a dream so bright

the dream I woke from was so bright

it took half an hour for me to realize

it was a dark and cloudy day

the trouble with autumn

the trouble with autumn

in the Midwest is that

there are no blue trees

to complete the rainbow

How to love the broken

I don't know how 

to communicate

through all the broken 

glass and spikes you

have wrapped yourself 

in that you are loved 

and liked and you

do not have to be 

like your mother

or let her have 

this power over you

anymore.

Eclipse with clouds and rain

Somewhere above the clouds tonight

was an interesting eclipse I wish I'd seen:

half the moon in the shadow of the earth

and half reflecting all the sun. But it was

completely overcast, autumn cold and

drizzly, and all I could see when I looked

up was the rain and the city lights 

reflecting down off the clouds, and I

wanted to know how to show love 

to this broken person in my life, but 

I can't see past the clouds and the cold rain.

October haiku

.

rain falls on the roof
winter comes to steal the warmth
the trees bleed and rust

.

.

the tree on the left under a solidly cloudy sky

the tree on the left
is glowing with such brilliant
gold in the gloom that
at first I thought the sun
had come out and spoiled
my lovely, melancholy day

ordinary moments

Today there were 3
fortunes in my fortune cookie.
Good fortune or bad?

Two of the fortunes
were lost in translation, but
the third, at least, is
worth contemplating:

There are
no
ordinary moments.

Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona, Spain

The travel website says
you should leave at least
half an hour to fully enjoy

the cathedral.  It has 34
chapels, a unique exterior
and interior, and it would
take me hours even to glance

over all the glorious light and
shadow, especially because
the windows were built to
make the nature of the light
change inside as the sun
moves across the sky outside,

something I would never
have noticed on my own,
because who can sit still
and watch surrounded by
all that soot-stained stonework,
imagining the raising of the
keystone and arches with

ropes and pulleys and
sweat and blood
and Plague and Inquisition
or the time it burned for
11 days and almost fell apart.

The travel website is silly
to think 30 minutes can
contain all that beauty.

It's probably a good
thing I will never go there
because I would weep
at all those tourists

who could see all
they wanted to see
(who thought they had
seen everything
there is to see)
in 30 minutes.