Two Ghazals from a Series
#1
All the love lost between us over the years . . .You found your share and mine in another's arms
Dried rose petals are still slightly fragrant
but what was left to me was the brown-water vase
The yellowing aspens, in sunlight, remind me of honey;
My graying beard reminds me to sweep the hearth's ashes
If this ceiling could stare back at me as intently,
Surely it would not think itself blank, think itself blank
O poet, there you go again with that damned TV -
Not to kill the silence, but to drown out the words
#4
Dust motes glitter in the cracked curtain's light
O to be so light as to defy all gravity!
A heart that has depth might be a great blessing,
But so much light is needed to reach the far corners!
Leaves fall from the cottonwoods that surround me
Such a clear view of the distance; so little shade
Far in the distance, a stream of traffic never ends
The endless stream the soul seeks is still beyond my sensing
A songbird delights though it sings boasts or love plaints;
Silence without stillness is a heart's undoing
