Meditation on Shimmering Palms and Floaters

Meditation on Shimmering Palms

On more days and nights, an invalid,
In pain and loss, I often just want to go...
Unconscious;
But then, again, I stare out
To the wind and sun
From our upstairs
Window;

There towering above, 2 lone palms
In sight from my weak haven,
Swaying in that blue expanse
In a lively coastal wind,
Their mop-tops of slender fronds
Shimmering
Like flashing magnesium flares
From brilliant reflecting
Sunshine.

Those two undulating sentinels dance
over/above my fading consciousness,
Ailing awareness--
Two unconscious messengers,
While I lay here filled with sacred
Remembrance, mindful
Of my former festive living,
Becoming, and doing...

Yes, the wonder of being a human primate
Living!
but finite so brief,

This
Gift,
this Present
Shimmering--
Then we’re gone.

Only the Center, the Light
Everlasts.



-Dan Wilcox

--
FLOATERS--a poetic reflection on autumn, the season,
and late life

I, often spent to despair,
For lost hope yearning;
Tried for years to rescue others
Caught in those tangled news hours
Of hellish hate, intolerance, despair,

Wrong right-leftist spinners,
Those creedalists and secularists
Both deniers of the morally real--
Their abyss of modern sheol winter.

Stop!
Abandon this somber cellared lament,
this dirge,

Instead, listen to hope!
My sweetheart suggests,
Let’s visit
A coastal winery!
Say, I do,
We do.

Hobbling with walker out,
She drives along a winding river valley,
We arrive, expectant,
Hoping for zest;
Then, listening to soft music,
Sipping small glasses of moscato and merlot

Enjoying a glad refreshment day,
Mellow and casual,
Light of heart,
Carefree, contented
In California’s autumn’s wonder
Below tall sycamores and elms;

After Thanksgiving before winter;
We bask in 86-degree warmth,
When unexpectedly a slightly curled
Leaf floats down before
My eyes,
And lands gently on my lap,
A died wonder for us to behold;

Then another drifter
Lets go from a large limb above,
A deep rust-brown leaf spattered
With light tan highlights and vein-lines,
Descends in front of us,

Swaying back and forth,
Languid,
Lightly
Floating down
Inches away from us,
Landing nearby
On the lawn;

I lay with my head way back,
Gazing up to the sky's azure blue,
As other gifts let go every few moments
From high above,
Swinging wide and gentle,

Falling beauty in slow motion,
Floating, swaying;
I realize—here, now--
With this Present--
I could die free, released.


In the LIGHT,

-Dan Wilcox

MEDITATION on SHIMMERING PALMS

Meditation on Shimmering Palms

On more days and nights, an invalid,
In pain and loss, I often just want to go...
Unconscious;
But then, again, I stare out
To the wind and sun
From our upstairs
Window;

There tower above, 2 lone palms
In sight from my weak haven
Swaying in that blue expanse
In a lively coastal wind,
Their mop-tops of slender fronds
Shimmering
Like flashing magnesium flares
From brilliant reflecting
Sunshine.

Those two undulating sentinels dance
over/above my fading consciousness,
Ailing awareness--
A duo/two unconscious guards,
While I lay here filled with sacred
Remembrance, mindful
Of my former festive living,
Becoming, and doing...

Yes, the wonder of being a human primate
Living, but finite, so brief, and this
Gift, this Present
Shimmering--
Then we’re gone.



new poem from Dan Wilcox,
the mutant poet:-)

Pebbled Poems of Spring

Flighting Surprise

In my morning mug
Cold milk, washed blue berries
Dark and delicious
Lay waiting for another swig

