From a sky of slowly shifting

gray, a light rain

falls on waiting

ground, greeting all

that’s new, refreshing all that’s old,

allowing time

for reverie,

making space for

a slow settling of what once

was, preparing

fertile ground for

what is to come.

                                                 JDG

Going

Commentaries began non-stop

before we left

the parking lot.

We weren’t there yet

even though they asked a thousand

times, nor were we

near a place to

stop when they had

to go. Being in the now left

me sort of cold.

With things so hot,

I’d rather not.

Returning

Two hours had passed and we had

gone no more than

fifty miles. It

was strictly stop

and go with much more stop than go.

One felt queasy,

one was mad, one

had a headache,

another was sad . Breathing in

the good took real

work as our trip

became prolonged.

                                                                  JDG

At eighteen I never questioned

what I thought I

knew – that if you

had a dream, you

could make it so. The dream was all

I focused on,

ignoring all

the while, the path

I’d take to make that dream come true.

I live now, not

with the dream, but

with the path I took.

                                                             JDG

At last, when all is said and done

and the final

act is finished,

what then remains?

What outlasts our words and projects,

our bleak failures,

our bright success?

It’s those moments

when all the trappings fell away

and our essence,

unencumbered,

came shining through.

                                                                      JDG

Double-trunked, the dead tree stands with

twisted branches,

curling limbs, a

thing of beauty

in itself, now a support for

all that eager

green to climb as

it twines its way

around those gnarled limbs, lending

its green to what

has gone and yet,

with grace, remains.

                                                                        JDG

Although autumn years have come to

grace me now, there

is in us an

eternal spring,

the  source of all that’s tender, fresh,

and new. Safely

tucked deep within,

the new comes forth

in its own time and joins the world

where all seasons

live together

in their own way.

                                                            JDG

It’s morning and the road I’m on

runs between two

different kinds

of day. Behind

me and on the right, the sky lies

heavy, smudged and gray.

Ahead, and on

the other side,

the stretch of sky is clear and blue.

I’m glad to learn

my turn takes me

toward what’s light.

                                                              JDG

I looked every which way and that,

but could not see

what he could spot

so easily.

Ears cocked, tail held still and high, his

gaze fixed, Toby

stood silently.

Then a low growl,

a bark, warned  in the dark of night

those sinister

trash cans had snuck

and run amuck.

                                                         JDG