All that dry space between the raindrops

in the icy waters tumbling

          actually dancing in that shining spume

in the blowing hoarfrost crystals ignited by the wintry sun

          beckoning through their many prisms

part of the gentle sounds of spring creeks flowing

          splashing about upon their rocky floors

souls of patterns seen in far-off clouds

          also glinting from mosses, green upon the stones

neither evil spirit nor mythic god

igniting any reason for their invention

glimpsed while considering galactic clusters

          filling probabilistic emptiness within the atoms

inside the sound of wind and rain

glowing golden in the lion’s eye

neither possessed of emotion nor conscious intellect

          touching yet deeply and yielding wisdom

in the colors of the birds and the fish of the oceans

shining from her eyes without her even knowing

deeply moving yet quite untouched

          without a will but quietly consistent

unaware of the pulsing life force

          but part of the larger cosmic evolution

all that dry space between the raindrops

          mysterious force that builds up rivers

sense that makes the oceans restless

          unnecessary beauty of the morning

answer to all the orphan’s questions

          nameless void from which life briefly sparks

beautiful patterns left without any explanation

          tracings there as if something passed

things we finally learn we should have always searched for

          mystical back-drop, mute to all our wasted folly

what the children are afraid of

          why the old ones have no fear at last

riddle of the victim’s expression

          blur of twenty years sensed in a single instant

revealed in the short lives of crushed dragon flies

          meditated upon near one huge, decaying stump

on the golden line of sun reflected in a breaking swell

          of the snapping and the popping of our campfire burning

feeding the feeling arising when making music

          grateful use of ideas that arise unbidden

joy we take as children play with puppies

why we cook and sew, safe and warm at home

neither in the snow nor of the coldest winter

          sensed by the wolf and he begins to howl

all these tiny life forms dancing, fully animated within but a raindrop world

Unrecorded Sunsets

butterflies fluttering through this thick green august haze

and the universe quietly expands away forever, at light speed, in all directions

ancient dragon flies mating on the wing whirling in a gentle breeze

unaware there will be no skies nor even any stars before they could know it

the sun slowly melting the sky red as it sets in the west

how long will that starlight travel on after that one star is gone?

the clouds building up again in their fantastic formulations

how many of the infinite sunsets every day go simply unrecorded?

although life may be evolving from quite simple to more complex,

it seems that cosmic entropy will always be increasing

our naked toes wiggling delightfully in the cool, moist grass of june

so, where then are our memories when matter's density approaches zero?

the present exploding all around and directly into our senses

always faintly echoed off that backdrop we have merey labeled as the eternal void

the mountains lifting high enough to support fantastic snow in summer

someday the planet must be covered uniformly, once again, by the sea

birds calling and their songs replay inside our heads as we are walking

so much more than they had to be, simply to survive just to procreate

the tiny streams endlessly improvising infinite fractal solos upon a single theme

how can those beautiful tinklings have meaning only in our minds?

wildflowers showing different lovely patterns in the spectrum of the infrared

layers of beauty that only insect eyes could naturally appreciate

finding rich evidence for biological progression throughout the long millennia

we can only wonder if the life force itself is somehow self-aware

the restless sea always bringing slightly different waves to the shore

it may be a random pattern, but really, it is not so simple

the sunshine, the clouds, the insects and the plants create a sustaining expectation

another almost-grasped sunset passes us by, perhaps pregnantly, once again

The More It Blurs

The hand that grasps cannot realize the fingers that point

But the mind that is empty remains full of surprises

For those no longer busy

There is always just enough to do

The mind that wanders does not travel far

While the hand that simply reaches out, crosses any border

A people with roots within the earth

Find meaning in simple rain and sun

The man who fears that he might fail

May just be content with what others deal

To glimpse the riverbed through flowing water

Might require good light and a high bank

For those whom time has passed by at last

This could be a blessing they cannot share

A dry summer might not seem important

To sophisticated city dwellers

The more we center all our focus

The more a blur all else becomes

To strive and fail is difficult

To strive again is harder still

For the angry man nothing satisfies

As too little always comes too late

A dog may lie sleeping quietly for hours

Exploding into motion at some unheard noise

The meaning that we attach to things

Removes something from what we understand of them

To sleep is not simply to ignore

To dream is not just to run away

It’s far too long for even eternal love to last

Cantor’s diagonalization argument for uncountability > infinity: The real numbers is an extraordinarily special set. If one were to graph the real numbers on a line, any segment on that line contains the same cardinality of points as does the whole line itself.

