For Bede
(2014)
Life is a day dream So they say, With every beat Of my heart, The gate to love
The hummingbirds are buzzing As well as the bees. The Orioles land gingerly On top of the feeder. Cautiously they move down
My heart is a good heart, It beats strongly And works hard, To keep me alive. My mind is a good mind,
Perhaps it is the mind separating things into this and that. Perhaps it is the mind with it’s preferences
What is truth? It’s a changing sky, One day clear, The next, cloudy, Holding the blue and grey,
Brown hawk with spotted tail, soaring on the wind, balancing like a sail. Your piercing cry
As we shared stories, The warm hum of voices heard, A cup of love spilled.
I lay still While my loved one, Sleeps. His warm hand In my hand,
Remember the night we took your mother’s car and drove over the skyway bridge? The moon was a bright light to show the way.
In the blink of an eye It’s a different scene On the big movie screen So easy to get absorbed In the story line of time.
The dance of fear, Of not being enough, Stops and starts. The unknown, an Uncharted sea,
If I could go back in time I would fix my wrongs, I would sing new songs And mend all hate And open the gate
This is the America I know: A sea of white, black, red, yellow And brown faces, Strong minds and voices Raised to the sun,
Yellow finches Line the bird feeder Against Spring’ s canopy Of green and purple tapestry. Back and forth they go
Half a world away, I walk a narrow, stone path. In the rice fields, the Balinese people