Closing your eyes,
seeing the past,
a kind of reliving,
but clearer than ever.

Moments of torment,
days of delight,
fragments of failure,
sunlight of success.

Your memory a mirror,
looking past is now present,
that which was blurred,
now is truth uncovered.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

One strand of your hair,
one kiss of your neck,
one whiff of your fragrance,
one touch of your cheek--
all make me meek.

One brush of your lips,
one moment in your arms,
one moan of your arousal,
one cry of your pleasure--
all are my treasures.

One memory of your pulchritude,
one scintilla of your charm,
one taste of your sweetness,
one ineffable feeling of love--
all are heaven's doves.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Ungun Earth.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

All 8,000,000,000 human beings are regal--no, divine.
But several billion of them are poor or extremely poor.
The World Bank says 10,000 children around the world
die every day of starvation. Moreover, if you totaled
the net worth of only the 10 wealthiest nations, you
would find it to be $307,000,000,000,000. If you divide
307 trillion dollars by 8 billion human beings, each
human being on Earth would receive $46,250, but the
poor right now try to survive on less than $2.00 a day.
Does this bother any of you as much as it does me?
But if we coronated every human being on Earth, there
would be far, far, far fewer children dying every day
and far, far, far human beings trying to survive on
less than $2.00 a day.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I'm walking down a country road just west
of Silver Lake with my dog, Cinder. Just east
is the Kansas River, woods between it and me.
I'm not alone exactly. With me are Sherry,
Stephani, Kathleen, Susan, Cara, Anne, Cynthia,
Nancy, Kristin, and Patricia--at least in memory.
As I amble, I'm in a trance. Moments of laughter.
Afternoons of picnics--hotdogs, potato salad,
lemonade. Trips to the Rockies. Steamboat Springs
was my favorite destination. When you got high
enough in the mountains, not only could you see
their majesty, but even better, you could smell
the fragrance of the evergreens, the ultimate high.
Rafting down the Arkansas River sometimes,
down the Colorado other times. A melange of
memories. Decades of intimacy, nights of passion.
Some tears, but more kisses than tears. Cinder
kept up with me as I would occasionally kick up
dust as I continued my country walk. If was as if
I were walking through my past. I guess that's
exactly what I was doing, remembering the mountain
air, the tender touches, the silence lying side by side.
I was taking a walk down a country road with Cinder,
but we were not alone.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

We are here only for a short time.
Our lives are ephemeral, so it is all
the more important that we make
them count. Count the days, the months,
the years. There aren't many between
the day we're born and the day we die.
So love every moment of your lives.
The more love you give, the more love
you receive. Look beneath bad behavior
and you will find a hurting soul that
needs someone's tender heart to heal.
Put your guns and bombs away. Turn
all your prisons into Love Centers. Wars
will cease to be. With love as world's motif,
wars will turn into festivals of caring
and sharing. No one will do without,
because love will spread throughout
the world as the good news and good
deeds meet all needs.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Who will remember us,
or is it not infinitely
more important that
we come to know our
real selves? Statues,
whether marble or steel,
will whither away in time
or be pulled down by those
who come to see misdeed
from magnanimity. In Cosmos,
only the real self is everlasting.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS