Sunrise

Sunrise
Sunrise on Sunset Beach

Sunday, December 21, 2014

The Harmonics of Fall

Athens, Georgia
December 29, 2014

When social loops resonate 
to unholy harmonics in a world 
wired close and wound tight; 

when the soundtrack of triumph 
sweeps your people, and sweet 
ideals are wielded as weapons; 

when the grievance is just 
too great to ignore and your mind 
is gripped in anger: go. 

Go into an autumn afternoon 
where out of stillness, peace 
descends on dry leaf flurries, 

where a thousand blackbirds 
speak in tongues of tiny angels 
timeless blessings to life,

where echoes of ageless minds 
penetrate prepackaged lives, 
and strife recedes to hush. 

When impelled by honor to act: 
engage, but withhold your soul, 
for you are more than your role. 

You have felt the autumn breeze. 
You've sensed the inner harmony. 
You have been blessed by birds.

"Leaves and Light,"
photograph by David Noah, Winterville, Georgia


Thursday, December 4, 2014

Waiting for Dawn and the Sunday Times

Athens, Georgia
November 23, 2014

My kitchen is so cold I crack 
the oven inches open, set 
the knob to rod-glows-red,
and hug my hot water bottle. 

Predawn drips darkness 
as I watch the eternal sunrise 
sweep across the Atlantic 
on my world daylight app.

Silhouettes emerge outside 
when the great arc of light 
with an apex above Iceland 
kisses the shores of Georgia. 

It is midday in Spain 
and sunset in Sri Lanka,
afternoon in Abu Dhabi,
midnight in Sydney.

China lies in darkness 
while Auckland inhabits 
tomorrow. We share 
the same moment, I muse 

while watching out for all 
the news that’s fit to print 
to hit my driveway double 
wrapped against the drizzle.

I scroll the social media 
past the cats and dinner pics, 
by the snark and sentiment, 
around the pronouncements 

and dodgy links, to plunge 
through a blog on Buddhism 
tagged with a holy aspiration: 
“Have light, will travel.” 

How nice, if only, I mutter, 
startled by the gray-brown 
world, bathed in soft dawn 
as if from within. I check 

my app and sure enough, 
it’s right on time. Light 
comes as new days must, 
to all who sit and wait.