In Anticipation of Awe

It's been awhile since I walked aimlessly

through the house silent.

I feel so big next to all of these things

the table the chairs.

They barely respond when I touch them so

and I get so sad.

I booked a trip to the redwood forest

to feel small again.

To touch the living.

Spines

It Is Daylight.
My Eyes Are Black Holes
blinking with fists.

A Draft Of Shadows,
The Essence of Truth
If You Ask Me

NaPoWriMo Prompt: http://www.napowrimo.net/day-ten-4/

Emptiness is Fullness (a ghazal)

I'm alone and wandering through Nepal tonight

The dry, incense-infused air fills the streets tonight

Temples appear unexpectedly left and right
I thank random Buddha for no rainfall tonight

I become, lost and found, a fool and a teacher
Each step through the night is a page I scrawl tonight

This is the breaking dawn and finale sunset
Existence is within total enthrall tonight

And I, शुन्यता, shout in silence to no one--

I am ready for sleep, once and for all tonight.

A Flower Haiku or maybe a Death Haiku

To think of dying

Is to think of the flower

Plucked for our pleasure

NaPoWriMo Prompt: http://www.napowrimo.net/day-eight-3/

To Define Ourselves Free

What does it mean to be free.

Is it something the whole can define, 

Or something each of us must define for ourselves.

And in examining ourselves

To search out what makes us feel free, 

is it even possible to put into words the feeling, let alone define.

But if this we don’t define

Again and again for ourselves

And still give the power to others to keep us free, 

How unfree can we be made before we redefine ourselves.

NaPoWriMo Prompt: http://www.napowrimo.net/day-seven-3/ — a tritina

Beyond the Stars and Stage

I want to go where the real musicians are, the ones who practice day and night, without concert, without smoke and light, without trend and fan, where east meets west, classical sitar and flamenco guitar, staccato rhythmic clapping and Spanish. The musician travels inward, their sound travels outward, travels inward and my mind expands beyond this realm. The physics of it all is baffling. All of these elements moving in different directions as one cohesive experience. Both here and not here. This must be the secret of the universe, forever expanding and contracting, beginning and ending, the music our ever-changing vehicle, the musician our interstellar Uber driver.

This Day Is Not Tangible So Quit Speaking As If It Is (a tanka)

Day is not a day.

Instead a distance travelled 

to come full circle, 

stand face to face with myself 

and laugh at expectation.

So What (a triolet)

So what

I’ll follow wherever your song takes you

along swinging riffs and solo blue

So what

if we get lost and never come back around

as long as you keep blowing that magic sound

So what

I’ll follow wherever your song takes you

“I can’t leave her there all alone surrounded by stone walls.”

I can’t leave her there all alone 

surrounded by stone walls

One could argue she’s not really alone

in her mausoleum

So I’ll think of her fondly

in her tomb apartment building

NaPoWriMo Prompt: https://theswampscribes.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/april-2nd/ — in the form of modern sijo

A Family Portrait

We’re just a bunch, and I mean a bunch

of people swirling and swirling

at different speeds in different directions

and sometimes we get swept up 

in each other’s current, for awhile, we connect on that level 

over coffee under smoke-filled ceilings

and I wonder if they’ll take offense if I crack the window

for a breath of fresh air

or will the sudden change in pressure sweep us all out and alongside the rest of humanity.

NaPoWriMo Prompt: http://www.napowrimo.net/day-two-3/

A Lune

Eighteenth Century
Vienna
My soul for a wig

NaPoWriMo Prompt: http://www.napowrimo.net/were-off-to-the-races/