thermodynamics

the three principal laws of thermodynamics are sometimes expressed jocularly as (1) you can't win; (2) you can't break even; and (3) you can't get out of the game.

-Dennis Overbye

rush creek

Walking without destination:
    or rather,
    walking where each step
    is itself destination:
    thus the snow-graced earth
    receives us,
       offering small intimacies-

happy birthday Ed

If I had a bootprint
For every nickel I've made,
I'd be a wealthy man

-for Ed Buryn

Kinevan Ranch

          Up
        Into
      The high
    Meadow moonlight
We hiked,

Crossing hillsides
       And slanting down
              Sandstone ridges,

Straw grass tasseled
With foxtail & seed silver
In the bright albedo
Of that summer moon,

Moving slowly
In the shadow-world
       Of night-things:

          Up
        We climbed
      The steep
    Incline
Of worlds out of time,
Across fields of stars
      For flowers,

Sat quiet alone
In a moment that spanned
Ten thousand years

-San Marcos Pass, Santa Barbara

petals

talk all you want
   of iridescent beetles--
the world belongs to peonies!

Mr Powell

Soldier On!   Mr Powell
In the majestic tradition
Of bayonet AK and HumVee
Of intimidation and demise
Carry always in your heart
Patton's noble phrase
"Make some other poor bastard
Die for his country!"
Will this human race
Ever tire of waging War War War
And equating it somehow with
-Peace?

-Time Magazine interview w/ Colin Powell

annular eclipse

Rare times
the celestial domain
breaks through our pedestrian perceptions
like the annular eclipse
at the cheese wine & cracker fete
at Mary Beth's up the hill
large tracts of maple & locust shade
printed with crescents
by the hundred
this sun/moon "Ring of Fire" conjunction
across the lawn
everybody pointing & shouting
"Can You Believe It?"
all the heads shaking this-
"UnReal"

new haiku

no one willing
to drown the grey rat
it fell on me


hands full of daisies
she pushes the WALK button
with her elbow


asleep on the couch
her new chemo book
across her chest


C'mon Ruby
No man likes 'em
THAT big

Do No Harm

the mosquito unslapped
fills with Buddhist blood
untapped

Ism

   Any "ism" scares me because it represents an orthodoxy, a protocol of perception that defines the world and me in it, that "tells the world what it is."
   That's fine for you, but it scares me because it also tells me what I am, before I've had a chance to present my own identity.
   And but a brief glance at history too often shows these isms have propagated a sizeable "groupthink" that aspires toward empire, an outlook with one ambition: Rule The World.

Ward C, Memorial Hospital

Like the Roman Army
Camped legion in low light tents
Re-wrapping their cloth bandages
Reminiscing about sunny days
Before the trouble began

gotta love this guy

(for Dan Sweigert)

After he praised the snowboarding
at Heavenly
I protested that most of that snow this winter
was "made" snow,
blown out of big snowmaking machines-
"that doesn't count" I offered.
"Dude!" he countered, dismissing my petulance,
"I'd get shot out of an elephant's ass
If it meant have some fun!"

mike wallace tribute

Couldn't hold back the tears
When they presented the clip
Interviewing the Secret Service man
And showing the grainy video
Jackie in her pink hat in Dallas
Helping him -arm extended-
Onto the back of the limo