Feet danling in the abyss 2000

 Red wine on a mountaintop

Communion with the Dao

We sit , per4ched on a ledge

Legs dangling in the abyss

Celebrating our climb

Onto this sacred mount

Our lone voices, six of us

Echo into a bottomless valley

Distant lights reflected

In a slowly growing mist

Silent lightning flashes 

reminding us of our places

A libation to the gods

spilled out on polished stones

Suddenly silent, suddenly awed

One by one, we stand, leave

Dizzy from our joyous communion

Dizzy again from our height

Stumbling into sheets and blankets

denied to early pilgrims

Our dreams and our reality

Lose their distinction on Tai Shan.

re-creation on Tai Shan 2000

 Perched on a stone, overlooking eternity

Black changes to blue

Blue to red

Red to Gold

Slow clouds creep across the sky

feathery prisms'

changing color

Herald the day

Sitting on a stone, counting bretahs

seeking erenity

in this sacred place

floating on clouds

The space between heaven and earth blurs

Shyly peeking now

Golden beams

Warm my soul

Many tongues 2000

 Afloat upon an ownerless sea

No man can own the waves

That slips gleefully between their fingers

I think how many tongues there might be

In pother places, rant and rave

But here , it is only the peace that lingers

How easily the rift was born

as men choose common sides

when God scattered them at a place called Babel

Today, the difference we may scorn

If we disregard our foolish pride

And over come the gap formed by such a fable.

sacred Daoist mountain Haiku 2000

Tai Shan, mountain home

 Boundary of heaven and earth

 AH, Most auspicious

Thoughts of Approaching Fall 2005

 Thoughts of Approaching Fall      2005

The evening lies heavily upon me

Uneasy hot breath

Drawn underneath this suffocating blanket of late summer

Occasional cool winds blow

Unexpected 

I close my eyes dreaming of our cool sheets

Long fingers shadow the field 

Boys dash here and there

Hair pasted to their brow in a glow of summer sweat

Their parents tread, gossip[

 Wiping away traces

of the paths of lone beads of sweat before they fall\

Their children, young

Dance in worship

Laugh, roll on grassy slopes celebrating the season

WE pay homage top passing  seasons

Pagan rituals

Replaced by pursuits of school clothing and long pants for short.

Cheer the team, sharpen the pencil

Gathering ourselves

In protective clans in answer to unconscious instinct

All electric homes, our lodge

Schools, churches, stadiums

We assemble, tell stories, guild against approaching cold and dark

Still cool sheets clothe us now

Overhead, this fan

Beats an eternal circle, matching the rhythm of our pulses

Autumn and cool spring are preserved here

The crowd , the sound nor electric light

Steels us tonight

Against the creep of shadows as does the touch of your hgand

existence

 

We exist always 

Never leaving this plane 

Recycled substance 

Reused over again

Not created, destroyed

Composed of Star matter

In some other time 

Assembled, scattered 

How many beings 

 Their atoms inside me?

Once lived on this plane 

As human, dog or tree?

Like jigsaw puzzles

Assembled ancient parts

Each new assembly 

Brings new chances, new starts 

Maeve

 Haiku for Maeve 

You are Far grander

 than the three years of your life

So loving and kind