Pursuit

 Joy is too large to wrap

Anything around,

Mind, Body, universe...

Whereas happy seems to fit

like a coin, a stone, a ladybug,

in the palm

leaving no trace.

Happy comes and goes

while Joy

lingers

imperceptibly, inescapably

Inside.

After chasing

Thing to thing

The cat purrs on my chest-

He cannot get any closer. 

Image credit: me. Photo of SSW, aka Smokey, c. 10/21/2022. 

Nature vs. Nurture

Madness. No.
Happiness is fleeting glints
called Moments
we had it all

going along, the way we rolled
dice, high and wide
and thought throwing our cubic weight
around displaced any

matter our way at all.
Red. I read it in black and white,
No. I saw an orca pass through,
rarely, winter in San Diego

so it was weird, and then I remember
they are more traveled than we
and speak louder
amongst themselves, miles away

intonation carries, not by volume
of course-migration.
This is the name we gave to travel
frequently, and holiday and cetacean

all of our conceptual ponds.

No. This makes sense.
We were just busy with containing
must and should, which we may need
to carry with us atop this

Madness. Spinning out of alignment.
Speed wobbles. Yes or No
should have been enough
for a firefly or bacteria to glow.



Painting by Johan Christian Dahl (1819) in [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

This Tragic Lovelife

Because I love my life,
all my secret dreams are shadowed in my reality Now
and I see This-a secret I keep,
I feel its loss and know This solidifies This sentiment.
I cherish the fragility
manifest in created destinies, like these
small acts greater than one's capacity,
to acknowledge
-This is Happy-
and Then
there is little me in big denial
smiling from year to year
at the missed opportunity
of being present-ly and ceremoniously
single.

Because I hate myself,
all my good intentions rot and fester in Dis-regard,
and I see that I am not alone in this,
that makes me yearn for more silence
and To Be Better
than I am
to me
We should agree to disagree
like both sides of me
in equality.


Image By Currier & Ives [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

At the end of a rainbow

Maybe balance is found
when we don't carry
more than we need.

Maybe wealth is found
not wanting more
than we have earned.

Maybe forgiveness
can be found
from others who give.

Maybe love can be found
when we stop looking
for ourselves.

Maybe wisdom is found
when knowing
doesn't answer the questions.

Maybe happiness
is finding wonder where
intangible things
may be...




Image By Jon Sullivan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

"Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks"--Chaucer (c.1343-1400)

Haiku VIII

A cup of JOY spills-

drips over the chalice rim

eternal Spring flows

Image of painting Lilla Cabot Perry (1848-1933), "The cup of knowledge, 1905" [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.