Birthday notes: 2010
the rough sketch of it.
my friends
I’m
reconsidering birthdays..
in tales of jungle wars and bamboo spears
and sometimes when the mood is right,
of quieter times and lesser fears.
when west coast rains
a secluded dampening grey
over log strewn beach and crumbling mansions,
the world that I surveyed
**
..in dinners with sultans, generals and princes,
in smoky circles with drums and stone age hunters,
when close to the mud, and close to the sky..
**
Considering:
When hunted in the tiger's lair
and all past and future
hung on the whim
of some nameless sniper's eye.

Or:

When tales of healing and madness,
measured courage in the halls of asylums
where life disappears down long dark hallways,
in shadows of frustrated angels in whispering white.

When jungle fears
suspend in paper chains and Cartesian reality.
walk trails of razor’s edge,
to come away from the edge of madness
knowing the value of choices,
the strengths of even indecision
when caution goes to the wind.

to be

cast before the mercy of a river
too great to describe
let alone understand.

Although
seeming mad,
a seeming foolishness,
we've lasted you and I,
to come out of walkabouts
a wealth no one can steal,
and few can understand.
to expand knowing,
with no sense of purpose
but to taste the adventure of life:
to seek out that far scattered brotherhood,
to know the life that is the earth
from tiger's lair
to the frozen land of Great Snowy Owl
and Great White Bear.
**
Life is death in bamboo thickets
death on sandy beaches
and curling waves
when the porpoise joins with a nod
and a flip of his tail.

Life:

when
great hammerhead shark surfaces,
yawns beneath the boat and disappears..
or cobra hovers,
head three feet in the air
and makes his way past..
a killer whale nudging the boat
desert scorpions beneath the groundsheet..
a razorback charging out of the trees..
and
floating in crystal blue over tropical reefs,
mysterious kaleidoscope in flesh finned feathers
questioning presence..
or
hanging in blue sky
suspended by white silk,
one with clouds,
one with the dominion of birds
in weightless mist..
these diversions
at the edge of the void.

sometimes

a walk to the edge of the universe,
to stare into the void,
turning

returning to Earth
with fellow dream seekers,
and shared dream walkers

where in some realms
where no Medicine is allowed for the illusion of madness,
even madmen are held accountable for their actions.
***