Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Happiness is a skill...

I realized something today. I've been all wrong about happiness for a long time. I've been slowly stumbling toward the darkness, and whenever that happens I begin to search for a lifeline. I have often searched the wrong places. Then, today, as I was following breadcrumbs around the Internet, I came across a revelation.

Happiness is a skill, not a commodity.

I didn't dream that up on my own. I found it on an interesting little site called Raptitude. People often confuse gratification (getting what you want) with happiness. I know I have. That's the root of the problem.

So, how do you get better at a skill? You practice. How do you practice happiness? Good question. A very good question. A question worth living for. Now maybe I can stumble toward the light for awhile.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Elemental

Elemental

bursting point
hidden sanctuary
heat in the dark
burning the bones to ash
stillness untouched untraced
ripples ripples and shivers
shivering ecstasy of alone
of light
there transformed
you dance of air
the dance of time
and distance, distance
unbound
dreaming of something
to hold
you dance the time the time

Hammering the Seeds

Hammering the Seeds

(for Michael Olito)

frozen
a drift
on the prairie
no tracks in the snow
no bit of fence
to guide
a ghost
towering through the rows
dragging the plow behind
cutting deep swaths of stone
hammering the seeds home
hammering the feather once taken
roaring at the
roaring mausoleum
running with the herd
still running
watching
listening
trembling

Kicking Time

Kicking Time

(for Lesly)

crunching the air
tapping snow
sticking
sticking the moment
awake
kicking time
then away from here away from now away
but now
cooling breath of fire
breath of ice
pushing tugging
against the cord
against the past
then dive into
the vanishing ice and snow
emerge to reach and
kick and
breathe and
flow of water
in furious stillness