Darling,, I guess it was never meant to be.
     I miss what we used to be,

          Can't you see that I'm dying?

I've spent all of my lonely nights asking why,
     Making myself believe it's not true

         And end up waking in the morning without you.

My heart shatters every time I hear your voice,
      Reminding me of what we had
          And, now my life has changed forever.

I wish I could make you see
      How much you meant to me.

It's too late for me to say I love you,
     You've already moved on.


(Written ten years ago, when my marriage began to fall apart. I have grown from that shattering experience, and feel stronger for what I have learned.)

I breathed on my wine-filled glass
     Of my other lives
          So I could write in the fog.

Replied to all,
     Gave myself obscene permission,
          And, vicious laughter to shock unenlightened humans.

But if you glanced away, even for a second,
     Another would disappear: newly walking babies
          Music lovers, the novel in my head.

This summer, I talked loud and fast,
      As if something would happen if I did,
          To a smiling face.

I answer faces with mouths,
      Persevering faces, anguished faces,
          Hushed.

You can hear me walking
     from your bed, where blankets
          are not enough to keep you warm.
It's a long night of snow, and sometimes
     and winter loneliness, and what else I do not know,
          but I am thinking if you can hear me.

Walking you might want to visit, to knock
     on my door with a story you have been waiting,
          days, months and maybe years, to tell.
Tell me something that cannot be told,
     and I will be in my worn bathrobe, or brushing
            my teeth, my hair, putting away things.

I have tea and muffins, a bottle of wine:  come up
     we will not swamp ourselves
          with anything like sex, yet.
I do not want to talk about the past,
     or work, or politics, but yes, kindness and compassion
     will do. Come upstairs when the floor creaks.

And, we will stretch the night slowly,
     because, I have not wounded you, 
          nor you me, because
The time of talking is now, 
     not tomorrow or the next day;
         when we are a memory of people who are not quite us.

Birds initially had no desire to fly,
What really happened was this:

God once sat close to them
playing Music.
When He left
They missed him so much

Their great longing sprouted wings,
Needing to search the Sky.

Nothing evolves us like Love.

~ Hafiz

Desert Ruins
Wind whispers bring the
   fragrance of wild sage.

Sacred memories evolve
   where a padre once rode his white mule.

The church bells remain silent
   as the wind whispers...

By kissing the fragrance of
   red cactus flowers blooming in the evening tide.

Moonbeams lay a gentle caress
   on this ancient clay.

Now, nothing is left
   but the wind and the wild sage.

2

by Lao Tzu  (604-531 BCE)

Beauty and ugliness have one origin.

Name beauty, and ugliness is.

Recognizing virtue recognizes evil.

Is and is not produce one another.

The difficult is born in the easy,

long is defined by short, the high by the low.

Instrument and voice achieve one harmony.

Before and after have places.

That is why the sage can act without effort

and teach without words,

nurture things without possessing them,

and accomplish things without expecting merit:

only one who makes no attempt to possess it

cannot lose it.

Excerpted from: The Poetry of Zen

translated & edited by 

Sam Hamill & J. P. Seaton

Life is a balance of holding on and letting go.

-- Rumi

You deserve the best.

Never feel unworthy or 

    not justified in having the best.

I tell you, this is your heritage;

but, you have to accept it.

You have to expect it; 

you have to claim it.

To do so is not demanding too much.

Jai Guru Deva. Om. 

Nothing's going to change my world. 

Nothing's going to change my world.

Guru Deva,

Swami Brahmananda Saraswati

 

One of the most pristine, primeval national parks anywhere in North America, the Pacific Rim National Park in British Columbia provides scenic ocean and coast views, dense, almost jungle like forests, and thousands of birds and wildlife. Barely touched by humans, and, hopefully, will remain so forever.