It’s far too long for me to plan for any future

It’s far too long for my constrained imagination

It’s far too long to engage simple emptiness

It’s far too long for even eternal love to last

There’s just too much time after this blue-green-white earth is gone

There’s just too much time when my memories are thinned beyond recognition

There’s just too much time to be totally senseless, thinking nothing

There’s just too much time to be far less than alone

It’s way too much to even outline

It’s way too much to hold inside

It’s way too much to get a grip on

It’s way too much and still, there’s so much more

I have extra time that I did not even have to save

I have extra time unfolding like a burden I cannot hope to lift

I have extra time growing longer and more overwhelming

I have extra time moving ever faster beyond my shrinking comprehension

I have nothing to do and no way to get it done

I have nothing to do and all the time in the universe to do it

I have nothing to do then and do not even know it

I have nothing to do and cannot get over it

I don’t have to work anymore or ever again

I don’t have to work because there are no workdays

I don’t have to work and I have no boss

I don’t have to work because I flow like water

Freedom at last without any more choices to be made

Freedom at last chained in molecular compounds

Freedom at last in the vast black and near-vacuum

Freedom at last at so close to absolute zero

I’d be happy to live in eternal sorrow

I’d be able to get by with constant pain

I’d be alright with poverty and suffering

I’d be better off than unconscious in that empty and unknowable void

Small Prophet – The Garter Snake’s Tale

    This, from 'Lives of the Reptilian Saints’

I saw a slender garter snake resting near the road

I wanted to believe he had made that journey safely,

all the way from the other side

I was so amazed that he was even still alive

Something of a miracle with the way this traffic flies

Something of an accident or maybe, a not so simple, random magic chaos

Now he’s left free to disappear forever, down into the weeds

Just a chance encounter with another world that’s disappearing,

just a glimpse of things as they’d always been: Living and not building

Surviving not creating, adapting not administering, belly to the earth,

moist tongue probing ever so gently into that warm summer air,

Not driving behind dark glasses with the tinted windows all wound up

And as I savored those delicate, mottled stripes

the wonder overwhelming,

I finally saw that he had shown me, that I had, indeed, lost my way.

Echoes sweep right on through me

The calls of the crows feel as if they are moving through me from side to side

Coming back, I notice that my last thoughts had arisen from a different place

Fading in and out with a quiet mantra and warm sun upon my feet

Echoes sweep right on through me, feeling like peaceful, rolling waves

As my consciousness erodes, another state of being fills my brain again

Sometimes a twitch or spasm joins these two worlds for just a moment

At some invisible boundary I pass from not really thinking to not quite dreaming

With luck I move between them enjoying a state of grace, for minutes at a time

For then, with tension and worry pushed beyond arms length, there is no fear

Even the most awful circumstances are factored, reduced and abstracted

Almost sleeping, and not really awake, ebbing and flowing between their two shores

Moving back and forth between breath control and autonomic respirations

Pushing off and letting go, to drift out in some slow and gentle current

Bumping back to shore to hazily and briefly note the things I felt and saw

Like the cat that purrs at intervals before falling deep into kicking dreams

Gnawing anxiety and even pain are somehow isolated and left behind

There comes a disconnect that surprises and cannot be controlled

Looking back, one never sees exactly where the paths diverged

Rain Of Blessings

Rain of blessings falling so very softly everywhere at once, all the time, almost indiscernible

Very quiet and so gentle as to be easily ignored, so light as to go on by, normally unnoticed

Yet flowing away in every dimension, easily outpacing even the expansion of this universe

As faint as the cosmic background radiation, but just as all-pervasive, when tuned in at last

Layer dancing across layer from the pico to the tera scales, from the quantum to the multiverse

Rain of mercy, shower of grace, redemption soaks the lines of each and every smiling face

In the sky shimmers a rainbow of joy from the soft light filtering through these falling blessings

My fevered forehead cooled by the mist off the infinite sea of peace these showers fill

Spinning slowly round and round, I briefly take a place, as I turn like a blossom falling down

Rain of blessings fleetingly opens our eyes wide to that eternal harmony unfolding all around

Perfectly interweaving springs, all from the same source, balance me with calm energy

Radiating mercy from the center of grace, interweaving with cosmic phenomena, out in space

Cooling when it is too hot or warming us like a bath, our faces upturned like little flowers

Their vast and eternal flow carries off our tiny sins just as surely as it erodes all our tiny actions

Rain of blessings, falling in all directions, through every dimension, without an in-between

As always, just as soon as I really sense it, I am instantly overflowing, into those gentle tears

Reflections of rippling waters, echoes of fading footsteps, fossil starlight from so far away

Dirty, smiling, tiny children, gap-toothed old men nodding off in wisdom, gentle yak upon the trail

Cymbals sounding off the vast blue ice fall, uncountable simplicities, all so inextricably bound

Hail of joy briefly awakens sleepers, flood of compassion carries away their joyful images

In my mind, running mostly naked, a brown child glistening in this warm monsoon of cosmic blessings

