“Life is so much simpler and real when you are kind
and a lover of all God’s creations, truth, and light…”

“A sunset like rainbow sorbet
Melts its pastel chills of color
Down sleeping bones in dreams…”

“This picturesque Garden of Eden
Became a shelter from storms…”

“She is my home of affection
and serene refuge.”

“…as AI assimilates everything
I fear—we no longer own us”

“in my winding
eroding passage
to the ocean of life…”

“death is not an end of life
or forfeiture of opportunity…”

“my bones are etched in peens of ache

and my lungs are hardening to stone…”

“beneath azure and magenta skies

a blushing sun reveals her skin…”

“the moon smiles down at me

from its reticent February lair…”

“as we walk along its paths of divine warmth
hand in hand—we steadily become the light
and the sun settles behind the mountains”

“there are only two

who water and minister

to the wilderness of my soul”

“I realize again—that between anger’s red rage
spread upon squawks of yellow flaming fury
and soft cooler heads of a kind flowing river
blue will forever remain my favorite color”

“I wish I could breathe again—

on peaks that raised me”

“this is my greatest secret of life…”

Photo courtesy of my friend Rod Sorenson rcoakley.com

“we are echoes of God’s gift

dwelling inside natural temples”

“a hope of sharing in long adventures to happiness

on steps that ascend into the endless realms of family”

“sculptors gardeners barriers impediments”

“I am free to pay water’s price in a bottle,
even if it’s more than 3,000 times greater
in cost— for a similar drink from a tap.”

“and they will aid us in arduous steps

if we take some time

to get to know them by name…”