10/31/2022 – worth the wandering

I have often wandered
And often wondered
Whether I have wandered enough
Seen enough
Heard enough
Been enough

Yet in my heart of hearts
I sense
I know

I wander
Not for an answer
But because the question
Is worth the wandering

10/29/2022 – the shadow

There is a shadow
Buried in my corners
Hidden in my nooks

Hidden from me
As I’ve hidden from it

Never stopping to wonder
Does it feel?
Does it fear?
Does it wish for my embrace?

Is it me?

The iron world comes crashing in
Upon my weary mind
A hot, discordant, noisome din
By old men unconfined

Let loose upon a quiet world
The symphony destroys
With fists of coal and steel unfurled
It makes of us its toys

And thus I wish for simpler things
A garden bright and green
Ere greed broke all the world’s workings
And made it cold and mean

Bright fire covers ground
An autumn song writ by trees
That will fade to snow

As all slows
And cools
I wonder that time presses on
Even as we pause
Waiting
For a day we may not see

I sometimes stay atop the hill
Ne’er peering past its crest

Hold me by the fire
Help me burn it all away
Let us burn yet more

I watched as boughs of pine and fir
Sank deep beneath the snow
Nor man nor beast would dare to stir
Or o’er the cold ground go

Yet like spirits of earth and fire
The pups would bound and play
Out in the cold, their heart’s desire
Amidst the deadness lay

I long for warm sands
Coastal creatures chittering
To breathe salt-tinged air

The days grow short
The air, cool
And ‘neath the starless skies I marvel
That as all dies
The shadows grow and grow