Resurrected Artwork

One of my new favorite things to do is photograph old "physical" art stuff with my iPhone, then edit and add a whole new creative element to the original - making something both old and new simultaneously.

Washington

There is a clearing between the lines
Of towering evergreens
just wide enough to reveal
A long, thin road

A zipper
Undoing itself
Opening up to the night

Although no clouds
Are visible
I can feel that rain
Is coming

A downpour of
Emotion-loaded history
Forms a storm
At its head

My heart
Bursts - a thunderclap -
And tears begin
To fall

With the Birds I Share

Alone in my head
Driving to the
Passing through of
Thoughts and feelings
Of you
Again

In the mental aftermath
Of our combined
emotional wrath
Understanding eludes me

On the morning drive down
Waldrick Road to
Old Highway 99
I am left with too much time
And space and open road
For thinking and feeling
You
Again

Your presence dominates my
Memory
Where the road meets
An abrupt end

Transported back
To the present
Your absence is as
Gaping
As the endless road
That still
Lies ahead

I love You/Goodbye

It seemed we shared solace in the rain.
It is no wonder our love could not sustain. We ended the moment we began.

Untitled

I am restless
In my ways
Can't get out

I am too big
For this skin

Don't understand
The shape I'm in

I am stagnant
In the still of land

I need water
To move me

I am ready
To move on

Drowning

I was a victim, who secretly found revelation in surrender.

Then, I was no longer a victim, but a mortal, dying to reveal the higher order.

Then, I was no longer a mortal, but a fleeting apparition, seeking the chance to breathe.

Then, I was no longer an apparition, but a stone, moved only by the power of the life force: water.

And then, as water itself
overcame me,
I became it

I was no longer drowning
but being

Infinity and
Infinitely

Proof

The affair was of the heart and mind. Therefore, it was difficult to salvage fingerprints or hotel receipts. Proof was not of a literal nature. It had no form, but was felt inside without touch, same as the affair itself.

Ours is a story that cannot be told, but only can tell itself. It is one whose ending has not been written; and is unforeseen as anything but tragic and beautiful, regardless of which path it runs from here.

It already is, and has always been, an impossible dream. Still impossibility is what has dreamed its beauty. And without the fantasy behind it, it would not be so real as it is.

05.31.02 MAUI

Pressed
Upon the
Firm
Sandy breast
of Majestic
Mother beach
Again

I am
At rest

The gentle hush
Of water's caress
Lulls me into
Conscious slumber

The hum
Of waves'
monotonous rush
brings lush
dreamscapes

to life
in the pattern
of my
breathing

I am alive
abreast
The voluptuous
curves
of the infinite body

As per her wish
I have returned
to the sound
Of the heartbeat

06.29.02

It is best that we watch
our dissension
into this blissful abyss

For we are diving more deeply
Than deep was yesterday

By watch I don't mean wearily
or with concern for safety

I trust by now that
you will share your air

As together
we fall silently
into one another's depth

And into the deepest fathoms
Of Love's pure mystery

A Thought

My particular conservation effort
Is for the salvation of hope in the
Human heart.

Miracle Grow

We are the water
And the seed

As we fall
So we rise

03.11.01

Yesterday, I held a baby dolphin in my arms. His heart beat through his solid, smooth chest wall, against my hands and body.

I put my arms around him completely, (he was that tiny), wrapping him up in the greatest support I could offer: my true love for his species and the desire to give back, to hold him up with the same love that has held me and helped me so. Gently, with undying strength and grace.

05.10.00

I've spent my whole conscious life
peering curiously
underneath the hood
of my head

Where I live with a "What the hell?" and a "Who in God's name am I?"
cursing
my pouty pink lips

But simultaneously begging:
Please don't let the truth into this hole that asks for it

For it will strip me to the nuts
and bolts, leaving only bare parts

A seat for itself to sit in
and drive me around

Imagine That

Imagine that...
If, instead of talking all the time
about how this population of panthers, that population of rare birds, blue whales - the most giant of all creatures ever to exist -
are declining,
dwindling, disintegrating, disappearing

We talked about how there was this explosive rebirth happening in the natural world,
With the human hand finally kept humbly and rightfully at its side, or in its pocket,

The brilliant resurgence of some untouched feeling that would give us, creatures of nature every one, an entirely new hope...

