The surface

 of the water mirrors

many things.

-Masumi Kato

 (from Japanese Death Poems)

Sophie (201?- 2024) and Finn (red dog) playing in the Rio Grande (photo circa 2014)
RIP Sophie.

 

My morning porridge

and then I'll go to see

the willow blossom.

Kusamaru (death poem 1836)

Cold-desert phlox in the foothills' spring bloom

 

The Spiral

Out of shadow I, but no longer saying I,

Move myself from my self in an opening spiral,

Drawn toward the light in understanding why

One cell may be one cell yet see the spiral

-John Holmes

Spiral Ridge, Placitas Open Space sunrise

 

Today's Studio View

pandemic graphite drawings

 

 On a journey, ill:

my dream goes wandering

over withered fields.

Basho

from Japanese Death Poems

Sandia Mountain fiery sunrise

First Light in the Mountain Today

HERE it is this

must be that spring to come,

outside the vexing world:

lotus blossoms opening

through my door, in the dawn sky.

Jakuren

 

MORNING WINTER FIRE

 

 

February 

SNOW MOON

...As the moon hangs, a lantern on the peak...

Jakushitsu Genko

from Sandia foothills

 

from Spiral Mesa

Winter Moon

Opening the window at midnight, the night air cold,

Garden and roof gleaming white,

I go to the veranda, stretch out my hand to scoop up 

some snow-

Didn't I know that moonlight won't make a ball?

Kokan Shiren

 

Watching the moon go down

Set now,

and I too will go below

the rim of the hill-

so night after night

let us keep company

Myoe

 

A thousand clouds among a myriad streams

And in their midst a person at his ease...

Hanshan

Day after a storm, left over storm clouds. 

 

Pacis Carissima

The artworld lost one of its best

Painting by LaVerne Harper (1951-2024)

 

Bright bright!

bright bright bright!

bright bright! 

bright bright bright! 

Bright bright, the moon!

Myoe

December's Cold Moon setting from Bear Canyon Trail