Rise and Shine

Rise and shine all mankind
Come and greet the day

Yawn and stretch every synapse
Wash crusty sleep from your eyes
Let light enter your windows
Breath deep dawn's cool air
Smell the moist breeze
Floating in from the sea

Eat of the crusty bread
From daily prepared table
Drink of nature's bountiful waters

Gather your strength while ye may
For there is work to be done

And life is lived this day only

HEY YOU, OVER THERE

Across the river is another country
An imaginary, arbitrary line drawn in the water
Separates you from me and versa vice

Yet the birds flying overhead see no division
See no separateness and fly north and south

The fishes under the surface
Swim east to west and west to east
Each diurnal journey
With no discernment of separation

But we
We intelligentsia
Say this is true
Our lands, our traditions
What we honor, what we hold true
Is not what you may hold dear

This is us and that is you
Because we say so
Because we do so

And we agree upon this
We make laws upon this
We set up barriers upon this

Yet the birds fly
And the fishes swim
Unhindered by arbitrary lines
Free in reality

Ron Eklof 2007
*

A Weaving

In the warp and weft

Of our daily walk
A thread is woven into
The fabric of a life
It's vibrancy tempered
By hues of attitude
The vicissitudes of the times

Day after day the loom is worked
Using blends of colored thread:
The blood red of anger
The black nights of the soul
The magenta of yearnings
Bright yellow of hopes
Deep blue of understandings
Soft green of new awakenings
The pure white of grace

As the shuttle moves back and forth
Guided by the Master's hand
A pattern emerges on the loom
And becomes a tapestry
Admired by others
Showing a life well lived


In remembrance of Ken Kilmartin

Ron Eklof 2010

What Did You Build

I've built castles out of sand
Watched them crumble in the wind
Wash away in a storm tide
Leaving no trace of effort
Nothing for others to see
Only a memory, mine
Glimpsed in idle reverie

I've built castles in the air
Made of dreams, ideas and fancies
I've moved in and found a home
Away from roiling humanity
Far from the clutches of earth
Gone, now, as the morning dew
Disappears in reality's sun

Thence to wander aimless
Across a barren waste
Cut by dull knives of inconvenience
Bruised by uncaring egos
Stopping to pare my nails
To be close to my own self
To attend my own issues

Whence an inner resolve builds
A determined frame of mind
A realm of the heart
A place where the power
That knows its self
Is nurtured
And is allowed its reign

Ron Eklof '10