That hope which still survives in the newborn.

WHALES ARE:

Giant, but gentle.
Hunted, but trusting.
Exploited, but forgiving.
Aware, but peaceful.
Intelligent, but devoid of ego. Victimized, but heroic.
Captive, but free.

ENLIGHTENED.

The Science of (My) Mind

I may not be a published author, an accredited institution, a respected ethicist, an authority figure, a professor of evolution or biology or consciousness studies or dream interpretation. But I stand firmly on the platform of my own voice. My argument for empirical truth is the life I live. My experience is all the proof I need.

11.17.99 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD.

Dad,

As this time of year approaches yet again, and you check in the mirror for any new evidence of time's continued passage across your skin, I encourage you to think of a few things:

You were once a little boy. You grew up, became a father, then watched as your little girls became older daughters. Now that we are all grown up, you get to become the kid in you again. It's how nature works! It's how the Earth turns and turns again. And I think, aren't we lucky to be a part of it all.

Your love, wisdom, and great understanding of beauty and joy are timeless. I consider your fatherhood the greatest gift on every birthday, yours or mine.

I see your influence in the reflection of my own changing expression as I mature and grow. I learn more with every year that passes, how much a part of me you are; and how much a part of you I am; and how much more we become one another as time moves through us.

I am proud and honored to know that we are "made of the same stuff". I love you endlessly. Have a wonderful birthday! Love, Liz

11.11.99

I dreamt last night, again, about the moon. Tina and I had the ability to jump up off of the dock over the ocean and under a night sky, and grab the moon (which, in our hands, came to look and feel like a block of white cheese). We would then give it to the "natives" that lived in the area, who were amazed. We would take turns throwing it into the water, very excitedly, then noting that even as we threw it into the sea, it still hung in the sky. Remembrance of Tina and I swimming crazily underwater, like mad fish. We were happy and reckless - in and of ourselves, and in our relationship to each other.

11.05.99

I love you with the power of my faith in God.

I love the purity and depth of your soul.

I love you for your eternal struggle.

I love you without pretense.

I love you with all of me.

I love in the name of except and forgiveness.

I love you in spite of our hearts being broken.

I love you in spite of our world that's been shattered.

I love you and trust in your love for me.

But my faith cannot heal you.
My trust cannot hold you.
My love cannot save you

From whatever darkness it is
that tells you I hate you.

Impossible

Always entrenched in
Impossible extremes

Stifled was she in the
Pursuit of her dreams

Neither in night nor in day
Was she allowed rest or play

For what she longed for was always
Simply too far away

But in accepting the gift
Of a darkness beyond night

To her heart's desired world
she finally could take flight

And so by surrendering
To her own inner-fight

She landed within reach
Of the moon and its light

10.11.98

Severed, lost, the pieces
Of her wander the gamut
Of madness
Searching for one another

We Needed God in Our Lives, to Keep Us Honorable

The sexual frustration was so thick it began to make my arteries feel clogged. My wife and I knew there had to be something beyond the day to day monotony that plagued us at midlife. I had considered affairs, several times. I have had opportunities as well but always, as they presented themselves, I enforced the law self-control because I'm a man of honor. But dammit, honor is a tough gig to perform forever and at all times, especially when you've never been allowed to know the thrill of dishonor.

Hedonism chased my brain over the speedways as I drove forward; bumpy railroads built the tracks along which my thoughts scattered, drunk on their own evil juices. Through mountains, my recurring dream of passion whiplashed its snake tail over the edges of cliffs; green seas awaited. So far away, but everywhere.

A horn sounded behind our grey sedan. I jerked back into the present and hot coffee dripped on my bare calf. "Shit", I muttered, tired and scalded by reality that Sunday morning. I drove through the light into the church parking lot and thought to myself, Dear God, are YOU a happy Man?

04.09.98

Why is it God
that on nights like these
when the pasty face of the sky
holds nothing but the moon
in its endless features
I begin to gain hope in the darkness

The Big Island: FROM ABOVE