They are erecting the red & white circus tent

On the old Wanamaker site

The aging vacation hall stands in disrepair nearby

Its siding peeling to reveal

Gray shingles underneath

Like the tree nearby, standing a sapling then

Whose bark reveals the inner skin beneath.

AN ENDLESSLY FLASHING LIGHT

The universe like a Christmas tree

Forever bedecked in the blinking bulbs

Of our existence :

Born, dying, and reborn

In the eternal pattern.

Creation all around us

Now is...

Forever !

( The Little Yellow House, 1995 )

When the waves are rolling in,

When the hills are quiet under the cloudless skies,

When you are perfectly in tune with the universe

The world disappears :

Death is a road through the beauty of this land

To a place where even God sleeps.

1979 - 1997

In 1979, I went shopping for a stereo.

If I'd have known I was shopping for us...

I can still remember... I went back twice.

I went in, asked the questions I had prepared, and listened to a few models.

They had the BSR turntable I wanted. But the receiver ?

They had a special room to listen in. I went back.

I asked my questions and listened.

I was shopping, then in 1979, for us now...

Honey, I shopped so carefully...I can remember it all now !

" Did I do good shopping ?" she asked.

They listened to the music.

" Yes. You did good shopping. Honey. Are you happy ?"

" Yes. I am. Don't you know a woman can't be happier than with tears in her eyes. "

TO ISSA, JAPANESE POET (1763 - 1827)

Nature has delusions of grandeur.

The blue-black insect's wings are manicured

But the undergrowth is wild;

By my horse's dung the flowers cannot be defiled !