Thursday, April 28, 2005

Chicago, 6:15 AM

The city roars & rumbles --
the individual sounds of cars, trains, and rooftop environmental conditioners merge into a constant sound ever changing pitch & timbre, like the cracking of ice on a frozen pond, 10,000 people humming tunelessly, a jumbo jet warming its engines on the tarmack, a distant tornado, an orchestra tuning spasmodically, and 100 other unidentifiable sounds all rolled into one long sustain.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

737 Westbound

4/26/05 9:30 am
Second leg, big 737-800, cruising @ 40,000 feet. Reflecting on being alone, invisible, not worth a second glance out here in the world: just an out of shape, slightly tubby, not so handsome, out of place male.
And then I think: I could be alone & alone could be good.

So long as I live it and don't fill it with time wasters.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

wetland in spring

Ocher and umber
wetland in spring
dampened & darkened by rain.
Cattails and sedges
last year's growth
sentinels of greening again.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

We got out of the car

"We got out of the car. Dear God, I remember thinking, how beautiful the world is! My heart was pounding, my palms were sweating, my eyes were watering behind my sunglasses, but I felt like Lazarus emerging from the tomb after three days of darkness, light bursting through the linen wrappings over his eyes. Most of humanity, I thought, sleep-walked through life, brains muddled by petty concerns, daydreams, the numbing mediocrities of the day-to-day. Most of us, if not already in the tomb, waver on the threshold, afraid to step into the light, afraid we might actually prefer being half-dead to fully alive."

[Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS by Richard Yancey]

Afternoon Nap

"A band of golden afternoon sunlight streamed across the foot of the bed, stretched itself upon the floor, and crawled up the pale blue wall on the far side of the room. In the gloaming, I had the sense of time racing toward some inescapable conclusion, to a reckoning I had not foreseen. The why no longer mattered. I had leapt into the river at the point of its swiftest current, and had been swept away. I wanted to reach the end; I wanted to see where the river took me."

[Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS by Richard Yancey]

Cedar Eden Pre-dawn

The morning sky,
deepest cerulean & indigo.
Trees black silhouettes
against predawn glow.

Imperceptively at first,
the day grows brighter,
waking a melodious chorus of birdsongs.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Sliver Moon

Sliver moon,
piercing crystal sky,
sliced by jagged branches.

Ursa major overhead,
bright diamonds in bed of coal.
Silent woods open to the sky.