Ice: Art’s Matter

The flow of flow flowing
flows in soft wet folds
of sheets of streaming water
wearing and weathering
the weathered water –
like ideas
rushing from mind
and etched in art’s matter –
Its meaning forms
below the surface
while quietly carving its
magical, urgent expression
into this simple medium
we know as ice,
like ideas
rushing from mind
and etched in art’s matter.

The first snow promises
some of us
a place to put our path
one foot at a time
in our silent happy climb
out of the wintry shadows
and into the unlit gray
of winter’s haze
while cozily tucked under this
woolen warmth,
Mother Earth rests
in the welcome silence of
winter’s calming still.

Softened in casual drifts,
the gentle scoopy trail
of a play toboggan
gently scores into the slope
where we climb with laughter,
wonder and hope
toward the hearty ring
of holidays defined by
loving one another
and ourselves.

We ponder now our purpose
in our silent happy climb
out of the wintry shadows
and into the unlit gray
of winter’s haze.

Ripples in the Road

The paths we choose
wind through shadows
cast by doubt
yet brightened brilliantly by
hope and faith’s light
providing courage and strength
needed for our resilient rise above
life’s ripples in the road
and the silent predators lurking
beneath, seemingly innocent sand.

Find, create and follow
hope and faith’s light.

Climb. Climb. Climb.
Rise above
life’s ripples in the road.

 
Summer’s Treasures

Sky and sun,
earth and sea,
ocean-fragranced wafts of air
nudging colored clouds
somewhere
in a breathless yawn.
Contentment’s knowing wink
stretches across infinity’s embrace
as today’s light
and this moment’s warmth
melts silently into the first
of endless tomorrows.

Our adoring eyes –
we watching worshippers
of summer’s treasures
savor the gifts:
          sky and sun,
          earth and sea,
          ocean-fragranced wafts of air
          nestled in this moment’s warmth.

Bones beneath the skin,
structure forming structure –
shape within shape.
Shadowy spaces in the hollow caverns
where movement moves
in microscopic nano time
at the omnipresent silent urge
of the magnificence of
the human brain
enabling we blessed artists and athletes to
     create motion, force, grace
     speed, power, impact, elegance,
     to nurture visions and ideas
     emerging in the mind’s eye
     into living meaning, feelings
     evoked by images, words, music, art 
     and the most powerful gift of all –
the gentle, healing and caring
touch
of Human Hands.

A Window in Amalfi

From a kitchen in Amalfi
I watch the world
  not go by, but stand still,
offering me the privilege
to relish and record
this moment, this place, these feelings. 

My window on the world
               in this instant of blessings rare
               perched in a quiet hillside home
               amidst the din of ancient church bells
               and the sweet-scented smoke from
               branches pruned by time burning
               in the foreground of this simple pleasure
assures and preserves peacefulness.

Atop the wondrous gleam of
Amalfi’s quaint fervor far below
my grateful eyes,
stirs the treasured stillness
abounding about me;
it makes its way from there to here
through reflections
in my camera and on my pad,
from my heart and mind to yours
to remind us that our peace,
               beauty and hope
                lies not in what we see from
                our window on the world
                but in the warmth we feel
                in the inner person
                from which we peer.

warms the soul
with soft orange halos
of sunlight
kissing the day
goodbye.

Summer’s warmth lingers,
its light remains strong
even as it fades
into tomorrow
leaving us rich
in memories and life
experience,
blessed with the
quiet glory
in simple lavender
swaying, waving, basking
in the silent exuberance
of beauty’s own bounty:

color,
form,
shape,
texture,
heavenly fragrance
wafting
through a gentle
hum of buzzing bees
nurturing this moment
of wonder –
sunset caressing lavender
in the blessed hills of
Tuscany.