Wait; what’s that?
Adhering--a wispy white feather

Or more briefly:

flighting surprise

in my morning mug—
adhering to wet blue berries
a wispy white feather

--

humming attack

wearing my fiery red shirt
for Christmas, I open our
sliding glass door;
sudden jolt in front
of my startled face--
a flash of feathers hum-buzzes,
darts within inches of me;

but away it flits left
back to that flowering bush
along our fence--
me a reject

--







side of the road

gray shadowed mail box
overwhelmed green, red-purple
bloomed jungle wonder








--

Twilight: Crossing Shimmering Streams into Dusk and Stars


--

fall back to autumn

treetops blazing gold
with the last light of this day--
we lift our eyes

--Dan Wilcox

In the Light

Shimmering Pebbles in the Light Stream

wind shimmer

dying leaves fluttering
scarlet
oaks and aspen into glory



-Daniel Wilcox
--

Lapping Ideas

Backstroking across the ceiling
white gulls of light arching
wing refraction

from high intensity bulbs above
that shekel-flash on blue body waves of the pool
bright incandescent--transcendent--lights

swimming in this liquid marble
strikes of 'lightening' broken
and broken on the waves
like archetypes that shimmer in this cavern...



First pub. in The Centrifugal Eye,
Canada,
also in Front Porch Review
--


red ruin

red canyon
below a forrest rim
beneath that arch of power
in the monolith of rock,

a sheer cliff
and beyond,
breaking down
in the abyss
of history




--


walking the night

saplings blacken along
the sidewalk against the misted night,

a refracted light sky over
wrought iron candelabras on stands
lamping
in the coasted evening


First pub. in Writer’s Ink

--


surreal morning

bulky morro rock f l o a t s
heavy on the narrow gray
ocean fog strata, sedimentary air

while the ocean's soapy crashing
churns combustible froth
and advances up the shore;

the sun, orange
in the fogged foam below

the floating ghost ship


First pub. in Erbacce,
United Kingdom

--


Human Imitation

North of Duluth
I muse, mentally drooling
Over lake-shrouded woods,

Jotting scribble notes and
Fumbling with my camera lens,

Then I spot the enormous moose.


First pub. in Bigger Stones

--


Cambria in Gray

Down the fogged
June of ocean
Road gloom,
Through
Smog of a coastal fire,
Sparked mistake;

Black and white flakes
Confetti ash down,
Cover our hood and roof
Gray ‘mourning’--
Dust to dust,
Ash to ash


First pub. in
The Houston Literary
Review

--


sunset beach

on the beach street,
date palms stood up
in the crimson sky
feather dusting
the dusky night

--


A purple jacaranda
van-goghed our clay yard
violet-peppering into paint,
splashing
'landescape'


--


Rock Life

White-capped wind roars around
Huge volcanic buttes swimming north
Off the Oregon Coast

Like asymmetrical gray whales
Leaving splashing trails of white water
Behind in the slate green ocean

Yes, waves churning around
The behemoths, frothing


First pub. The Houston
Literary Review

--


after the loss

all my nerves torn loose
in the streets dancing jangles
staccatoed electric wires
ripped loose from our telephone
souled dangerous lightning night



First pub. in Mad Swirl

--


her strands

lighter than hair plain
her cascade of sunned strands--
his flight of calloused hands


First pub. in Writer's Ink

--


our ranch bed

icebergs in puddles
by her wet cowboy boots--
our global warming

--


shadowed garden

in the long backlawn,
ansel-adam shadows

grow in the late afternoon
extending across the grass,
shading the steel dog dish.

the hula hoop, and wagon--
a one-dimensional garden
slowly tended
by the leaving sun
only to be hoed under by the dusk



First pub. in
The Green Silk Journal

--


Southern Utah

finger-painted
eye-widening rock,
brilliant sheened sharp
pastels bold in this sun-lighted reign
of million'd wonder,

this rock garden
ecstasied
sandstone temple of
Absolute Being


--


Live Branch Reach

Writhing twists of growing
Corded effort stretched
Out westward

From the knotted
Leaning
Shadow dark
Trunk,
Bright sunlight
On the contorted
Slow-year braided flow,

Tribulating
Over
Dry boulders,
Stone-strewn
On the sand-creeked
Streambed;

Stretched wooden waves
Driftwood
Wrenched,

Intertwined effort
Convoluting,
Live branch reach

Tributaries
Flowing west with new green growth
Behind and above
The under shadows
On that barred river sand,

Living driftwood river


First published in
Western Friend Magazine,
also in Willows Wept Review and
selah river poetry collection


In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox