Adirondack Autumn

The days are pleasant, sunny and cool
Sunset arrives too soon but glorious high altitude/high latitude, deep purple twilight drags on
Each morning the sun rises on mist-filled valleys
Vibrant rays across earthbound clouds of pure white

The meadows take on a golden glow as goldenrod flowers and grasses give up their chlorophyll to the frosty nights
In nearby woods and windbreaks, hints of fall colors begin to appear - a branch here, a tree there
Down in the wet lands, maples are already shading towards red and orange
While the hillsides show a muted tint of yellows and browns

Peak "foliage" comes early to the landscape around Saranac Lake
Locals look forward to the changing tide of color if not the flood of leaf-peepers that with it always wash ashore.
And where ever we gather, we rate this year's colors against those of the past
And lament the rains or the winds that almost always seems to cut the season short.

Moon in Aries

The moon from full barely waning
'cross the water blows a warm and gentle breeze
But the fire of Aries sets good intentions ablaze
Setting anger alight, bringing love to its knees

For this day cultivate inner freedom
While you quietly set self apart
Celebrate Shakti, sensuality, eternity
Let another day be for conflicts of heart

Summer fading

(words & music copyright Michael R. Martin) - the sounds of the crickets this time of year always remind me of this song I wrote in late August while at Meadowlark Music Camp. The crickets' song sounds sad to me because it reminds that summer is fading away.


Summer is fading away
Crickets seek their last fling
The stars still shine, and the bats still fly,
but they can't seem to catch anything.

Fat spiders snuggle up close to the eaves
but the grass is still green, collecting dew.
Thinking 'bout life and the passage of time:
dark skies and moonlight and you;
dark skies and midnight and you.

In the shade of an old oak tree
waves lap at the shore.
I've often pondered the spectrum of life
but it don't seem to matter no more.

Fat spiders snuggle up close to the eaves
but the grass is still green, collecting dew.
Thinking 'bout life and the passage of time:
dark skies and moonlight and you;
dark skies and midnight and you.

I never thought it would come.
No I never wished for this day.
Now that it's here, I miss you, my dear.
But I can't think of nothing to say.

Fat spiders snuggle up close to the eaves
but the grass is still green, collecting dew.
Thinking 'bout life and the passage of time:
dark skies and moonlight and you;
dark skies and midnight and you.

Family Reunion; And I Ponder Intersecting Lives

A recent Martin family reunion, where I saw aunts and uncles and cousins I hadn't seen for 10 years, left me thinking about how we each have our individual lives and how, occasionally, the circles of our lives briefly - and often, barely - overlap the life circles of others.

Our own world whirls about us, madly and gladly, and we are so absorbed within its spirals. And then, for a brief moment, we cross paths with others whose own world whirls madly and gladly about themselves.

I've always thought how strange there are so many lives out there going on without our knowledge. I used to sit on a bank overlooking a highway with my best college buddy and wonder about those lives I'll never know in each passing car.

We each carry our own little world about us. We leave the house, loved ones left behind, and their little worlds go on without us, as ours without them. Children go off to school for the day; and later off to college for a whole semester at a time. And their world is no longer ours, and ours no longer theirs. Except in those moments when our circles overlap.

So strange. So strange.

We are all aliens in our own little bubbles of life in a giant world of alien-filled bubbles.

So strange. So strange.

And the ultimate act of overlap is to take another in your arms, and wrap one another, skin on skin, bubbles completely merged, for those few glorious moments where there is no mine and there is no yours; boundaries dissolve and the two worlds becomes one and infinite, two as one.

And then, breathless and flushed, you slowly tease your circles apart. And life resumes, no longer so alien and alone. For as long as it lasts.

Only, try as you might, no two can maintain a singular bubble of one. And one day, once again, you realize you are alone in your bubble, looking out at the world looking in.

A night spent listening

Crickets sang all night
And at first light
Joined by thrush & robin song

Wonder I what was being said
While others lay wrapped in dreams, in bed
Until my chance for sleep had gone

The deck, damp of evening's rain
Through steel-grey clouds day dawns again
Such a night of wondrous pondering be judged wrong

Purity of Vision

I look at the world
And see the beauty of its infinite shades of color
Life and love and the universal connection of it all.

But with that vision comes the ability to see all of the world's darkness as well

But mostly, I see beauty

Jody

A true friend
For all the long nights we spent talking by the lake
A true friend
For all the long nights silently sitting at the end of the dock
A true friend
For when your heart stopped, I forgot how to breathe

Disconnect

This disconnect
May be of my own making
But it is not of my own choosing

Alone

We are all alone in this life:
Alone in birth,
Alone in breath,
Alone in thought,
Alone in death.

The effect of time on love

As people grow
They grow apart
Time breaks the bond
Of love and heart

Reflecting at Lake Clear Beach

Wind in the pines and quaking aspens
A steady hiss against the rhythmic lapping of gentle waves
Quiet voices breaking through like wordless notes in a natural scale
A gathering of worshipers of sun and water
Teens on their own, mothers with small children
And one winter-white, tattooed biker

I see that chubby is the new slim
And that's okay, too
So much better than obsessing over figure and fashion

The breeze, not high enough to keep the biting insects away
I am a smorgasbord for black flies and mosquitoes

I reflect upon the years gone by at the beach
As a child on Cape Cod, catching hermit crabs with my baby sister, building little lagoons and sand castles for the little crabs
Gilford Beach with friends and girlfriend
Goffstown State Park after work, single and alone, brief affair with the lovely lifeguard
This very beach with son and daughter, from diapers to teen
And now me, here, alone, contemplating the look & feel of my remaining years

Alone looks pretty good right now

New Rain

Far off lightning flash, then thunders
The air is filled with fragrant wonders
Grass and blossoms, dampened earth
Each scented breath of priceless worth