TRANQUILITY©

THIS PLANET

fool's gold in abundance

moss on trees

cities and machines

pranksters with clever words

warriors of greed

this is not the last planet

perhaps Christ, Buddha, Mohammed

credible colleges elsewhere

there are families of potholes on Benton Street

tonight a big storm will cause them to multiply

birds and dogs are quiet now

lawn mowers do not run in the dark of night

isn't it wonderful?

is this planet personal?

does it care about Venus, Buddha, the moon?

plants are alive

we share secrets inadmissible as evidence

shorthand of space exploration

a fly on the kitchen counter watches carefully

and then

with permission

eats a few crumbs from last night's dinner

as I prepare breakfast

WELL_WELL_WELL

when dunes have settled

do they ever?

something great

perhaps a storm called Titan

the rain has stopped

wind a memory

preternatural calm

the Change

perhaps no one noticed

jewels hanging on trees

youthful beauty

soon to be spent

on the resurrection of Eden

and leaves of grass and neighborhood cats

visiting

though Niagara Falls becomes a glacier

so it seems

is it too cold for earthquakes

a tsunami?

any bees left after the Arctic Blast?

can China's slaveicens see far enough to breathe?

can ours avoid massive pileups?

heavy, heavy news

by no stretch of desperation

entertainment

if presenters don't smile in whiteout conditions

the good news ads will get tarnished

dry, dry summer when massive fires incinerate the Hetch Hetchy watershed

and now massive rain

and next?

any damn fool talking head can guess

but the White House can't lie

now that it's buried under snow

can Mr. Obama escape the irony?

Nirvana Hole

epitaph scratched in wet cement

by a sprinkler head on a residential street

in Santa Clara

WEATHER REPORT

mystery of an anthill before rain

nectar presented to the queen

outside the wind will blow

inside a glow

quiet is enough

the forecast storm

let it blow

this evening's piano played itself

music of the origin

impossible to invent

programmed in the moment

TV blather

an upended snow globe

political debates merge with Cialis ads

legacy ice from the Arctic Blast

melting into floods

the Change

damn fools

some of the people all of the time

more

way more

than one percent

yet not enough to tip scales already weighted with gold

peaceful observations

ladies with parasols and folding chairs

watch the fire after Frisco's quake

prelude to Stanford's blooming

plentiful water and young growing brains

a breeze in the red woods

beneath the forest floor

music of its own origin pushes up

peace beyond comprehension

DEATH

mutations are both loss and gain

creativity implies destruction

a new person is born everyday looking

to the uninformed eye

no different than before

even to the eye that has changed

in some unseen way

rebirth is gradual and constant

mutations flourish or not, depending on conditions

weather, deep roots, an accumulation of intent

neither inevitable nor accidental nor predictable

until one day the new person bids farewell to the old

and says quietly, respectfully

I am reborn

MORNING

every morning the endless debris

then zazen, gardening

dust to dust

then evensong