for everything

Before I was 21, probably after I turned 12, it became very clear that I did not know how to pray. If attempting a conversational approach, the topics got out of hand. The rosary was too much counting (though it worked well to calm nerves before shooting free-throws). Catholic missals were level 9 without the secret door passing a novice to the family matriarch - no cheating, you had to cross the threshold yourself. And I could not. But poetry feels like praying; it offers the world deep meaning and mystery not detached from the reverence of living. A dear friend who left this world introduced me to ee cummings; the first poem he read at our kitchen table now the scaffold of my eclectic prayer life.

for 37 years tomorrow : : : this is the birth day of life and love and wings

ee cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue dream of sky;and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes (i who have died am alive again today, and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth day of life and love and wings;and of the gay great happening ilimitably earth) how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any - lifted from the no of all nothing - human merely being doubt unimaginable You? (now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

disassemble me

Get out of the way!

barn's burnt down
now
I can see the moon

- Masahide

i would like to see what i might find

I'm in the sharing mood:
a song for a new banjo and being alive day-to-day.

Bird Song - Wailin' Jennys
I hear a bird chirping up in the sky, I'd like to be free like that, spread my wings so high. I see the river flowing, water running by, I'd like to be that river, see what I might find. I feel the wind a-blowing, slowly changing time, I'd like to be that wind, I'd swirl and shape the sky. I smell the flowers blooming, opening for spring, I'd like to be those flowers, open to everything.

I feel the seasons change: the leaves, the snow and sun. I'd like to be those seasons, made up and undone. I taste the living earth, the seeds that grow within, I'd like to be that earth, a home where life begins. I see the moon a-rising, reaching into night, I'd like to be that moon, a knowing, glowing light. I know the silence as the world begins to wake, I'd like to be that silence as the morning breaks.

I hear a bird chirping up in the sky, I'd like to be free like that, spread my wings so high. I see the river flowing, water running by, I'd like to be that river, see what I might find. I feel the wind a-blowing, slowly changing time, I'd like to be that wind, I'd swirl and shape the sky. I smell the flowers blooming, opening for spring, I'd like to be those flowers, open to everything.