6/29/2023 – a haiku

When the storm clouds break
And light hits the rain-soaked ground
All the world’s alive

6/28/2023 – summer

The wind is still, the air heavy
The grasses tall and dry
The sounds around a crazed bevy
Of songs all lifting high

So bright the sun in desert lands
Where heat and light are death
So bright the sun upon the sea
Where broken clouds are life

I am made of dust
Dust of stars, dust of ashes
Old and new at once

Man eats the fruit
That he might grow hale

Man eats the prey
That he might grow strong

Man eats the land
That he might grow rich

Man eats the enemy
That he might grow mighty

Man eats the sea
That he might grow vast

Man eats the world
That he might grow godlike

Man eats
Man eats
Man eats

Till nothing remains

Make of me a tree
That I might grow tall and strong
After I am gone

Unbidden feelings often come
In times of quiet solitude

I would hold to you
Through the darkest night
Through the hardest storm
Through the coldest winter
For I would need you, too

I won’t cut grasses
For that which grows between them
May bloom brightly yet

Let no man nor woman nor child
Be ever made to act as if
Their lives are owed to any but themselves