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in her twilight voice the ocean lulling home the gulls one by one
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“I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.” ― Rumi
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in the dream the stirring
of my own chains wakens me
this endless winter night
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“Poems are rough notations for the music we are.” ― Rumi
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the spinning top
falters
midsummer dusk
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Poetry is the natural prayer of the human soul. – Rilke
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all the sky
in the kite string
osprey’s cry
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“Reclaiming the sacred in our lives naturally brings us close once more to the wellsprings of poetry.” – Robert Bly
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these fallen leaves still whispering of Tree dusk deepens into night
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“We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.” —The Talmud
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the smallest branch
trembles at its leaving
gibbous moon
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Haiku are written best and appreciated best through the intelligence of the heart. –Robert Spiess
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where the ocean embraces the river’s return evensong
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Each moment is a place you've never been. -- Mark Strand
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“when he [basho] could no longer stay idle at home because, as he put it, the gods seemed to possess his soul. He patched his trousers, repaired his bamboo hat, bid farewell to his friends, and hoisted his pack onto his bony shoulders.” – Journeys of Simplicity; Traveling Light by Philip Harnden
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the crows speak of it
before it arrives
distant thunder
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Baraka and Cantillation from Alexis Rotella

two new-to-me words:

"Baraka is an Arabic word that means “blessedness” or “divinely inspired.” . . .

"No doubt the poems by Rumi and tagore have baraka. Unlike the traditional Muslims, Sufis embrace the Muse, or Mother Goddess. In order for something to have baraka, it seems that it must be infused with that deep, intuitive, female quality. That which is strictly intellectual cannot have baraka and the Japanese themselves who mistrust Western logic are first looking for a subjective quality which cannot be named before they will even do business with a foreign entity."

"When a writer or artist is in a trance while working (or when one is taken over by the Muse), her poetry often takes on an otherworldy quality. When we’re working in this state, we cantillate. We are close to the Mother God, and when in this altered state we believe that we are loved by the Creator."

--Alexis Rotella
http://alexisrotella.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/why-does-alexis-rotella-use-punctuation-and-capitalization-in-her-little-poems/

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“It’s hard to stay mad, when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold onto it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.” —last words spoken in the movie American Beauty
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emptying myself
of stones
river’s edge
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“It's possible, in a poem or short story, to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language, and to endow those things—a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman's earring—with immense, even startling power.” ― Raymond Carver
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what it feels like
to be left behind
winter tidepool
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a quote . . .

When you say life is marvelous, you are saying a banality. But to make life a marvel, that is the role of poetry. -- Octavoi Paz

after . . .

after the argument
her hug’s
gravitational pull

a quote . . .

“Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.” – rumi

crow's caw

the crow’s caw
more urgent now
these autumn woods

interview . . .

an interview of me by Haiku Guru : http://www.thehaikuguru.com/poet-interviews.html

a quote . . .

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
–rumi

just knowing

just knowing
how I like to be touched
winter sun

searching

searching
the waves but finding
no answer
the sandpiper tracks
vanish without a trace

a quote . . .

“A poet is someone who can pour light into a cup, then raise it to nourish your beautiful parched, holy heart.” -- Hafiz

haibun

she envies her her boyfriend that never fools around and her cherry-
red convertible that never needs repairs and her outfits (complete with shoes and accessories) that can be had for less than ten dollars and the perpetually-shining plastic sun outside her practically-immaculate plastic house but most of all she envies her her god-damn nearly-perfect never-faltering ability-to-smile . . .

she says
“we can’t help who we love”
to no one
in particular
"all guys are assholes”