Around the age of four and a half it is natural for children to skip, despite it being relatively inefficient compared to walking and running.  There’s no evolutionary reason for it… except it is fun.

SKIPPING 

I’m skipping, just to see if I can
it comes as natural as breathing
as my mind travels back to childhood
as my happiness swells through the
exertion.  

A stick-in-the-mud, says you’ll 
wear out your shoes – is this what his
mother told him once long ago to
tamper his fun, or is it just being
old and grumpy? 

If you are happy, let it all out with
a smile and a skipping hop and slide,
and if not happy, you need it
even more, because you can’t skip
without happy! 

Remember hopscotch, or jump
rope, or wheelies on a bicycle, 
such meaningless, un-measured fun
now possibly beyond our reach, 
but for skipping. 

So when the world gets you down
when the press of life is upon you,
then take a moment for skipping 
and unwind and be a kid again, 
happy! 

Great Blue Heron

STILLNESS

Waiting for the world to turn,
slowing heart rate, muscles burn.
Stalking stillness, silent silky moves.
Waiting until the opportunity improves.

There will be one moment or another
when two worlds will come together 
for the strike of singular survival purpose
 changing lives on each side of the surface. 

Thus for a moment captured in time,
the grace of stillness finds a rhyme 
in the heart of a poet on a fine sunny day,
as a lesson in patience for what comes our way. 

You have no idea how beautiful
you are, how a flight in sunlight
over reflecting waves can soothe
the soul, how perfect the moment
when nature brings us something
rare, something fleeting, and
we have the means to share in
art, photo, poetry, and we capture
the very essence of grace,
a lovely expression of nature’s
face presented to us mere 
mortals, reminding us there
is something more, something
which permits, no requires
our wonderment,  and we
have the power to see,
to feel, to capture, and
share what the world grants
us as our birthright, the beauty
of nature, which is in all of us,
and too often, you have 
no idea just how beautiful 
you all are. 

in Love and War,
which can only mean there
are no rules, and all is fair
in the chaos which follows
what our purpose allows.

And winning is the reason
for the trouble of the season.
But for who do we win?
Is it for love or war we will sin?

For love is a faithful multiplier
and war but an ugly divider
as we do the math of our souls,
contemplating our purpose and goals.

Thus, may it always be the chaos
of love which creates the ethos
in which our spirit resides
and our soul never hides.

They give their very best,
as they blossom bright
and shine for us,
as we experience
their buoyant beauty,
their fragile fragrance,
and we love them for how
they brighten our world;
yet knowing the truth
of time… that they are
for us but a moment and
will be gone too soon,
as their beauty will shed
as the relentlessness of gravity
overcomes stout pliant bodies,
and colors fade from bright
hues of purple and stunning reds,
mixed with startling whites into
dull grays of formerly stately hues
and life-altering brown spotting
finds it way to the surface,
while we witness the arrow of time
carry them beyond those
brilliant moments and flashes
of color, into a fragile
state of disrepair,
but oh the memories,
the memories
of the glory of life.

It’s five days in.
We can make it.
This year is so long.
Until it is gone too fast.

I wonder what is waiting for us?
Is waiting the same is wondering?
Does wondering have the same
time slowing magic?

How come we don’t ask why?
Or maybe we do, and
don’t like the bloody
obvious answers?

Let’s let time fly like a bird
we release from our hand,
and then it seems to have
nowhere to go, and it just sits.

Then be bold enough to
ask it to sit for a bit longer,
and it will fly away as
if it is being chased.

Yes, it’s five days in,
and we’ve got so much
time left for wherefores
and whynots, and more.

Let’s sit back and take it all in.
The poetry of life!

It is of course, an arbitrary demarcation, everybody knows
but as a new year approaches and this one draws to a close.
it is a time of reflection, and time of for taking stock of the year
and realize more good than bad did occur and we are still here.
There are new births of life, new advancements in love and career
there are accomplishments, as well as, tears in any given year.
And then there is the opportunity, even if only in our mind
to start out anew, to be refocused, to accomplish, to be kind.
And in this arbitrary demarcation everyone must know
that we are remembered most, by the love we did show.

I pray this new year brings us a world with more peacefulness
with a bit more reasoned and compassionate thoughtfulness.
I pray we are guided by our better angels toward the higher values,
of equality, opportunity, democracy and freedom of the news.
And that we find a renewed faith in core ideals which make us great
those of freedom and fairness, as we repudiate the politics of hate.
Yes, this arbitrary demarcation, is a good time for reflection
with honesty and without blame and avoidance of deflection.
For we must understand and really know who we are
and aspire to become in our next journey around our star.

Oh
angel
spreading wings
over this Christmas
tree listen to supplications
of our love and hope for everyone
for this to be the beginning of another
time when we can truly say that we have
become what the child born for all of us would have
us be, in joy and happiness a kinder more forgiving world
so that peace will reign and forever remain like this evergreen
and
this
child
within us!

They tell us who they are,
by telling us who we are …

Then they are annoyed
when we refuse the label…

For it means they might
not be who they think they are.