Long Encaustic Poems

(“Dragon’s Eye”, 2024, original encaustic)

Nonduality

Nonduality is at the heart of both physical reality
And all spirituality
The non duality of the two being its essential meaning
But still as simple and obvious as this is
It is easily misunderstood...

Read More

("Before And After Science", 2023, original encaustic)

The Corruption of Modern Times aka Colonization of the Sacred

There are traditions
Passed down in ear-whisper lineages
And Dead Sea scrolls
Dream journeys and alien visitations
These are the timeless traditions of the...

Read More

(very early stage of "Before the Door" encaustic, 2023)

The Stream Of Pre-Consciousness

A friend recently told me,
“Write a novel “stream of pre-consciousness” and be amazed”
But like a Zen koan
this doesn’t offer much immediate help.

Stream of consciousness...

Read More

("A Question of Balance", 2019, original encaustic)

An Unbalanced Equation

My wife is in the middle of her cataract procedure,
One eye done and another to go.
Generally, it’s a remarkable thing
Which we take for granted -
Both our sight...

Read More

("Niobe's Tear", 2020, original encaustic)

The Lie of Equality and Truth of Universality

The world has always been divided
Along lines of haves and have nots
In whatever way you wish
To measure the having.

The difference today is
Inequality is no...

Read More

("Zero Point of Creation", 2018, original encaustic)

In Praise of Mindlessness

I’ve sought and found mindlessness in a variety of ways
From dancing to climbing, meditating and painting,
but in retirement I find it easiest mowing the arboretum.

As I...

Read More

(Five Buddha Mandala, 2018, original encaustic)

Notes on Religion and Faith

The superstition of religious content applies to all religions and faiths.

They are the context of faith.

But the faith itself and how it is focused on (absorbed...

Read More

(“Original Mind”, 2017, original encaustic mixed media)

Meditation Is Not

Meditation can be many things,
But it’s really not what you think.

Yet for forty five years I’ve been doing it
In one form or another
And for much of that...

Read More

("Dreaming Gaia", 2020, original encaustic)

Good Night Irene, Sweet Dreams 

We live in a time of two competing visions;
The creation myths of sudden and gradual change,
Or monotheism’s creationism on one hand
And scientific materialism’s evolution the other.

Both...

Read More

("Red Skin", 2023, original encaustic)

Cantos of Love

Was it ever here at all…

Faces, eyes, lips, breasts and thighs
Parade through memory
Fading, fading fast
As years advance.

Maybe these closets 
Need more juice to unlock
Than these old bones hold.

Funny about...

Read More

("A Moment of Grace" aka "The Empty Mirror", 2024, original encaustic)

The Truth

If you follow the truth,
And are foolhardy enough to try and describe it,
You end up with something
That like an algebraic equation
Cancels itself out and...

Read More

("Dreaming Gaia", 2020, original encaustic)

A Recurring Dream

Thirty plus years ago
After a decade and half together
My first love left me

We kept in touch by mail
But never met again
Except in dreams

Over the years in those dreams
We slowly...

Read More

("A Moment of Grace aka The Empty Mirror", 2024, original encaustic)

Running on Empty

Within the empty mirror mind
I see an empty smile
Is no one left to judge me then
And my heart of guile?

For who am I...

Read More

(“Something From Nothing”, 2024, original encaustic)

Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

The great questions of existence
Arise and revolve around just that; existence.
And if not for this existence
We wouldn’t wonder…

So there IS something after all
Although something...

Read More

("Reflections", 2023, original encaustic)

Acquiring the Taste

What is it that makes life meaningful?
What is it that makes us whole?
Somewhere deep within
Is the quiet place
Of peace and serenity
A secret healing garden
That has open doors for us all.

And...

Read More

("Windhorse", 2023, original encaustic)

Wind Talk

Children talk to the wind
A skill, a talent, a desire
Most adults have lost
And forgotten they ever had.

Anyone can talk, but
Maybe what’s really lost
Is the aptitude to hear
Wind’s reply.

The wind talks
And children...

Read More

("Gravity's Rainbow", 2017, original encaustic)

The Endless River Flows

Everywhere sheep being led to slaughter
Everywhere the innocent seduced
Everywhere someone crying
While another looking up 
Into open skies
As unspoken questions arise unbidden

These are the times of change and revelation
As...

Read More

("Winter Tree", 2023, original encaustic)

Celebrating White Supremacy

As the world turns….
ever faster and more wobblier
it’s hard to go a day 
without hearing some reference to ‘White Supremacy.’
Of course it’s a bad thing, right?
Sure it is, until...

Read More

("Eye of Storm", original encaustic, 2017)

Epiphany

I’ve had two major epiphanies in my life,
And I figure three is all we really get.
So far they are following a pattern
Of thesis/antithesis
So I assume the third will be some...

Read More

("Untitled - The Eye of Jihad", 2019, original encaustic)

Love is Love - and other absurd truisms

“Love is love” is like “Follow your bliss”
a way to deflect the moral agency 
and subsequent consequence of our desires
with...

Read More

("Dreaming Gaia", 2017, original encaustic)

The Dreaming Mind

Every night we all dream
Projecting the habits of a reifying mind
Onto the fabric of an energized neural net
Creating a world within a world
Just as amazing, just as solidly real.

And...

Read More

("July 7 - Hot and Blue", 2024, original encaustic)

Turning to Become

As they say, humans are like onions,
Densely layered and prone to making others cry.
But I think a better metaphor is Earth herself,
After all the Good...

Read More

("And Dream of Sheep". 2018, original encaustic)

In The Morning

In the morning
As I start to go about the day
I’m reminded of little things
From the night before.

There in my dreams
Whole worlds exist
Parallel and populated
By the contents of...

Read More

("Windhorse", 2023, original encaustic)

Riding a Wind Horse

Every time I sit, really just sit
I'm reminded that this
is enough
to let it go and just settle
without expectation
but alert awareness
here and now.

Enlightenment, liberation, grace, peace etc.
whatever we call it...

Read More

(“Still Life”, 2021, original encaustic)

Alternate Lives

Time appears to go in a line
From then to now
And some times it does 
But at a certain point the stream
Becomes a river
Which then spreads into a delta.

I’ve always found...

Read More