From here it is not far

From here it is not far

Like sensing the ocean

All this understanding 

Mere trifle and notion

And who will take me there

Some old familiar song

Our shadows on the beach

Stretch out but are not long

I have not forgotten

I have not forgotten 

We shared a love and do

Nothing taken but hearts

Given and added to

No needs or wants asking

A happiness haiku

Such a lovely life us

My shoulder home to you

Two parallel plateaus

Two parallel plateaus 

One higher kitchen shelf

Where hopes and dreams display 

Above the daily self

The good china waiting

Let us sit and beside

Pull ourselves up and up

So we can say we tried

Quiet as light itself

Quiet as light itself 

Quiet as time giving

Or taking each moment

Conscious to us living

The shushing of present

The suffocated past

Quiet as sight itself

The foreground or the vast

Snowdrifts at the front door

Snowdrifts at the front door

Asian hills frost the panes

A winter zen summons 

Cornstalk stems row the plains

Clouds like parked railway cars

A Siberian line

A silver twilight that’s 

Tarnished and will not shine

We are here as our bulbs

We are here as our bulbs

Dig deeper in the ground

Our stems getting smaller

Our blooms less upward bound

Then years of only leaves

Even water and feed

May not keep us safe from

Mistaken for a weed

Beauty not beholden

Beauty not beholden 

This unglazed pottery

Not to be rich with Hope

Star gazing poverty

With repeating black eyes

Cultural paupers war

Humanity declines

When higher heights are floor