A Few Revealed Cosmic Truths

Lurking in the fantastic rock and icy rime formations in far off Patagonia

Mutely testifying in the ancient volcanic peaks of Colorado’s snowy San Juans

Now glowing greenly with life behind the mists of a waterfall in western Canada

Once again in the dusty sunset casting orange shadows upon the Sahara dunes

Overt in the tender embrace of the Emperor penguin pair late in March

Subtle in the bird-filled potholed beauty of summer on the Northern Plains

In the deep blue of ocean waters far from shore, it came to me once again

So strong in Autumn when the trees ignite in their colored riots

In the books of physiology, anatomy, astronomy and cosmology

There in the depths of her brown eyes and the soft timbre of her voice

Echoed in the stately waltz of sun’s planets, moons, asteroids and comets

Exploding into the air with the glistening Dali colors of leaping giant blue marlins

Sensed in the sound made by a heavy snowfall when all else is so very still

Mirrored in the music made by those who bring it forth for us to bear witness

Exactly the same thing from the loon far off across one of countless northern lakes

Part of the cold but fiery light that flares just for moments on distant peaks, near sunset

Chanted in river songs that never change theme but never repeat a single riff

Whirling under the great hazy wheel of the Milky Way on moonless winter nights

Left in messages on mossy boulders, tilled and striated by ice age glaciers

Within the phases of the moon and the slow flowing of the sun with the seasons

The amazing electromechanical mystery of a lifetime of regular heartbeats

The physical constants which could not differ, even in their 8^th decimal place

Pattern and order of huge swells coming to the shore in perfect weather

A baby elephant surrounded by aunts as he peeps out from under his mother

Warm-blooded miracle of the mighty bluefin tuna racing in schools at 35 MPH

The earth’s heat balance unconsciously maintained by the great ocean currents

Marine fossils upthrusted in the high Himalayas, tracing millions of years in earth’s history

The massive blue whale gently nudging her newborn upward, to its first breath of air

Mathematics we uncovered which predict the orbits of heavenly bodies

The ability to see backwards in time through the lens of a telescope

The complex web of interactions that makes up good living soil

The orderly struggle of succession that results in a stately climax forest

The fault tolerance of the mammalian brain in its reaction to even savage trauma

The incredible functionality bundled within every tiny common house fly

The feel of the gnarled exposed inner bark of an ancient bristlecone pine

Pondering those Greek, Roman, Mayan, Incan and Cambodian ruins

Puzzling over the differences between the uncountable and the infinite

Visualizing length from the quantum scale to light years in distance

Imagining time intervals from tiny Planck units to the estimated age of the universe

Mute testimony of a feathery archaeopteryx, petrified for unimaginable eons

Miracle of the hummingbird in flight revealed by ultra slow motion film

Spring dawn over the Andes flying south from short and gray northern December days

The wonder at our invention of cheese, wine, bread and beer

The boggling number of stars in each of the astonishing number of galaxies

Mystical, detailed and semiotic patterns on the birds, reptiles and amphibians

Perfect silent grace of a healthy mature tree, wherever it was chosen to testify

Surfing the warm salty ocean with a view of snow-capped Mauna Kea

Love which lasts for years even as the crazy world changes while we age

Observing Petri dish population growth curves over time

Trying to grasp the timeframe of earth’s ages in comparison to man’s short history

Earthrise on a silent starry black background, tiny against the surrounding void

Realizing the meaning of our endless, futile and brutal religious struggles

Seeing our perfect footprints completely erased by that first gentle wave

Shivering with wonder at the wolf’s lonely howl in the endless winter night

Realizing the hopeless, but inescapable, moral mandate, despite our endless struggle

Involuntary loss of vision, strength, vigor, endurance and fluid intelligence

The consummate and non-reflective, totally unstrained adaptation of all the cats

The instantaneous color responses of the octopus to changes in background and stimuli

Computing acceleration and velocity and their changes at any instant

Seeing dolphins and seals riding the waves for their own personal reasons

Watching killer whales toss live baby seals into the air to teach their own offspring

That deep, true aboriginal veneration of the earth and its cycles and its creatures

Tacit, yet unbreakable, contract of the bear, salmon, eagle, coyote and raven

The whisperings of a spring tide running strongly into a wide and deep inlet

The welcome warm sun on a cool day upon emerging from clean water

Being very close with a loved one as you both prepare for them to pass away

Laughing out loud time and again until our stomachs are sore and tears fill our eyes

Missing the rhythm and beauty of all existence long before we leave it

Glory of the late Pleistocene mega-fauna, now all gone away once and forever

The 100 million year reign of the dinosaurs already over for 65 million years

Tales of the Black Death, its Grateful Dead and our ashes all falling, falling down

Peaceful sounds of children at play mixing with bird songs from all directions

Rapid tracings of an electron gun we perceive as a stream from another reality

Raptor crying overhead casting echoes down a quiet canyon

The lessons we pass on from our slaughter of the buffalo and the Indians

The tectonic peregrination of the very continents, all about the globe

A sideways glimpse caught in an unexpected mirror by a momentary stranger

Watching as wavelets from our pebbles merge and fade away upon a quiet pond