Sunrise

First light ....

blue on the lake.

October Mist: Heron in Owasco Lake

Quietness.
The lapping
of ripples,
wind in the poplars.

Gray in gray,
dawn and mist
form a seclusion
enclosing me,
holding me.

A silhouette.

Gray in gray;
elegant neck cocked,
slender, turning,
disappearing
at ninety degrees
through his rotation
and reappearing:
gray enclosed in gray.

I think of his patience.
But patience is not in his world.
That is my world.
He is.
Simply is.

The neck darts,
straightens
and compresses,
folding down onto his body -
success -

and then stretches erect;
the familiar silhouette
gray in gray
at dawn.

10/05/05 © David H. Roche

The day begins.
colors ... colors ... colors.

Just this Moment: Sunrise

At sunrise
the colors of dawn
mixed with the stubble
in the fields become internalized
into a dreamy mellow mood.

The air is warm, the sky clear
with pastel marbling at the eastern edge.
The dog at my side runs ahead
to sniff at the evidence of something
that has passed in the night, squatting
over it as if to say: 'I'm here too.'

Nothing much going on.
Just presence in the moment,
complete and at home in my own skin
on the hill, at sunrise, with the dog.

10/04/05




Along the roadside

life happens

under the sun

Photographs and poetry Copyright by David H. Roche

All There Is and More

Nebel Buddha

Death, Life and Other Things

I see a door opening
while others see it closing.

I see 'myself' today.
Others see themselves a blur.

Tomorrow is then; not here.
Here is now; mine.

Verse 8/30/06 © David H. Roche

Dawn

East Coast Blues

Four a.m.
I have a sense of disembodiment.

My brain remains active, lively
with the sparking electricity of neurons
and synapses; but my body is reduced to trembling.

It's been a hard night
but the load is up; the last truck
has rolled in; now we're out front waiting.

In the parking lot a teenager stumbles
and continues shambling toward the store.
Hands jammed into his pockets, head bent.

I'm headed home.
I wonder where he's off to,
or coming from, this time in the morning.

Stepping from the car
my body vibrates from exhaustion
and fatigue projects me into the stars.

In the chill of the morning air
I wish I was coming home to you in Oregon
where you would rock me in your arms
and take me to sleep.

5/16/05 © David H. Roche. Photograph by David H. Roche

On The Beach With God

On the beach At Lincoln City 11/09/05

The heaving and rolling
is constant.

The Pacific:
a Zen master's Koan
breaking around my feet.

A smile in the gray dawn at the recognition
that the universe both sings
and dances.

Copyright 2006 David H. Roche