Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

I’ve had my share of trinkets Cluttering up my days. Memories are tugging at me, tying me down, Or did I settle in?    My days are scattering like matches, Burning up the moments. Summer shrivels up like a prune, Sucking sap back into the root of things. A turtle digs down below frost line, Preparing for its winter nap.     A shark swims by and leaves no trace, yet something turns up missing.  

I remember the smell of mud pies in an asphalt puddle Toes snuggling in the green, green grass An ant here and there That was the day I inked-in the lines. No more scratching out. No more waiting around for that long-gone miracle. After all, there's a  new dream just around the corner scampering into the cacaphony,  Wrapped in new minted leaves,  gh the cacaphony,

I'm a happy bush, just look at me I'm up, I'm curled, I'm orderly. The blizzards came, the blizzards went And I'm still here, ubowed, unbent. So wherever you are and whatever may be When things get tricky just think of me! Conservancy Gardens in Winter, Central Park

In my inner space I resonate, buzzing symbiotically, snuggling up in yellow pollen, resting my wings in lavender petals.  

Oh, it's great to return to my home all clean, but Where is my dubious, shady patine? It's great to be back in my pond alright, but Where are the greens and the darks and the light? Where are the dabbles and dribbles and tears, Engraved in my gossamer over the years? I'll start over, I guess, and in no time at all I'll be dripping and messy and ready for fall! Our beautiful lady of the secret waters--returned after being scrubbed

Let the sap of summer nourish me, like a small bough, with a leaf stuck for life to its limb. Let the autumn wind care for my soul. So what if winter crawls over my roots!

The trail is quiet, not a bird breaks the silent, trackless, virgin Colorado Powder. Time itself rests from its relentless, steady, pushing and cracking through to an unmarked path. No spring on the wing, no thaw, no new growth needling its way into a new spring morning. No, not yet.

I looked along the wrinkles in my couch, looking for a random blink of karma. A tiny warp in the woof of time. Oh yes, here's one, and it’s a beauty.I'm weaving away at a plain wool blanket, horse outside, warm piles left to show the way for the summer grass. Oh that’s too far off. I had a saddle though, it was western style, squeaky and smelling of old leather. Aspens along the ridge. Oh that leather smell! Pines in the background, sounds of the horses chomping up the yellow grass, rough mane, rough hair, rough feel of western Levis. Old boots with dusty creases, red fire in the wildflowers. White, white clouds along the ridge. Sun somewhere shining. Now there’s a wrinkle for you.

It may seem as though the secret garden is an idyllic spot for calm and serenity, but even in paradise there is strife. Our brave photographer was sitting quietly among the berries and the fall lilies, watching Ounce an lots of friends playing in the Sparrow Bowl, when all at once, Red Cardinal came swooping down, scattering sparrows right and left!   Perhaps this swooping was innocent enough, but our brave photographer was so stunned by the chaos that Ounce was entirely forgotten!  Ounce  was furious, and a furious, wet sparrow is a dangerous thing.  Ounce dive-bombed a couple of times and practically drown trying to save the sanctity of the sparrow bowl.  Amazingly, as stunned as our brave photographer was, the footage was still in the cloud! Conservancy Garden, October 2016, from daylight into evening Central Park

The midnight sky is stuffed with moonlight, but you wouldn’t know it from the afternoon, filled with grey rain along the edges. Two figures walk along the empty road, foreground vivid with the here and now, while the vanishing point draws relentless close. What destinies wait behind that grey horizon, waiting for the early sun to polish up those dreams we left for dead the night before. .

What will happen to my soul when you are gone? Will I tack it to a wall in a makeshift frame? Reservoir, late evening in July

Time shattered that day, when I saw through a crack, another teaming, seething, crystal world, (I was stuck on my usual side) It was a   bubblegum world, with grassy places, trees awake with new leaves, old limbs fading with the death of winter, Look, There’s a beauty!   Boughs swinging in the windy sun, searching for a new spring nest.   

I was skidding through another concrete day Shoes hitting hard against the sidewalk grey Sharp shards snapping at the stopped up drain White sun spitting at a window pane Background rattle of a subway train. Then I turned the corner and astonishingly I see the floating remnants of a cherry tree.

Jiggity, Jaggity Jergety,  hoo! I’m bringing a pizza to you, to you. There’s ice, there’s snow No safe place to go I’m lost in the fog I’m stuck with this job I’m trapped out at night I’m getting frost-bite I’m ready to sob I’m too old for this job!! The pizza is cold. You’ll have to be told  You’ll have nothing to eat I can’t find your street! I just want to go back to Peru, Peru I want to go back to Peru!

I wander through the apple shadows, stepping into the secret garden Fall chrysanthemums are stiff with color Grasses are drying their stalks for winter Is that an orangy goldfish there or a patched up dappled catfish? Either way, I let it sink amid the leaves and lilies. I close my eyes and feel a quiet melting in my frozen solar plexus I may have dozed, I'm never sure A puddle full of splashing sparrows wakes me up. There's something familiar about that tweet! “Ounce?” "Ounce!" “You’re wet and cold! you’ll catch a chill!" Come here!“ I don’t know what made me scold that way It’s just I miss Ounce so and didn’t even know it. Embarrassed by my burst, I try to slink away, when I feel a small wet weight upon my shoulder -- “Ouch! You bit me!" Before I can move a retaliatory inch Ounce settles down for a soggy shoulder nap, and There isn’t anything else to do Except to take a leafy walk in the golden speckled afternoon.

Once upon a time, long before now, When the grass was as green as a lollypop~ Off we went down the sidewalk edge, looking for a piece of eternity. It was a popsicle day, With trees saturated in summer~ Sidewalks so hot you needed shoes, You could fry an egg if you wanted, they said. We were warned of course, about crossing the street, We were threatened, coerced and cautioned~ Of course we crossed it anyway, As we scattered away that diamond day.

Off to school with sharpened promises. Seeking a simple space reserved for me. Oh how I wished and waited, loved and prayed. May I have a pleasant dream, a morning full of breezes? Now and then a glance my way, shooting light through a hidden shard. How I wanted to pursue you-- Where was that spark inside my soul, Whispering through the painted leaves-- “I love you” “You can count on me”

Screeching back into the moment I spot a leaf against my window pane, an ivy sprig caught behind the window box, stained glass catching sunbeams, (Well, it isn't really glass but it captures colors just the same) View from Living Room...

Wake up! The day comes up anyway the same old cracked-up dawn. Same concrete against the stumpy flowers dry as summer. What happened to all the maybes, All those forks to choose from? Fork one fork two; one-a-fork two-a-fork The trouble is, we resonate with beauty, Seeking the mending way I have a certain feeling in the bone. It came on cell by cell, raising me up a half an inch at a time. United Nations ~ November 2014

Let the plant wither if it must, the seed fell days ago; Stuck in a pod, half blind, trapped in a cold puddle, Like some muddied, pock-marked, leftover snowball. Too dismal to throw. I have nothing to do but hibernate. What am I some kind of iced-over, frost bitten hedgehog? I’m shrinking!   How can this be with all these trickles? I’m down to a husk of a thing, rattling around like some blind-sided snail. I’m dying out here! Or  maybe drying; at least things are improving, I mean how can I do anything about it? OUCH! I’ve been crunched by a rabid runner and stuffed into a furrow! I think I’ll cry...yes... Wait a minute, what is that streaming stuff? Is it dirt?   Is it Sun?   Is it Rain? I’m growing!  Help! I’m being resurrected! ckr.com/496/19465894059_7431b11602_c.jpg" width="530" height="800" alt="20150709-DSC_6974">