The Decisive Moment

Awakened in a bedroom awash with moonlight 

After a night of incessant rain,

 I rush downstairs to photograph the moon, 

 Now tucked between the clouds 

And blushing from the sun’s slow rise 

But first I must feed demanding cats, 

And by the time I’m done

The clouds have almost completely hidden 

The orb I’d hoped to capture 

And here’s all that’s left to see:

 Bresson’s Decisive Moment, gone again.

Autumn

Autumn, 

And the sunsets seem more subtle, 

Now the sun is disappearing behind the trees.

 We’ve moved on, and so has the sun,

 Stepping apart for a season or two; 

We’ll find some other source of heat 

To keep us warm til the sun returns 

Full strength again. 

Others may follow her south to warmer climes, 

But we’ll stay cool…

Keep holding on

I look at this old tree, 

Gritting its teeth and holding on, 

Supporting all those glorious branches, 

And am inspired: we can do this. 

We can — and will — keep holding on, 

Keep supporting those who need us to be strong, 

Gritting our teeth and powering through 

Despite whatever losses we’ve endured.

A network of dependencies

Each of us is carried through this life 

By a support system, 

 Though it may be virtually invisible 

To those whom it carries: 

There’s so much we depend upon — 

Water, electricity, 

 Our food, our fuel, the internet, 

Our roads, and the way the traffic moves — 

All built, delivered, or established 

By group efforts of folks we rarely see or know, 

Working together to meet the needs of many; 

A network of dependencies.

Rhetoric

I wonder if rhetoric works a bit like fog; 

Takes something that’s is actually 

 Untidy and disorganized 

And casts a light upon it 

That makes it seem somehow 

Rational and appealing…

Resistance

I wish I had the resistance of this leaf; 

That the disappointments in the daily news 

Would not infect my mood, 

But simply roll off, 

Like beads of water on a waxy leaf. 

But that, of course, would mean 

I could not feel — not just the pain of others 

But the joy of parental love, 

Of sunsets and shadows, 

Of creating and embracing; 

Of watching nature evolve through the seasons…

We are the light

That which you see, looming over us, 

Is both the future and our past: 

We are the light that can choose to guide 

The weary travelers home again; 

 Out of the shadows and back into 

 A kinder, gentler world 

Whose denizens take care of one another: 

Tend the sick, soothe the suffering, 

Pity the afflicted, bless the dying 

And shield all those 

Who’ve found their way to Joy.