Full Moon Haiku

Solstice Moonlight Falls
Blossoms Let Go In The Wind
Shadows Run With Them

Lonely Whistle

When the rain's just right and the wind blows hard
From the south southeast you can hear her whistle
Moanin’ low up Cypress Draw in the dusky air

She’s movin’ on to places strange and far
With a poundin’ diesel roar that shakes the earth
Throbbin’ low up Cypress Draw in the dusky air

I stop my toil for a brief sad moment
Listenin’ hard till she’s gone again
The mem'ry floats up Cypress Draw in the dusky air

Some day when the rain and the wind’s just right
I’ll make my way down to those tracks
And lay in wait down Cypress Draw in the dusky air

If I screw my courage up enough
To grab that box car flyin’ by
At a breakneck clip up Cypress Draw in the dusky air

Then I’ll ne’er look back and ride that flyer
Till the sky falls in and the mountains crash
And just my ghost walks Cypress Draw in the dusky air

The Silence of the Night

I paint the silence of the night
With brush strokes broad and free
On canvas weaved of solitude
In colors others may not see

The sleeping world is mine alone
To fashion as I’m wont to try
But comes the creeping steady dawn
In ribbons on a waking sky

Then as the slumb’ring land bestirs
I set my paint brush out of sight
And wait until it sleeps again
To paint the silence of the night

I remember when the world was new

I remember when the world was new
And dangling from my every breath
Was the wonder of the summer fields
The life called forth from the very mud
Creation of the wind and sun
Our field was worked and the fresh earth turned
My dogs came down from their romp to see
The cool new life from the tillings called them
With musty sweetness on the breeze
I passed the way on the rippling blacktop
Immortal on my Huffy steed
Gazing off on the brimming life
Then from the tillings, the dogs, they called me
"Join us here and cool yourself"
"Roll with us in the fecund briskness"
"Soon the golden fire will quell"
"Then we will seek our solace elsewhere"
"In new mown grass or water spilled"
I laughed a good dog laugh to them
And set it down in the stream of life
Like a fallen leaf or blade of grass
Then on my way and the laugh adrift
The dogs will find it passing
And laugh as well

Nanjing

How I weep for thee
Broken by the tyrant's gore
Align the road in shuffled step
With heads bowed low before

Though you are God Incarnate
A breathing part of that Great Whole
We cannot turn the hearts of stone
Who feed upon the blood of souls

Still that Great Whole is beauty pure
And those molesters, part as well
Engaged in ever winnowing
Dividing into heaven and hell

All ages from the Indra flow
Soon, our fair age will pass away
Then in the fire of all rebirth
We'll rise again another day

I pray that each concurrent flesh
Will in the grace of ages climb
Our acme of the soul attained
And we will all nirvana find

So in that day we use our hearts
To balance wind and wave and sun
Like Camelot in dappled green
No more Nanjing for anyone

Best Friend

I wrote this poem for AJ Strata when his Dog passed away in 2006
Today, my beautiful Labrador Retriever is gone
We are all, only temporary
Dogs are here to help us through

The joy explodes from off the couch
My bitter day assuaged
Though I am torn with worldly pain
My puppy's heart is gay
And like the Savior of our souls
Wicks off the mantle coarse
My dog loves me as He who came
With all its heart and force
But as the passing days wheel on
And to the earth returned
The collar and the bowl remain
And lesson hard is learned
It's for ourselves alone we mourn
For we are left behind
Until the ones that left us here
Return in Glorious kind

Antietam Creek

Antietam Creek

How is it now that we are borne

Upon this wave of sacrifice
Whose lives were bound for greater things

Yet now, we pay the price
And whose firm shoulders turned to bear

The blows for those behind
Into our foe we press ourselves

As fates grim judgment pares the rind
Oh how we think our selves above

Things more eternal than we stand
And bear upon our enemy

With death or life in glov'd hand.
Stand not as what great wind may blow

Fore swear, we say we will advance
Like waves of grain encumbering

The field for sure will be entranced
Against that wind we throw ourselves

For those we have behind
And fates grim judgment pares the rind

Pray Justice, pares the rind

"O beautiful for glory-tale
of liberating strife
when once and twice
for mans avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

Decoration Day

We woke up well before the dawn
Each last Monday in May
And went to all the soldiers graves
On Decoration Day

Then in full dress of blue and gold
With sash and badge and pin
We'd clean and trim and place a flag
For all our fallen kin

Day greater then than Four July
We tallied freedoms bill
And cooked upon an open fire
Till all were fully filled

Then more to point the morrows morn
Each generation train
That those with decorated grave
Have not fallen in vain

Spin

In the wind that blows through the cosmos
Is a vibe pitched higher each day
And it drags to the edges the weak and the mad
Spinning faster and faster they say

But as Hesse put forth in Siddhartha
Those who internalize all
Will step to the middle of life's dual paths
In mastery of their inner call

As the lost and extreme on the edges
Fall to sainthood or debauching style
I'll follow the path of the gentle and meek
Everyday putting myself on trial

Ode to John Gillespie Magee, Jr

John Gillespie Magee, Jr penned the poem High Flight.
My humble sonnet for him

Heaven’s Gate

Oh valiant lad who seized the sky
And took to wing with heart in hand
Where combat raged in final verdicts
Thor’s hammer at your young command

While in such mortal combat there
The poet’s expanding spirit soaring
And with that same heart carried forth
Upon the page with love your mooring

The true and brave who shared your sky
Who hurtled through the air and cloud
O’er heath and sea, to save your kin
Their hearts though mourning, shimmering proud

Regret ye not their eyes are teared
When Glory bound to find your fate
Your pen and linen wait for you
Upon the path to Heaven’s Gate

Shambhala

The sun still rises, I still wake
Oh where the Lord your soul did take
I weep alone
And wonder why
Is all we see fair doomed to die

None may escape the reapers blade
E'en the earth, the Lord has made
Where we reside
This little time
Biding for the sweet sublime

The promise made, we tell our kind
Of all reborn in God's Good Time
And e'en the earth
A plain of glass
Where Shambhala will stand at last

Now I will rise and seek my fate
The Dharma's wheel, it cannot wait
Then I will ride
Until it's done
E'er closer to a setting sun

So come my friends, we'll ride abreast
And pray we can withstand the test
Take a hand
Climb aboard
We'll trust the Word spake by The Lord

Questions

Oh questions, questions; Yes young man
Be glad you've come to me
Who've wandered in the stinging rain
And crossed the angry seas

Who has account and access to
The wisdom of the sages
Gathered like the morning dew
Throughout the passing ages

So sit ye here and bend an ear
Then open up your mind
It is not very often boy
You come across my kind

Patience now, you are so keen
To fit it all forthwith
Inside a box so neat and trim
And overlook the gift

So here it is, all in a phrase
For simple ones to know
You're only here a little time
No guarantees to show

The secret then is looking up
And for that moment raised
Have joy the moment's there at all
Eternal God be Praised

And every moment after that
Seek to exude your love
For it is how you tarry here
As how you're judged above

So be you on your way young prat
And keep your eyes a’tweak
Watch, more than judge, the wounded world
And listen more than speak