A Star to Steer By

Out on the deck,
night is coy,
riffling the ocean,
tossing clouds
across the sky,
revealing
a waxing moon.

A cruise passenger
points out
an oversize star.
I suggest
it’s a planet.

Does it matter?
We need only
a gleam in the night,
something to hitch
our hopes to,
a star to steer by.

Maybe our captain
should read
the night sky.
Countless mariners
before him
have set sail
in canoes
with only
a map in the stars. 

One Day of Glory

The hibiscus greets me
like a secret lover
courting on the sly.
She peers in my window,
gaily clad in pink,
her graceful petals
reaching toward me.
A day later, her petals
unfold part way,
tremble in the breeze,
tumble to the ground. 

Perspectives

Earth as a giant teardrop
spinning in space,
dotted by landscapes
spewed up from a molten core.

Souls as God’s teardrops
strewn into galactic night,
birthing wild hope, tenderness
and love from a cauldron of rage.

My soul an icy teardrop
suspended in space
light years beyond hope,
swirling in oceans of fear. 

Socorro Potter

The greenware tumbles haphazardly near
her kiln by bowls and elongated bells
she fired with love and glazed with care.
Remote Socorro boasts no culture, just bare hills,
a desert sun, unending sky and rock.
The ranchers tend their cattle, till the fields.
Leona pots alone, creating a flock
of earthen vessels, harvesting the yields
from molds, then painting bold designs
of thunderbirds and lightning bolts in black
and orange backed with beige. These sweeping lines,
so swift, so clean reveal her daring, her knack
for shining through the clouds, for standing firm,
for following the path her soul discerns. 

Sunday Morning in Florence

Lazy, the sun
stretches its arms
and slides over
the bridges along the Arno.
In a plaza nearby,
four sleepy tourists
stretch their legs
in the spring sun
while people amble by,
as if perceiving
a hint in the air
of summers gone by,
long nights along the river,
embraces once engulfing.
The tower of the Old Palace
welcomes the crowd
swirling silently
at its feet. 

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