FOCUSING

for Shasta



Day comes out, night stays in

Only time may touch our skin

Look deep in there toward the stars

To see the echo of a heart 

Once alive peer outside with your eyes

Just to notice paradise

TURNING THE OTHER SHOE

All men fall equal prey 

to the mistake

Of betrayal.


All men fall equal prey 

to betray. 



Betraying others 

betrays one's self. 



Betraying one's self 

betrays others.


All men fall equal prey 

to the mistake

Of pride. 


Too much pride breeds arrogance.


All men fall equal prey 

to the mistake

Of being judgmental.


To judge equals being judged. 

Judgementalism replaces listening. 

Listening always becomes necessary. 


All men fall equal prey

In order to learn anything

One must escape the choir

All men fall equal prey to.

OR A GAME, I

Another folded crease in the universe.
Exactly like a paper bridge created
temporarily by overlapping tabs
in blossoming intricacy interlocking
spindle woven along spiral revolutions.
A game, or am I—the only question—
A construct, without a room for doubt,
as faith, fueled and fed, thrives wild. 

TEMPEST REDSHIFT

In real life 
we're the characters 
in a story that 
gradually transform 

into microwaves
then spool out into 
longer radio wave
lengths only to be 

scanned and listened 
for fruitlessly by remote 
alien civilizations. 

The echoes of our mutual 
cries of exoneration
after having traveled 
an otherwise unfathomable 
distance finally wash over us
as so much static noise. 

For that is what 
they have become. 

In there— 
(points to 
the stars)

—precisely 
where we 
are going.

   

BELIEF

Every day
the under mining
 process lies

one  step nearer

to completion
 beneath you.

The ground
  crystallizes

with  tremors
  interred

under this cloak
 of night.

The work

gets done
  much easier

out of sight.

Though no one
 would  believe it

 in   the  least.

Any way
  they can

never

 convince

you to

   arise.