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JULY

ONE SAN RAMON, OUR SAN RAMON

Every day, I step outside under the blue-black sky of early morning

Bare feet, cold concrete

The local paper waiting silently

Flung there by some mysterious unseen hand

I pause to look above,

Count the stars, name the ones I know,

Polaris, Ursa, Orion

And whisper a grateful thanks to the ever-present moon

Changing shape each night as it dances across this winter sky

 

How lucky we are to live in this valley

In the shadow of Mount Diablo

Where pioneers and farmers and family men

stopped to plant and build and grow

Laying the foundation for this time and this place we love

This place we know as home

 

Home to tenth-generation Californians, and next generation citizens

All united in our love of this place

Quality schools, welcoming churches and a cathedral of fresh air

Here we give thanks for plentiful parks and fields and miles of trails,

Rushing streams that appear after big rains,

and hillsides flecked with wildflowers and families

 

We worship light poles dotted with sentry-like hawks

Shady-treed medians and wide-open spaces

festivals and fireworks and farmer’s markets

places to greet and gather and return to often

reminding us all of our shared sense of pride

Our community and commitment

Our San Ramon, One San Ramon

Home

 

AUGUST

TUESDAY

I woke to the smell of coffee

And the realization

Again

That you are not of this world

No longer of this World

 

I write down memories

I say your name

I study birds in the morning sky

In the hope I can keep you alive.

 

Already you are fading

Disappearing

Day turns to deep dark night

And my brother asks for signs

 

I only ask for answers

What is permanent? What is real?

 

SEPTEMBER

HAIKU IN THE QUAD

Culturefest at school

Rock with an Indian beat

Girls sing in saris

 

OCTOBER

SKYLIGHT

I turn a corner

The sudden shock of the moon

Overpowering a just darkened sky

This October night

Insistent

through closed shutter slats

No denying its pull

Heart rising with the fall

I cannot sleep

The moon will be here, always still

A permanent fixture

in this transitory life

 

NOVEMBER

WAKE UP CALL

The routine sameness of the drive to work.

Sorting through the day ahead.

This, then that, this, then that

 

Next to me, great blue heron

Gliding along, matching me mile for mile

Startles me back into a bigger life, waiting.

 

DECEMBER

NEW AGE, FACEBOOK PAGE

Cave paintings, smoke signals, writing in the sand

Throughout the ages, across the miles,

From heart to heart and hand to hand

The world grows close, the world expands

On foot, on horseback and by air, Today through cyberspace Connect.

Respond. Network. Brag.

The medium is the message, and the message is clear.

Is anybody listening?

Does anybody care?

Here in this moment, we proclaim we're alive

You have something to say, I've got something to share

The human connection, so deep and so true

Now digitally keeps me tethered to you

 

JANUARY

JANUARY RAINS

An arsenal of clouds

Rolling strong across

This winter sky

Gun-metal grey and angry

 

We've been waiting for this, poised and ready

Supplicant

Saving the rinse water

Letting the flowers go

A penance for our excesses

 

FEBRUARY

SKY FOR LUNCH

Heart centered day today

Rouses me from stacks and lists

Rising from my desk I turn

And detour out the door

Aged all-knowing treebark face

Winks with grace and praise

......Lunch today is a piece of sky

Served cool and iridescent blue

Nourishment for my soul and self

Carried swift along rain-glutted creek

........Changed, Still, Present, New

 

MARCH

INTO THE RAIN

Safeway parking lot

early morning, almost light

lone duck waddle-wanders

between the lines

across the vast,

through sudden puddles -

aimless and unhurried

while we rush past

 

APRIL

NATURE STORY

These soft April hills

will soon lose their green to dry and dusty brown

Today we watch the lavender

and mustard

and dancing daffodils

spread wild along the path of pioneers

whose histories bloom each spring

 

MAY

MAY DAY

Today’s walk

littered with

last night’s windstorm

brittle branches

broken, orphaned here along the pavement

helplessly still

this still May morning

Across my vision like

a silent movie, a slow moving dreamscape

doe in flight, scattered heaps, swoop of wings

Once we carried buds to Mary

twirled around her maypole arms

Once you brought me tiny flowers

promising a lifetime still,

life unfolding, hour by hour

day by day, May by May