Between the two

Between the two

I prefer beginnings to ends

But of course

The action is

Between the two

Blind Faith

To refer to faith as blind is to be redundant

All faith is blind

What is not blind is hope

Hope relies on occasional evidence

Reality is neutral on the subject of faith

Hope is grounded in reality

Sign says: bleak days ahead

See what the religious have done?

They trot out their faith

And if not faith

They speak of spirits

Of the spiritual

Of ghosts

Apparently real ghosts

Real to them, anyway

See what the young do?

They deny the pace of passing time

To them, life is long enough

Sometimes too long

Ample to waste

To avoid

To put off

To float along

And what of the scientist?

Her hope is in logic and its methods

Predicting, postdicting, edicting

From the gospel according

To the book of Bacon

Oxymorons such as life science

Sometimes yield plain morons

Such as we have not seen before

I want no part of faith

I will take a little science

But mainly, I look for evidence

Sufficient to justify my way of living

My will to hope

For my concern is not only

To make it through the bleak

I must be alert for days

When the sun is warm on my skin

And the path clear to see

Talking By Phone On MLK Day

We talked by phone in the morning

You weren't sure what you might do

After you wolfed down your tacos

So many possibilities 

Maybe get some groceries

At a nearby store, probably

Since it was flurrying

You had the day off

Next day too

You didn't know if you'd try

Your new snow shoes

And look for a snowy hiking trail

Or not

We chatted, just dad and daughter

Agreeing yoga was terrific

Helping mindfulness

Strength, flexibility

I could tell you still had the sniffles

From your cold

But...

I thought as we hung up

I loved the way you sounded...

And...

Sometimes nothing seems impossible

I may have to set the record straight

-->

I knew it early on…

Or had a sneaking suspicion, anyways…

This thing will have a hairy ending

I got the feeling when at four years old

The preacher scared me under conviction

And I cried to the alter

And was later baptized

It hit me again when I surrendered to preach

Before I was old enough to drive

It was in the back of my mind

Nights in the dorm

When my view of eternity began to blur

But it may have hit me hardest

The Saturday night I married

Or was it the Wednesday night

My daughter was born?

The few pictures from those evenings

Show me in a trance

And now, as well as I can infer

Some people think of me as old

Or as they say - older

Fading like newspaper in the sun

They exclude me from young-people dreams

I have begun to see my age in large numbers

On buildings, on passing cars, or in the sky

As I run through my town

It’s true…I have long suspicioned it to be so

I get the feeling

I may have to speak my mind

To exert myself

Pretty soon I think the day is coming

I may have to set the record straight

Ode to the 20th Century

The crooners

Martin, Sinatra, Crosby, Como, Durante

Blithe, bouncy baritones

Young at heart

Looking at the moon

Singing for the twentieth century

With sinking ships,

Gore

Madmen

Camelot

Assignations

Assassinations

The rockers

Presley, Dylan, Lennon, Jagger, Bowie

Thumping drums and bass

Hound dog times changing

Picking up the pieces

From Watergate 

To the moral majority

And trickle-down economics

Let's forget it all

Put it behind us

This new century

Is well underway