Sunday, November 9, 2008

Ballooning

Aerial escape
with Daedalus’s help

marionette freed
from earthly strings

slipped through a seam
to exotic party

invited to ride
expansive sky

unbounded beyond
to wondrous sights

perhaps I may return with wings
if I do Buddhist things.

Fall Foliage #3

Fiery contagion
generating only beauty
burned to crisps underneath

climax color at red-hot heat
sunlit to glowing pitch
rapturously radiant

yellows, gold succeed
leaping top to top
in total conflagration

the forest succumbs
ghostly, haunting presence
littered with bronze ashes.

Fall Foliage #4

Sunlight at a slant
streaming, streaming
through backlit leaves
resplendent in golds and reds

recasting the forest
in stained-glass frames
autumn illuminated
through intricate panes

tall, dark tree trunks
multiples of thin and thick
taming the brilliance
in vertical dimension

seasonal cathedral
consecrated woods
rendered sacred
by sublime light.

First Botany Lesson

Sitting in ticklish grass
nestled in backyard green
fingers, toes, tongue exploring

each blade a newfound treasure
scrutinized with Buddha looks
for truth-revealed meaning

fluttering leaves overhead
whispering sweet lullabies
pitched solely to an infant ear

indiscriminate fragrances
filtering through layered air
snared by his nose’s interest

all manner of sensations
extending an invitation
to feast at Earth’s botanical table.

At Daybreak

Pinkish shreds
like sugared wisps
spun by the sun
into billowy puffs

pastel fantasies
in stratospheric parade
bleached summarily
in the bright white of day.

Afternoon with an Artifice

Gazer beside a soccer field
one ordinary October day
lazily in wait for eager players

a monarch joins the absent crowd
colored trees rearrange their leaves
around this wide, green arena

ivy-covered towers stand beyond
where scholarship is exercised
in gentle, contemplative study

among books filled with horrific wars
artfully imagined stories
philosophical exegeses

suddenly a shadow overtakes
a hawk with struggling prey
flies home to eat its dinner.