May 3 - Poems en route from Vancouver, BC to Powell River, BC (3/5/07)

Staring at the Buildings in Downtown Vancouver

I actually feel an ache
at the sight of these buildings

every one
a dilemma

so much destruction
to hold our numbers
make room for our parasitic breeding


I hate them
and they are necessary

knock one down
and thousands die

(I was confused when the twin towers fell -
joy at the collapse of the buildings
grief at the loss of life)

sympathy for
and pride in your species
is hard
when you feel the mess we've made
as an ache
while observing our "progress"


Observing the Mountains, Sea and Sky

I try to imagine
what forged these mounds of rock
jutting out of the ocean

I can't

I can't see the plates
the ancient movements
the dawning fires
meteor crashes
ages upon ages of erosion
growth and death
and growth and death

but I can see their age
the forging time has brought upon them
the reasons we admire them
and desiring to be surrounded by something greater
something beautiful
misguidedly put our mark on them
ride them
climb them
and die on them

we are young
insecure
teenagers - perhaps only kids
in time

we want to be grown-up
want to be treated so
but can't be trusted with the responsibility
of not allowing the house we grew up in
to be trashed

we haven't learned the knowledge of the earth yet


Is Honour Really So Rare Today?

I gave the bus driver the dollar I owed him
he said it was the first time
somebody did

This made me feel good, yet bad
is honour so rare today?

Of all the people who have bought
a fifty-one dollar ticket
and received a ten back from him
with a request that they make change on the ferry
and give him a dollar when they reboarded
surely I am on the poorer end of the spectrum

Yet I remembered
I could afford it

Is honour really so rare today?


Remembering Philosophic Conversations with Jeremy

The joy of the wanderer
is variety
many loves
reunions
moments

I am thankful
for fresh loves
found in new faces

I am always thankful
to have not lost too many friends
to have chances to reconnect

I am thankful for generosity
love old and new
when it is definitely needed

The sorrow of the wanderer
is departing
these loves
reunions
and moments


Coelho, from The Alchemist

He knew that shepherds, like seamen and like traveling salesmen, always found a town where there was someone who could make them forget the joys of carefree wandering.


On Being a Traveler

We wade through oceans, looking for oysters, finding a few here and there, and ultimately hoping one contains a pearl that we can hold onto.