The words on paper
are reflections of our thoughts;
ripples in the stream.

**********

The ink of your life
will last indefinitely;
choose your words wisely.

**********

Cold mornings, warm tea:
keep everything in balance,
breathe in, and breathe out.

**********

*Flowers By The Road*

Alongside a forgotten road
I saw the patch of daffodils,
foreigners in a wild berm.

A hundred yards away
grew another ancient garden,
this of marble-stemmed memories.
Long-forgotten names, longer-forgotten stories
that only the daffodils might remember.

**********

*Rooms*

Often I think
of the rooms I’ve entered
and left.

Knowing that I probably
won’t enter
any of them again.

Knowing too
that I am
forever changed
having looked inside.

inspired by Conrad Aiken’s “Palimpsest:The Deceitful Portrait”

**********

*Forgotten* (Senryu and explanation)

Names to remember
on eternity’s long list.
Wait, where is my name?

Forget:
two generations,
three at most,
is all it will take
to be forgotten.

Remember:
be as much
as you can be, now,
too soon, no one will know.

**********

*Summer Rain*

The hiss of the shower
on the sun-seared, corn leaves,

the far-away tapping
of wet toe-prints on the tree canopy,

the steady, growling murmur
of a downpour on the metal roof above me:

The words on paper
are reflections of our thoughts;
ripples in the stream.

**********

The ink of your life
will last indefinitely;
choose your words wisely.

**********

Cold mornings, warm tea:
keep everything in balance,
breathe in, and breathe out.

**********

*Flowers By The Road*

Alongside a forgotten road
I saw the patch of daffodils,
foreigners in a wild berm.

A hundred yards away
grew another ancient garden,
this of marble-stemmed memories.
Long-forgotten names, longer-forgotten stories
that only the daffodils might remember.

**********

*Rooms*

Often I think
of the rooms I’ve entered
and left.

Knowing that I probably
won’t enter
any of them again.

Knowing too
that I am
forever changed
having looked inside.

inspired by Conrad Aiken’s “Palimpsest:The Deceitful Portrait”

**********

*Forgotten* (Senryu and explanation)

Names to remember
on eternity’s long list.
Wait, where is my name?

Forget:
two generations,
three at most,
is all it will take
to be forgotten.

Remember:
be as much
as you can be, now,
too soon, no one will know.

**********

*Summer Rain*

The hiss of the shower
on the sun-seared, corn leaves,

the far-away tapping
of wet toe-prints on the tree canopy,

the steady, growling murmur
of a downpour on the metal roof above me:

there are many voices of rain.