Lumps of Clay

There once was a potter with two lumps of clay
He molded one statue with an irregular surface
And a glaze covered with many imperfections

He molded another into a statue of great beauty
With a smooth surface like the petals of a flower
And a glaze, exquisite in design and detail

Into the kiln where the clay transformed from lifelessness
Just you and just me; it seems in a metamorphosis
Dancing from dust and water with the skill of the artisan

The sculptor admired his work for a short time
And decided on an impulse to smash these statues
Crushing their hardened surfaces into a thousand pieces

Not satisfied he had captured the essence of his vision
With one statue so obviously flawed to a point
That resulted in unbearable asymmetry from the pair

Then he thought, “What have I done to my creation?”
Slowly, painfully picking up their scattered essence
Haphazardly mixing the pieces from the statues as he went

“I can remake make them”, he thought
Better than before, though which piece goes with which?
As he collected the pieces in two disparate piles

Again, mixing these fragments with life-giving clay
Back to the kiln, as another set of statues were transformed
Each now containing unique elements from the other

And so it goes with the life we share
From the potter's wheel, a little piece of each other
Combined to make us more complete than before


OSI: Creative

Two Dimensional

I come from a two dimensional world
Nothing but x’s and y’s, always bumping into something
No looking up, or looking down
Really strapped in and constrained
The situation is actually quite graphical
My life has gone from plain to planar
If only I had a polar planimeter I would know my area
Am I linear, exponential, or quadratic in nature?
Or, asymptotic beyond a hetero-decimal perspective
Certainly a Euclidian matter to infinitely ponder
Beyond a reasonable number of significant digits
Ah, if only the intellect of Newton, Gauss, or Archimedes
I could iterate, premutate, and calculate the end resultant
However, a two dimensional world breeds two dimensional thinking
So, I am always one dimension away from a creative idea!



OSI: Creative

Hourglass

Creative moments
Illicit with dissection
Subtle passing verse
Captured as introspection
Thoughts evaporate
A feeling quickly tussled

Drifting in, then out
As fleeting paper rustled
Often discarded
Quill ‘n’ ink mostly wasted
Our ground slips away
Timeless sands; hourglass tasted

Oh, to slow them down


OSI: Creative

Echoes

I slept at the end of my days
And breathed my last breath
With thoughts of being with my father
And his father; but I was wrong
From the arms of many births and deaths
Had I discovered all there was to know?
How many lives had it been?
To ascertain what had just transpired
Insignificant as a star in the sky
While desperate to understand
If this one point of light had meaning

To bare the fruits from a whimsical karma
Or was it chance?
Directed by a flip of the coin.
Silence spoke the answer
Then pulling, tugging, with oppressive helplessness
Out of balance, from the chrysalis emerged
Until the end became a new beginning.
Returning home, to time’s embrace
Where walls no longer enclosed the silence
The caterpillar awakened the butterfly
Within a metamorphosis transposed

But something was not the same, this time
I still had the memories.
Am I better than before?
Has the string of evolution snapped,
As a sinewy web forthcoming?
From a theory most incarnate
Cobbled evolution traps these thoughts
As vibrations speaking to the strings.
Again, echoes from the past in tongues
Are nagging reminders of something incomplete
Like a melody that won’t depart

Then awakening, within a velvet fog's translucency

From the distance, a ripple of laughter
Comes forward like a breaking wave
It echoes in the canyons
Like a tomorrow that will never end
It’s a future that will come one day
Without warning or invitation
Hearing that same echo, as in a dream
Telling us where we’ve been
From a past life and reality
It’s a lesson on how to live boldly where we are
From the comfortable middle to the ragged edge of life

Not ever regretting the result of our journey
Or the journeys yet to come
Again with you, to finish what’s undone
Or to wait, as I undoubtedly will see you again



OSI: Reincarnation

A Simple Good-bye

I’ve gone to a place of peace to see my future
I’ll fly away from today without you
I now feel a sense of relief from myself
As I journey into a new reality

I cast aside my burdens and worries
Others left behind now shoulder these concerns
An inner peace overcomes me with growing intensity
Darkness into light I wander; going

Warmth radiates within my heart, from this ultimate luminescence
Though externally, my body grows cold to the touch; from you
I see your past, present, and future intertwine
As this existence melts into another before me

All I know is now known to me; and on I go
As I leave this place I know you don’t recognize me
Years being harder on us all, these last few days
But this future will remember me as I used to be

And the place of peace I now reside in, I prepare also for you
Really sooner than I should have gone, but here nonetheless
To wait, as your journey too will soon be taken
Along this path without consent

But somehow maybe the moment seems right after all
Because I have accepted my time and transition, leaving you
As the beginning and end are really the same, in this continuum
And I say goodbye to you and also hello

Eternally waiting.



OSI: Departed

Dreaming

I am the eagle who flies.
So high, I am the sun
Though brighter than the sun.
I wonder if it's
Worth it? Waiting
My life and take-away sorrow
Another calls on the wing
I hear the distant melody

Is it you?
I call your name, but
There’s no response
I also whisper something
You sigh, no hidden reply
What I know already
Is your not there
Being struck by this, is worse

More than a nuisance
You should know, that
I also envision you walking
In that special way
Moving with the pulse
Along the rhythm of life’s road
As a thirsted imagination
So, I contemplate what could be

If the world falls unwillingly
And I couldn’t see why
Within you, the answer is known
From the way you look
Into my eyes, but
Alas, no longer there
Here and now
The light must go to sleep

While I dream of you again

My Old Chair

There’s a room to the north
Where the snow comes in
The cracks invite the wind openly
As the windows relent to the winter
The panes long ago traveling into warmth
Allowing the room and elements to become as one
With paint chips curling and dropping together

A dusting knocks at the door, invited
Surrounding my ol’ comfortable chair
As a relic forgotten, in a move long lost
And into the grip of empty, cold abandonment.
Are the depths of this early chill
Already visible in the washed out image of winter?
As a harrow, through the fields I wander

Back to the house and bare room entered
From a recollection acquired in childhood
I step over the sill, cautiously walking in
And the moment is captured in a frozen image
Printed for all to see as a sacrifice from the shutter
As my warmth overcomes and recollects
This mid-October memory; back home


OSI: Departed

Photo Used by Permission