Walking slowly

After your stockings are filled with your feet

and you put on your shoes

you can start walking.

Why? Did he lose his belt?

 

 

 

Discordant

The birds flew south

Walking in the forest

I heard silence

With echoes of sadness

After you left

The books remained unread

Arranged on top of each other

In alphabets of absence

Some words are missing

In discordant conversations

The strings were adjusted

I was able to sleep

After a very long wait.

A month ago.

Bird Count

Curiosity

The dog jumps,

trying to grab a stick

resting on my shoulder,

it’s paws land on my chest

acquired, not primeval instinct

A story retold many times

A man and a woman curious to find

if they will gain immortality through knowledge

You and I since then learned

the arduous task

of gaining back

what was lost.

My Levels of Knowing

My Levels of Knowing

Fire, smoke and interruptions

Surround us

I found a pebble in my pocket

The entrance to the castle is open

My grandfather does not travel

He often takes me fishing

The guards sees us

We smile and walk forward

My friends are engaged in birdwatching

My grandmother sometimes  hides broken pieces in the closet

When are you returning

Inside the castle with its grandeur, we are lost like kittens

We can’t rise to the day’s heights or adapt to the hours

I accept the brevity of a flower,

I am getting older.

What Will Happen

What Will Happen

What’s like to be stranded in a place surrounded

By foreign language and echoes of history

Will fear envelope you? Maybe not.

Will you be like a child, free

To roam with pocketful of whims?

A universal mind, a child with no habits

With a dimension of willingness

To try, to listen, to ask questions:

How do you say hello, good morning

What ‘s your name? I’m hungry.

Gestures lead conversation and laughter

What will happen?

Complicated things will become simplified

Pull a string, turn a knob, a story will open

In ruins or splendor, devoid of boredom,new

A genius of a child,

Poor or rich, afraid or fearless

Forever curious, sometimes naughty.

 

One voice rises

Above all the mingling of street voices:

Sunset is coming.

Come, share our table

Simply feel at home, my friend.

If Birds Can Talk

If birds can talk

Like on my other days

I perched that morning

On a flowering fennel along the river.

I saw you coming towards me, holding

In your left hand a walking stick,

A camera in your right hand

I waited for you to get close

Close enough to take my picture

Before I flew away.

Like on your many other days

You might not notice or remember

The little things, good things

You could do

For others.

Foggy morning

To have known you

You are brimming with gaiety

Paddling the kayak together  for one hour 

One foggy morning

The river at high tide

The moments of astonishment

Are more than enough  for me

To welcome winter.

New in town

Sweet blackberries and burning woods in the fireplace

Are the last words in my journal

My backpack is beaten up and old

I’m in a new town

When is farmer’s market?

Which I have to find

I will meet the local people

Meld with their activities

I have to find someone soon

To fix the holes in my pockets

Before I’m flooded with losses

Which may not be able to count

I’m afraid I will be overwhelmed

But I will not be helpless.

 

Simple gestures

In a simple gesture lightning stirs my imagination

Inhabiting my days with rich territories of things to see

And what will I imagine

Like a refrain of raindrops

I wipe my face dry for only a moment

Violent storms come more often

A landscape of astonishment

You follow the floods and shrieking winds

With a camera, a pen and fear

You don’t withdraw

Pursuit is a new form of courage

As an adult I can select certain things

I can eat river-bank-foraged yellow sorrel  flowers and wild fennel

There along the sidewalks and river banks 

You can forage nutritious weeds

For your table and elevate your taste.

And a promise you will do it againl