sky softly washed
with white as waves
crest and break far
from shore. In just a matter of
minutes the sky
has lost its blue,
the day, its gold.
Yet, the ever expanding gray
can’t grab our joy
and run. Our joy
outruns all gray … today.
JDG
I’ve been behaving badly in
my dreams of late,
perhaps trying
to compensate
for a life much too sedate. Then
again, it could
also be a
long distance call
suggesting I take a deeper
look – there might be
something shady
I need to claim.
JDG
Knots of my own making bind me
tight. I fear not
knowing enough,
being enough,
caring enough to slip the “nots”
and set myself
free. I want to
learn the art of
turning obstacles into paths.
I want to die
knowing I gave
“fear knot” the slip.
JDG
Today only crows seemed to fly,
silhouetted
against the washed
out sky, lining
fences along a rough-riding road,
filling the air
with their shrill scolds,
when finally
a flash of red chased them away,
giving others
a chance, at last,
to have their say.
JDG
Out on the lawn the fairies dance
not in squares but
rings. They circle
in and out and
all about the tiny, white-capped
stalks. There they’re joined
in revelry
by others of
their kind, but we are warned to stand
apart lest we
get snared and dance
our lives away.
JDG
My drive to work and home again
must be taken
slow, giving me
time to note the
grazing cows, the sun lit trees,
the cars stopped at
the country store.
Sometimes I glimpse
a beaver, ground hog, fox, or deer
and pause to let
a turtle pass
also moving slow.
JDG
We must do more than merely speak
our sympathy
to families and
friends of those shot
down in the midst of daily life.
We must do more
than piously
intone regret.
We must stop speaking hate and start
speaking sense. We
must find a way
past violence.
JDG
