I feel your arms around me
as I think of you today,
and like so many other times,
send letters as I pray.

You left us oh so long ago;
a lifetime, so it seems,
and often visit as I sleep,
if only in my dreams.

Your spirit still so present here;
so oft you bring me calm,
and with this heav’nly letter,
send my love up to you, Mom.

Insidious is your hold on those
in your grasp,
depleting all life and energy
from loved ones,
as we watch them waste away
to nothingness.

Pain is the king of all;
we are under your spell,
visiting family, friends,
and loved ones
with your blackness,
as we writhe in agony.

Cancer, you *******!
You’ve taken my heart,
and taunt me as those I love
fall to your
armies of
death.

I’ve walked this graying, foreign land,
inviting me to tread its dust,
I’ve questioned why, this rugged path,
and why I’ve had to brave so much.

I’ve cried so many useless tears,
for heartbreaks life has trust on me,
which left my journey full of fears,
tormenting me incessantly.

Yet in this world that I’ve trudged through,
I’ve found some gifts I can’t ignore;
the childhood love I wished I knew,
and quiet that my strength restored.

So, with my feet set on the moon,
earth’s vision forms in front of me,
and I embrace this distant dune,
where I’ve been sent to be set free.

Waiting for the springtime warmth,
to melt away the snows,
I see the green of springtime growth,
break through the crust below.

Through long and frigid winter months
and dangers that were fraught,
our northern states have braved the cold,
that mother nature brought.

Through banks of ice cream frosted snow,
that wrapped the land in white,
the brave green shoots of newborn grass,
peek through with morning's light.

The cold is lifting, none too soon;
it’s fled before the melt,
and left this wanting, summer soul,
rapt with the joy I've felt.

Dancing to the distant strains,
of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon.
beneath October’s starlit skies,
we sang this classic tune.

While fireworks lit the darkened path,
we twirled away the night,
and gazed into each other’s eyes,
while waiting for first light.

Your lips met mine beneath the light,
as passion filled our hearts,
reflected in the bonfire’s blaze,
that lit the forest schwartz.

Though many years have since flown by,
and both have gone our ways,
I still can feel the crisp fall air,
as we loved the night away.

Once through my bolted windowpane, so oft I saw the angry rain,
and as my life lie on the floor, I once endured a tortured war.
And through those rain-streaked by-gone days, my world was stained a muddied gray,
while fighting through the struggles of each day.

But now my window's open wide, the vastness of today can’t hide,
I see a world of brilliant hues, through eyes that see a different view.
‘Tis hope that brings me to my feet, and makes me dance with joy complete,
to sounds of life that come with bliss so sweet.

Life calls me now upon the wind, to join it’s dance of life again,
it brings joy to this aging soul, for what was broken, now’s made whole,
and through that window now I see, the beauty life was meant to be;
like magpies singing on the morning breeze.

As I walk the morning beach alone,
with sunlight on my face,
I search to find these treasured bits
in this, a magical place.

These gifts the seas give endlessly,
are tossed before my hands,
all wet with the foamy surf-brought brine,
they glisten in the sand.

A dwelling once for housing life,
discarded now they find,
a special place within the one,
with solitude of mind.

This quiet life of beachcombers,
we know it all too well,
need silence, peace, and beauty,
as we search for more than shells.