Fretting and Fuming

does get us somewhere, but it’s

seldom where we want to go.

~

Those old Zen masters

seemed to have the right of it;

“Let go… or be dragged along.”

There is no good time,

twenty, fifty, or ninety,

to lose a beloved friend.

~

But there was a good

time to form great memories

together and that we did.

Let’s take advantage

of these warm, sun-lit Spring days

and soak ourselves in beauty.

~

Beauty provides warmth

and a glow all of its own

regardless of the weather.

Reaching out matters,

but sometimes its best to first

reach within and find what’s there.

~

Who we find inside

will help us when selecting

those we choose to invite in.

Always. Honesty

is the only policy

with some enduring value.

~

Honesty joined with

compassion does not have an

expiration date.

My dog thinks he is

training me and it could be

that he is quite right.

~

Behaviorism!

Dogs drool so Pavlov rings bell.

It, pretty much, works both ways.

How we seek comfort,

when in the throes of illness,

speaks volumes about our selves.

~

How we give comfort

to those who are suffering

speaks volumes about us too.

Sometimes time seems to

move so fast, we are finished

before we even begin.

~

Something the Concorde

reveled in while flying west-

Landing before it took off.

Don’t advise me to

await a time, with patience

while demanding work from me!

~

Often what we tell

others to give is that which

we ourselves withhold.

Human enigmas

are everywhere to be found

but dog’s not so much.

~

Canine enigmas,

although as rare as hounds teeth,

do, from time to time, occur.

Daylight surrenders,

with grudging ambivalence,

to a chilly spring evening.

~

Soon the moon will rise

and shed a whole new light on

the situation.

New green of Spring reminds

us – we always have a chance

to begin again.

~

And temperate snows

of falling cherry blossoms

promise warming hearts.

Mondos come and they

go. Sometimes neither poet

is present or in the flow.

~

What is remembered

depends on who is doing

the remembering.

~

Sometimes an event,

significant for one, is

commonplace for another.

Rain on Sakura

never fails to foster joy

like some anodyne to gloom.

~

Cherry blossoms shine

and shimmer, giving a lift

to inner terrain.

At sunset the light

takes on a more golden hue

as closings can sometimes do.

~

The golden hour

yields gracefully to gloaming

bringing photographers joy.

Dogwoods and Sweet Haw

illuminate the woodlands

with startling dappled white.

~

Our eyes widen in

gratitude for them and all

the wonders of Spring.

Tiny flowers shine

in the sun, having

defied the first lawn mowing.

~

No kings to foil;

so potentilla settles

for confounding lawn mowers.

Poetry captures

all those things that pictures can’t

in less than a thousand words.

~

Photographers might

say that pictures are a form

of visual poetry.

Regarding flora,

Japanese Wisteria

in Bamboo screams invasive!

~

That’s double trouble

for sure, but why must they look

so good together?

It won’t be long til

the heat we longed for becomes

more than we asked for.

~

Perceptions of heat,

much like perceptions of cold,

are largely state dependent.

Startling fuchsia

Redbuds, contrasting sharply

beside chartreuse new spring leaves.

~

There’s a place for each

and each is distinctly its

quite colorful self.

If I could, I would

get off this rollercoaster

and drift on calm seas.

~

Do you crave demise?

This ride doesn’t stop until

entropy takes you!

Walking in the woods

on this balmy spring evening,

saddened by scattered debris.

~

Nature’s loveliness

marred by human carelessness –

a sad reminder…

Watching my dog sniff

the air and ground with eager

curiosity, I grin.

~

My grin is somewhat

bittersweet, given recent

inevitabilities.

Time and distraction

can give us the distance

to see more clearly.

~

Everyone needs space

to find a clear perspective

amidst such obfuscation

I know; change is hard,

but there’s one old blogging dog

that taught this pup some new tricks!

~

This old blogging dog

was forced to learn new tricks

by an upstart pup.