Its great to make plans
to have a purpose and direction
but life happens, and the world
doesn’t cooperate as it should.

The nest is knocked to the ground
by an angry wind, the web is
destroyed by an unruly critter
the meadow is covered by early snow.

Life takes turns, and troubles
arise, and yet we rebuild, we
replan, we move forward, for
direction is its own purpose.

We are who we are because
of the adaptability bred into
us and the intellect we value
and continually evolve.

So plan with the angry wind
in mind, the unruly critter
possible and the prospect
of early snow

and continue to evolve
and learn.

We have no idea what the future may hold
we tell ourselves, in an attempt to be bold.

A way to avoid thinking it all through
and acknowledging what we know is true.

The future is no ninja in the night
It tells us over and over what’s right.

Just look to the past as a prologue
in order to see through the fog.

The fog we claim as our own is easier
than clarity of the image in the mirror.

We can say the future is unknown
but true intents have long been shown.

It’s no ninja in the night, it is right here
in broad daylight transparent and clear.

Ignorance is no excuse, we know who we are,
choose to fight, or meekly wear a yellow star.

Wakeup, the future is abundantly clear
and the danger very present and near.

Fascinating, hypnotic and yet elemental
it plays for you even if your attention fails
it is water and stone just as earthly as it is alien
it is constant motion and flow, gravity and power,
simple and complex with curves of origin and movement.

It is black as obsidian, and clear as cool streams
It plays to your life rhythms and conscious dreams
It plays to your peace and your connection to the world
It is quiet and yet it must be heard, for it is elemental
let it be part of you, and you are part of it and everything.

Fountain Magic

No matter how beautiful
a single flower, it needs
others to make a bouquet.

No matter how magnificent
a stallion, it needs
others to make a herd.

No matter how industrious
a builder, they need
others to build a home.

No matter how learned
a student, they need
others to advance knowledge.

No matter how strong
a soul can be, they need
others to make a family.

No matter how we might
feel alone, we are not and
with others, we are humanity.

Calmness

Reflecting the morning light
the surface like a mirror of
all that surrounds.

The stillness is a mirage
of calmness, the surface
belies what is beneath.

Watch for a while and
see, the ripples and
waves of turmoil below.

There is something more
to life within this calmness
and it is just underneath.

Held there by surface
tension which appears
to us as serenity.

There is nothing calm
about this, and it’s right there
if you have eyes to see.

Sit still for a moment, and do
nothing.  It is difficult
but feel. Feel your life’s
energy wanting to run!

Change, movement, energy, life
experience, growth, transitions,
learn, lessons become wisdom,
constant change, more action,
life vibrant in youth, and young
you is alive in you, as is love!

Change and movement is life.
God is life revealing herself
in love, growth and wisdom,
and ever-lasting life energy!

Is like Haiku
few words with grand sky
just me and you. 

Is like a sonnet with rhythm and rhyme 
and beautiful sunsets revealed in time

In couplets of perfect harmony
letting each other know who we’ll be

Is like a free verse with no sense
no rhyme, just flowing feelings
of fear, of pride, of hidden
reason, and silly distractions
and experiences all not alike. 

I see not as words on a page
not as a novel to be read
Nor as poetry to be felt 

But something more ethereal 
something with tentacles touching
the universe, touching all of us

If we only had the words. 

On this day we celebrate our
Declaration of Independence nearly
a quarter of a millennial ago
from the tyranny of a King
the indifference of legislators
and the oppression of an
oligarchy.

And yet we are, today,
suffering an embrace of
tyranny from a new King,
the measured indifference of legislators
and the oppression of an tech
oligarchy.

But we have something this
time around, we lacked in 1776
we have the history and wisdom
of Washington, Jefferson, Madison
and Adams, as guideposts and
inspiration.

We have but to declare our
Independence in the example
of Patriot Forefathers!

If you had to predict
the future,
what would you say?
Would it be all about you?
Or about all of us?

If you had data and trends,
would you ignore them
and go with your
gut, or worse faith
in false prophets?

Would you believe,
what your friends say,
or would you research
and think deeply
for yourself?

Can you really
understand what
the world is doing
to itself, and would you
believe if you did?

If God came to you
and told you the truth
would you believe?
Or would you say
it can’t be true?

For if you don’t
see Him in each other,
if you don’t see Her in
mother nature, then
in what do you believe?

And what is the future
but the sum of the past
the present and the
faith of those with
love and hope?

Two poems I found extraordinary, one called “Risk” Elizabeth Appell in 1979 which exhorts us to risk change, to grow into our beautiful self, another called “The Rose That Grew From Concrete” by Tupac Shukar in the 1990’s tells of resiliency and determination, such that hope and beauty overcoming adversity… I’ve incorporated these two poems in this musing with some of my own poetry…

Blossom as Beautiful as You Can

For we are planted by
circumstance and the love
of those who bring
us life, and placed us in these
gardens of our minds.

Where the winds may
bend, the rain may bow us,
and the sun may hold us
in warm  soil
of our circumstances.

Risk