Dust

Every breath connects me
Countless beings surround me
I stand upon the ground of my family the millennia of births and deaths
of bones and hopes
of my beloved mother
and creatures I can hardly imagine

2019

Defenseless

I’m tired of who I think I am

Constructed of vaporous dreams and frozen in time

The always and infinite open sky beyond conception
asks

What is there to explain? What is there to defend?

2019

The bird of regret and forgiveness

One day, when my life flashes before my eyes
I won’t be surprised to see you again, little bird

And I will see the countenance of my son and his eyes of compassion
as you sit shivering and fading

The regrets we live with are often those of omission

Have I responded to difficult and sacred truths?

Have I honored beauty?

Has love clarified me?

Yet somehow, I won’t be surprised to find forgiveness in your eyes gazing back at me

2020

We are drops of rain

Somehow as we fall from the sky, from the clouds,

from the mist and the oxygen,

we forget who and what we are

We believe we are alone

Our brief ride from the heavens becomes a lonely journey

of self-absorption

We forget that we are among millions of raindrops

whose origins are the same mist and matter

In short order we will hit the ground or the ocean

or a rock or a school bus

and we will dissipate
and become one with the world

One day we will become a plant, a tree,

or evaporate

to ascend and gather as a cloud again

It’s timeless and ageless

It’s out of our dewy hands
and it’s our beautiful existence

2020

The beauty of disappearing

In moments when I forget myself

When I let go of myself
When I have no self

There is only space
All effort to understand is gone
Only the joy of connection lives there

2022