Every once I'm happy,
Twice I'm sad
Ice slides down my back
Don't do something you'd regret
My hands tremble
From the weight of my life
I am caught in my sentiment

Twice unhappy
Joy come back to me
Fly free on high winds
The damp, dark earth beckons
I push myself off the floor
Hark the shadows that awaken
Gone is my ephemeral sentiment

Like ribbons of smoke dancing in the air
You were beautiful
You were the Northern lights
Important enough to be watched in the freezing cold
You were fleeting and sweet
Cream swirling in coffee
Ripples in a pond
I loved you
But like all ephemeral things
Eventually you left too.

naming the world
is our daily task
temporary and forever new
challenging and ambiguous

   like the name of the rose

only few names last
most are forgotten
the young ones usually
do not understand

   a rose is a rose is a rose

names can move masses
   Oedipus Napoleon ****** Ghandi
   Jesus Stalin Mohammed Rockefeller
or just a few
  or one or two

names are what
remains of us
   aids to some fleeting thoughts
   in the dear memories of friends
imprinted on official pages
   and electronic discs
strange signs for future generations

to name
   against the flow of time
   what we see hear feel taste smell  and do
   our dreams and visions and desires
   the thoughts we have and those
   we do not dare to think
   and to name those we love and hate
fills our lives

  the rose is

             * *

She speaks in tongues and earthwards—
Angels fall listening how to know divinity
From lips that open and close as do tides
Slip, blooming with the face of the moon.

She walks in airs of splendour and light—
Shoulders kin, her child riding on a beam
Vanquishing the sun with celebrated night
Set in reflection on lake waters, little moon.

If rain could kiss the sun,
The clouds, so cold, would feel warm
They'd finally touched the impossible

The sun would smile because
It has always shone alone;
But rain came in and touched its soul
And it prefers company to light

But rain has touched everyone and
Those it shears it longs no more
But the sun thought it was different

But rain is ephemeral
And flames are permanently extinguished
So the sun died down and tried to shine
And it rained on Earth again-no different

Autumn reminds me of black leaves and dead lips
adolescence left to die on empty swing sets