Beauty Manifested

An early morning walk with my old dog

Under just a thin sliver of the moon.

Then a quick drive to meet up with a friend

To run eight miles and back to the Jones Falls.

As I drove on the quiet Fayette Street

Toward where we planned to start our morning run,

I saw red-or’nge almost mushy sun

Rising just above the eastern horizon.

Thin clouds that stretched a line from north to south

Looked as though they had pierced the morning sun.

A landscape beautiful to remember.

The trip was in pursuit of running to

Running water that would be by our side.

We share a love of water rushing as

We run together in good company.

Approaching the falls, I spoke of the sun

Reflecting on its beauty like the falls.

And as we ran the “back” of out-and-back,

The water was no longer by our side

But drizz’ling down from a now mid-gray sky

Enough to cool but not enough to drench.

Beauty manifested for us again.

Finding beauty in very many things

And very many people whom I meet

Brings serenity to a crazy life,

And happiness, making my life complete.

So if I were to offer just a thought

To anyone who’d care to listen now

I would say, “Take a moment to observe

And find the beauty and joy in the world

Around you.” Then take a very deep breath

And pause a moment. You’ll find—life is good.

Forever Strong Guide

For about a week I’d found that I’d lost

Any sense of the poetry of Frost.

No routes could be called much less traveled by

In a place where people number so high.

While I think of hist’ry in centuries

In China this is far surpassed with ease;

For there, millennia make history

With a scope beyond my reality.

Diff’rent dialects around the country.

Amazing things to smell, taste, hear, and see.

Such people and things over so much time

Brings a question to the front of my mind

How does each person turn out who they are?

Some with lighter complexions and some dark?

Some in spaces so amazingly small?

Some in life who just seem to have it all?

Asking about more than a billion souls

Now and back through a historical whole

Makes my existence feel very tiny

A blink in the span of eternity.

The question I’d posed where I had been found

Made me feel compelled to turn it around.

To ask about my own reality

I find a clarified answer for me.

Despite billions of asks I always find

While searching the deepest parts of my mind

That my authentic forever strong guide

Is the love for others I have inside.

To show.  To share.  To live.  Forever true.

To give of myself to the so many who

Cross my path even for a short time

Enriching the eternity of mine.

The Spirit of a Hug (A Nuanced Acrostic)

A treadmill gives no hugs when I am done

An hour workout consisting of a run.

Repeated many times while I’m away

Alone for work a week and sev’ral days.

A time without even a brief embrace

Celebrating togetherness in space

And thought and sound and sight and smell and feel

Is something that I wish was not for real.

To hold a friend for even just a blink

Yields understanding not needing to think

A generosity that’s quite intense

A spirit shared—not needing to make sense.

The spirit of a hug just needs to be

A chance for two to join in harmony

Of saying, “I am present for you here.

I share the vision that you hold so dear.

In life, to have peace and serenity

With help from those who stick around with me.”