8/3/2021 – a haiku

I see no honor
In building mountainous wealth;
When Earth is so rich

8/2/2021

Such life there is for the taking
If one can but rise

I once walked across
A broken tree
Whose boughs sagged low
Whose leaves wilted
Weak in the breeze

I asked the tree what it needed
And though it did not answer
Its leaves grew greener
Its boughs rose, if only a little
To be asked such a thing

Alas that time is fleeting
That moments pass us by
That each and every meeting
Is gone soon as it’s nigh

I see the bottom of my cup
The dregs are swirling there
Remains of wine I’ve else lapped up
Breathed in as if ’twere air

And though I’m feeling rather ill
And wish to sit down, too
I am not unglad to be still
Deep in my cups with you!

A line in your hands
The wind pulling strong against
Ah, to raise a sail

A whistling craving
Barrels down the mountain loud
And into my ears

As sun peeks o’er the eastern line
I crave its fiery light
I wish to hold it, make it mine,
As day springs forth from night

It paints orange the land and sea
And sets afire the sky
And so the sun smiles upon me
Before rising so high

So brief those moments of the dawn
And yet they stay with me
E’en after they are long since gone
Only a memory

I wish to see lush jungles
And reefs of blue and green
O’er which the thunder rumbles
And all that’s in between

I hope to find some purpose
On distant, warmer shores
Where all the things that hurt us
I can leave at the doors

Alack, alas, I say to thee,
My stalwart, wizened friend
That you should be so tied to me
Until the bitter end