When I See the Riotous Waves

When I see the riotous waves running up 
the wall to join the celebration of the bursting over
and we wade the cascading stream because he leaps
in frantic supplication,
the temptation is strong to travel with him 
miles across that wooded wetland where the water stands
and teach him to come back to my hand
no matter how glorious the scent.

December 27 2012

For David et al

The tides come in
as surely as they depart.
To finish is to find another start.
The losses that we suffer 
are accompanied by birth
and heaven saves what's lost, and mends 
what's broken on the earth.

For David Coulter Stewart, and others

December 19 2012

The Running Clouds

The clouds are running at cross-purposes
up and down the darkened hallways of the sky.
The distant loom of night in day above the farther shore
is guaranteeing rain, and maybe something more,
a sulky rumble mutters. Then we are visited by water
and walking becomes a taildown damp necessity:
How good will the towel feel,
and the coffee, and the curling chair.

December 10 2012

Beginner's Tai Chi

Things are made of other things
and make up other things.
It is only this simple chemistry
I understand.
And when I part the horse's mane
and the white crane spreads its wings,
even that, they say, may fall away from me.
I am not fluent in the world
and sometimes, I admit,
it seems better not to be.
But along with abdication
comes a lesson in humility
and an inkling, in a silent pose,
that little knowledge is not always liability.

December 10 2012

Calling all code breakers

Just for fun, can you break this code? It uses a method I thought of the other day:

23U5K2I1R3J6W4C9Z8N5R6V3U2C9V4F4G7I9T9L1R5V3B6K2E