Words Of Guidance

Namaste and welcome. I've been working hard on getting caught up with the blog, and I'm excited for people to check out some of my new work. As the years go by, my blog mentality is changing. I'm using this blog more and more as a home for writings that might not have a place in my books.

There's lots of new work here, and I'm still adding more. But blogs are weird. I mean the way they are organized. As you read, you go down, of course. But as you go from one piece to the next, you have to move up--the top being the newest. And the more I think about it, the more I realize the different needs of different readers.

So, perhaps you want to know what's new. If you're after the brand new stuff, you can scroll down or click on these: a poem about fall, a story about buzzards, some writing notes, some car writing, more thoughts on writing, words on my first march, a D.C. mission, and some words about the good old sweat garage.

Or, perhaps you haven't been here in a long while. In which case you might want to check out: the sparkling forest, thoughts on soccer and sound, a link to free music, a NYC mission, the spider walk, a big travel piece with writing and photos, or some wild static.

And if you've never been here. There's all kinds of stuff, such as: one from the old bike tour days, a piece about President Obama's Inauguration, some barefoot weirdness, thoughts on things, and of course, the always popular, travels with Marley.

Thanks again, and have fun and safe travels,

Jeff

green and gold and the magic of fall

I started walking today

without any words in my head,

just walking,

out the door,

up the sidewalk,

make a right

and down the street.

but when I made

that right turn

I saw something beautiful.

it was October,

leaves were starting

to change,

still lots of green

but the gold was growing.

down low,

the locust trees

were almost all gold.

up high—

and here comes the beautiful thing—

the tulip poplars were still very green.

high above

the neighborhood rooftops,

my eyes found

one big and very unique

poplar tree.

its great bulbous canopy

was nearly all green

except for a pocket

of golden leaves,

near the center of the tree.

the golden patch

stood out exquisitely

in the true and even light

of a rainy afternoon.

I saw this poplar

tree and now the words

were springing up

in my mind.

but Marley didn’t

want to just stand there.

his dog-eyed

view of the world

was taking him forward.

he had lots of smelling to do,

lots of p-mail to check.

“okay Marley,” I said.

as we walked on.

then,

maybe fifteen minutes later,

we came to the turn-around moment,

one of the happiest

parts of the walk.

once we turn around,

I am no longer walking away.

now, I am walking back,

back to the pages that

are waiting to be filled

in my writing room.

I walked a little faster

on the way back.

now, not only did I have the

writing to look forward to,

but I had this poplar tree

with the golden patch in the center.

and I was singing the song

in my head as I walked along:

“I’ve been to Hollywood.

I’ve been to Redwood.”

then we came to the place

where I saw the poplar

tree for the first time.

I looked above the rooftops.

there it was,

with leaves undulating gently

to the subtle action of the air,

a quivering image

made from trillions

and trillions

and trillions of cells.

the tree had a confident stance,

tall, straight, with leafy chest

puffed out proudly,

and in the center

a huge

ten-foot

heart of gold.