last rainclouds at sunset

   ...it started with just a faint blush
of pink on the undersides
of the front's departing rainclouds,
arrayed in distinct bands up the Sierra mountainside,
   but having seen this omen before
I rushed to the street for a wider vista-
Sure enough,
in five minutes' time the setting sun
-unseen beyond the ridges-
   fired the bellies
of this low deck of cloud
with a color so vivid, so surreal,
   I was founded dumb

The One Question

At bottom of all discourse,
Debate, dialogue & diatribe
Burns a solitary question:
How then shall we live?

santa barbara

Power out-
navigating table & couch
by full moon in beach cottage-
boom, skid, ouch!

Moon climbing nightly,
   Toward conjunction with Venus-
      On the glory dawn, FOG!

miller-moerman

It was only an errand
To fetch a stick of stovewood
Behind the tilting plywood shed

When a sudden breeze
Passed in the tall pinegrove
Up the hill

The shimmer
Of ten thousand pine needles
Danced on my retina

Tansporting me
To Rumi's "Ode to Joy"

Some kind of backwood beatitude-
Along with the split oak
I droppt my jaw

for Dan Sweigert

"You'll learn to like it"
According to my Bandy Blue
As I collect Bon-Bon's doggie-do
From Chester Street
-And yes indeed!    this time
Turns out to be true!

beach cottage

Navigating furniture
   By full moon tonight
      Room to room

-Santa Barbara