world after world in dreams
each one with a history
full of people laughing and crying

part of every one
without pause
every notion of yourself





!

after you
came
and lay on the bed

warm
half
in dream content

did you
think
of staying with me

alas you
thought
of other men




***

on this day we are like spun sugar cotton candy

"Who did you decide to become this time?
  Wow! That is neat!"
               -- Samantabhadra

on this day we are like spun sugar cotton candy
in the penetrating sun all bright and light
we are like dancing kites balloons
zooming like larks zooming like the light

on this day we are all samely successful
becoming who we are and unbecoming it
just dropping it later in the end like
an old pair of pants or threadbare excuse

to drop all like a shell like a battle like
a saddle like a leaky boat like an old shoe
not needed for anything now used into
the endlessness of a view that is beyond

home again in the beginningless beginning
and to be in it like this oh heaven
you might consult and decide to come back
if you could be of some help or of some joy


___

For Latif

he's looking out the window
occasionally laughing and smiling
at the endlessness of it and the beauty
while i'd be wondering why
it had to rain today of all days

he has deathlessness in his eyes
in his smile in his hands in his face
in his walk in his clothes in his cup
in his shoes in these memories
i hear crickets tonight


-----

for Tesdrup Tharchin

i have a million stars

i have a million stars
in my mind as i walk a country road
i'm treading over fields of forever
vineyard noisemakers like cannons
boom boom boom

how can stars
and beings made from star dust
not ever think of one another
and birds flying up some
to other solar systems
if you said



**

Napa
8-18

on what might be possible / or what we feel is impossible

on what might be possible
or what we feel is impossible
what we feel is closed or open
or a relationship lost or found
we know nothing

knowing we know so little
of this be encouraged
expect good news
embrace everything
keep your heart open
and life will knock the rust
off mental hinges

and doors
will be blown open and you
can embrace a bigger heart
a wild bright love
will come your way
and you will catch your breath
and be alive and not transform
into a quiet ball of lead

there's no order
to the shakeup of an old life
staid dread certainty

old abuse falls and
because we are love
love finds us



_____

grand illusion

it rains
i play the accordion
i walk the unpaved road
people stop on their way to the lake
they roll down their windows
they smile and ask me to play happy birthday

i play
i'm playing my dreams
playing into the past into the future
i'm not here in the body or this instrument
there's no afternoon or road or gently falling rain
no happy birthday tune no people enjoying the song

we're all
discovering over
and over again a grand illusion
one that is as amazing as it is heartbreaking
loving it is like an afternoon with gently falling rain
on a road with mysterious persons meeting and parting



*

Eagle Lake
Late Summer 2017

i don't understand / but i know it is fine

                       -- August 6

i don't understand
but i know it is fine

my whole life
has been this way

when i was little
i could not make it wrong

with thinking
excusing or whatever

i have to keep
remembering how simple

how totally
wonderful everything is

because every time
you see something again

it is a new object
and you have different eyes

this means
you and i are loved

this means
you and i are free

we have
always been so always will



**

for Tesdrup Tharchin
... everything you taught me

it was the same thing
but i could not remember what it was

as unforgettable as a peacock's plumes
or the funniest joke you've ever heard

i resorted to turning into an ocean
dotted with islands

the moon rose and i closed
my dream eyes

i never knew either of you
i remember a toddler who played with ducks
now a grown teenager
a bit older than my daughter

you mug with a pipe she smiles
the kid between the two of you
and he looks happy and
both of you look happy too

judgement of others the invisible guillotine
a phantom firing squad
a cruel decider
you say you do not know

no worried mind
all things on time
keeping one's intention
sharp awake and fair

bright and light
quick is the view
opposite to dark