Did you ever hike
 To become fond of your pack
Inordinately?

The heart is where the home is
So long as the load is lite.

Likely Epitaph

Tom Hobbes’ epitaph,

“… the true philosopher’s stone” -

Tomb bumper sticker.

A Month After the Solstice

The sun stays longer.

The momentum of winter

Carries the dark chill.

Espresso Synesthesia

Many times I’ve pressed the lever
And watched the shot ooze from the spouts
Like mellow honey lather;

Counted breaths to time the shot,
Neglected pangs of hopes and doubts -
Each pull what another’s not.

Pressure varies with the tamp
(Too loose and I’ll fall clear through);
To make each grain hot and damp.

As this stroke wavered, lite or strong,
Sweet or bitter shifted too
In taste buds beside my tongue. 

Old Master Laotse

Was surnamed the “Long-Eared” -

Ancestor rabbit.

- (Ref: Kakuzo, Book of Tea, p39)

Cold enough to drift,

Snow blows horizontally -

Carolina pines.

In the air, then down,

Spine against the iced porch deck -

Yanked by my leashed dog.

We never stop dreaming.

There’s one root difference between asleep & awake:

In “wakeful consciousness” we modify,

sometimes nearly overlay,

our dreams with the input of our senses.

So the difference is:

When asleep we have no conscious sensation or control

of our bodies;

When we wake

our bodies feed us our sense of identity & reality.

We never stop dreaming.

With my two dream dogs

I’m walking down the dream trail

On this bright dream day.

My children, all three,

Are human beings in full bloom.

The angles rejoice.

Face in the mirror -

All of the old man creases

Are of bright laughter.

Early Christmas Thank You Note

I’ve not been able

To remember to say ‘thanks’

For the vapor pipe.

Leaves falling through light -

Each agrees when to let go 

With sweet surrender.

“Bach through an open
dawn window —
the birds are silent”
Jack Kerouac, Book of Haikus

My skull crashed against

The trunk down across the trail -

We’ve sagged since last spring.