Electric light had nothing over the full moon of a sweet midwest September night.

All life illuminated in a soft presence.

As if time could not possibly be wasted, because it stood still, face to face with grace.

nmd.

For yesterday
And all dog days
in
the morning
night and afternoon
To all the dogs
that i
have lived with
or
only met
I am grateful
for
the warm
and loving pet

 

Travel always takes you home.
And so does reading.
If you want to write a poem,
and don’t know where to start, you can start with ideas from many places.

Let’s say, quotes.
“I have found that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” -Mark Twain

And you can start with a subject.
How about a place that you would like to go?

Desert Places
be Robert Frost

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it – it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is, that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less –
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars – on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

 

 

Flying

by Sarah Arvio

One said to me tonight or was it day
or was it the passage between the two,
“It’s hard to remember, crossing time zones,

the structure of the hours you left behind.
Are they sleeping or are they eating sweets,
and are they wanting me to phone them now?”

“In the face of technological fact,
even the most seasoned traveler feels
the baffled sense that nowhere else exists.”

“It’s the moving resistance of the air
as you hurtle too fast against the hours
that stuns the cells and tissues of the brain.”

“The dry cabin air, the cramped rows of seats,
the steward passing pillows, pouring drinks,
and the sudden ridges of turbulence. . .”

“Oh yes, the crossing is always a trial,
despite precautions: drink water, don’t smoke,
and take measured doses of midday sun,

whether an ordinary business flight
or a prayer at a pleasure altar. . .
for moments or hours the earth out of sight,

the white cumuli dreaming there below,
warm fronts and cold fronts streaming through the sky,
the mesmerizing rose-and-purple glow.”

“So did you leave your home à contrecoeur?
Did you leave a life? Did you leave a love?
Are you out here looking for another?

Some want so much to cross, to go away,
somewhere anywhere & begin again,
others can’t endure the separation. . .”

One night, the skyline as I left New York
was a garden of neon flowerbursts–
the celebration of a history.

why
don’t i
go to the desert
walk amongst red rocks
and cactus
their arms
holding up the
blue blue sky
arid high clear
dry
lower my body
into a pool of water
stroking floating
reflection
put on
white cotton t’s
and cut-offs

This is the first poster that I have made that I am grouping under the label of “acts of kindness” to promote small acts.  Small acts, I have been told, can produce what is called a ripple effect in which the small acts spreads and effects other’s thoughts and actions.

I have seen enough of the small acts of meanness, bigotry, fear, greed, and just plain bullying. It has spread far and wide around the globe, and has infiltrated our minds and lives. Now, is the time for some kindness to blossom.

 

 

We don’t need to try so hard at producing something that is special. Most production has special as a surprise that can not be planned.

When one door closes, another opens;
but we often look so long
and so regretfully upon the closed door
that we do not see the one which has opened for us.

Alexander Graham Bell

---

 

There are shut doors
barred doors,
open, cracked,
and screen doors.
Doors with windows,
some are beaded curtains.
There are secret doors and
doors with a door man.
Up and down doors,
in and out doors.
Spinning around doors.
Every day there are doors
that will never open again
for us. We know it, we hate it,
and we try to use the window.

photo by nancy marie davis

blue alley 

photo by n.m.davis
there once was an alley
lined in blue
at the end was a forest
that we loved to walk through

I am now sixty-two. And time really does seem to go faster as I age. Only because we get closer to seeing the end rather than the beginning of our life here. The target looks bigger and bigger as we fly through space hurtling toward it.

As I hang onto my child heart, I also start to think of looking back less. Letting go of a lot of things that I have carried for far too long. Carrying things is something that only the young have the luxury to do. And we usually wish later on that we had learned this earlier. We hang onto things. We hold onto heavy grudges and heartaches, fears and anger. It is enough to make us sick and weary; and enough to ruin lives. Envy is a big one, as is jealousy. I can feel the heaviness when I say the words.

And it is so hard to see some of these heavy things until we are old, and looking back.

But, people of any age might take my advice.  Lighten up. Think light, pack light and let go.  You don’t have to hold on to heavy things, if you can ask, just ask for help in letting them go.  And practice the things that make life good. The things that sound light and really are very light.  Gratefulness, Love, peace, forgiveness, giving and letting go.

Find the love inside of you and feel it, share it, spread it gently without expectation.

 

The image is my digital art, the red sun.

i have always been an artist, in a sense of thinking that is. i think colour and shape, how something has a certain feel to it, how something has a certain balance. i like things that look the way that seems right to my senses. i look at everything as shape and colour and texture, and i like to touch things. i like to smell things, and taste things, like wine and food.

i like the way that a pencil feels on paper, and a good pen. also the way paint goes down onto what is being painted. i like photography and digital work as well.

it’s the way i think. it can’t help it. i really had no choice in the matter. no matter what i do, this is how i see it. it is my art.

and for the longest time, i did not enjoy it. i hid it away and did not create things that like to make or do. i felt a pressure to please other people. and now, i understand myself. and i actually like this part of myself. and i don’t think about someone liking or not liking what it is. i just enjoy it.

and so…here i am. the good, the bad, the ugly, and all the rest.