*

***

Highways North

(Study #6)

Deciduous mosaics

     Punctuated by

           Resolute, straight backed evergreens

            Roll out a canvas.

                      Scruffy rufous sumac,

                            Foliage burnished golden

                       In autumn’s glow,

Simmering, incendiary, arboreal towers

Spawn pyroclastic billows of embers

                               Against a chill grey sky. ..

***

Highways North

Hwy. 400, October 2012

(Study #7)

***

Autumn yearnings, a final flowering,

Concert of foliage in the breeze,

Served with generous

Drippings of

 Nostalgia.

***

(Retrospective:)

Going

Home

(Study #8)

***

…no regrets

But nonetheless

I dreamed a dream

  Of sights unseen, of lives unlived

And many roads

Untaken

***

Hwy. 400, October 2012

 ***

GG 2012

• Click once, then once again on photos to magnify images
• The Images are blooms from Deanne’s Image Garden 

***

Nostalgie

1.

Nos…tal…gie,

Hypocrite smile from my  hypocrite heart

Smile that blurs the outlines of my bittersweet soul

Smile that worries that it is insincere

Nos…tal…gie,

Treacherous memory.

2.

Weak winter sun through fading cellophane veils,

Revealing shapes of things half-seen, dreams half-dreamed,

Behind diaphanous walls of words half-spoken

To soothe the heartache of a heart that’s broken.

Nos…tal…gie

Treacherous memory

Hypocrite Memory

***

Winter on Long Beach, Vancouver Island

***

Winter on Long Beach, Vancouver Island

***

GG 2014

Portals

***

Elegy For My Brother, Dudley Girvan

Apprentice Stone Mason

Fairview: Dudley’s First Project, Circa 1953, Posts for a Gate on Thom Girvan’s Property on Molynes Rd. Kingston, Jamaica

*

You emerge

Through a narrow fallopian portal

From dream time to consciousness.

Not yet fully conscious, you discover etchings already inscribed

 On a crude, unworked stone that you have been commissioned to sculpt.

The task of your commission from then on, must be to etch deeper than

The impressions found on the primitive

Stone of  your life.

*

From the rough stone through perseverance, you created

Refinement, dignity, honesty and generosity through your own initiative.

Like the monuments that you fashioned in early life, you are solid, strong, straight,

True and enduring.

*

Gates, portals, silent witnesses to the mundane entry and egress of a thousand souls.

On the threshold of another great portal, we hold your hand

Until your Constant, Lifelong Spaniard

Takes you through a gateway

 Into your radiant, new

 Cosmic embrace.

***

GG 2014

  Road trip, Parksville to Long Beach,

Vancouver Island

January,

2014

***

Click on images to magnify

WordPlay

Water Motions: Mountain to Ocean

***

Water

Courses

From

Snowy Mountain

Sources,

Dipping,

Dipping

Dripping,

Dripping,

Dripping,

Dropping,

Dripping

Dropping,

Never stopping,

Running,

Pooling,

Plinking, Plunking,

Dripping, Dunking

Scooting, Shooting

Racing, Chuting

Scraping,

Scoring,

Boring,

Pushing,

Pouring,

Crashing,

Splashing,

Smashing,

Roaring,

Dashing,

Rushing,

Gushing,

Winding,

Grinding,

Gathering,Gathering, Gathering

Falling,

Falling,

Falling,

Running,

Splashing,

Dashing

Crashing,

Resting, Resting, Resting,

Cresting, Cresting,

Running, Tumbling

Tumbling, Boring,

Frothing, Seething,

Sparkling, Bubbling 

Flattening, Flattening

Fattening, Fattening

Widening, Widening, Widening,

Gliding,

Sliding,

Chuting,

Scraping,

Flattening, Flattening

Fattening, Fattening

Slowing, Slowing

Growing, Growing, Growing,

Howling,

Growling,

Roaring, Roaring, Roaring, Roaring

To the

Sea

***

GG 2015

Turn volume up and go to full screen to experience the power of the North Pacific below. 

Long Beach, Vancouver Island

Seeds:

Where Reliable Miracles Reside

To my Friend Jim

*

Every year without fail,

Under our startled gaze,

We watch amazed

While slow developing, everyday miracles

Transform a seed,

Filled with the memory of its destiny.

The divine promise as yet unfulfilled

Hides the time lapsed beauty

Of its fulfillment.

Seeds, silent little missionaries

With a mission

To fulfill. 

***

GG 2012

***

TrainTalk

*

Composed of

Impressions of

The rhythms of the

Night train, and sights,

Lights and sounds in the close

Confines of the small room in which

One is being propelled through the autumn night.

Train Talk

*

Clack klak,  clack klak. clack

Flash, clack, klak , flash flash klak

You mustn’t go there, you better come here

You better come here, you mustn’t go there

Flash flash flash, clack klak, flash flash, clack

When? When? When? When? Disappearing When? When?

Scrape, scrape, flash clack, reappearing clack, disappearing flash

Clack flash, flashes, mish mash, crashes, red red flying ashes, green light also flashes

Wait, wait, ouch! scrape, strike, more scrapes, red light passes, Ding dinghy ding dinghy

Ding ding dinghy, something masks the orange flashes, dark dark night passes, night train passes,

Slow train passes, freight train catches, but you mustn’ go there, you better come here,

Night train screeches, cracks then reaches, then goes slack, then lights go flash,

But you mustn’nt go there, you better come here, then night train rocks

But you mustn’nt go there, you better come here flash

But where is here, the endless here, and then When?

When? When?When, disappearing when? Re–

Appearing When? Then flash! Ding

Dinghy disappearing Ding

Flash crossing back,

Cling cling clingy

Orange dinghy

Night train

In my brain,

Rhythms and lights

Playing on the night train,

Playing in my brain

Ouch! scrape! Flashes, clashes

Night train in my brain,

When? When when? When?

Whee! Whee!

Scrrraaaape!

Screeeetch!

Cheu, Cheu

Chu, Chu

Cheu…

GG 2015

***

From Via Rail Canadian 1

***

Blogger aboard ViaRail Canadian 1 at the Jasper, Alberta station

Grandkids

***

In life’s great winter stage,

When brittle bones rattle,

 And many joints slacken,

 To walk the road ahead

Seems barely worth

The battle.

And yet…

Despite the frequent

Winter rains,

There are growly granite lions

Left to tame,

And with an ocean at our door,

Beaches beckoning

To explore,

How could these old folks ask

For more?

***

GG 2014

Reina and Kieran, 2007

Return to Innocence

On returning to the playground late in adolescence where as infants they played

*

In

The playground

Teetering, teetering,

Tottering towards a precipice,

Balancing precariously on the edge of innocence.

Whirling, spinning, provoking sensations, courting disaster, defying

The gravity of unintended consequences, flaunting the wisdom

From another age,

Slipping, sliding,,

Zipping, gliding,

Swinging high

Over

Me

***

GG 2016

Pilgrimage

For Nelson’s Peerless Choral Director

*

On the shore,

An endless chain of gentle

Undulations displace the playful grains of sand

*

It must have been the resident Eagle whose shrill whistle

Gave the pilgrim the permission to seek and find

The Portal, that sweet spot into the

Sacred, leaving behind the

Mundane;

Or

Was it

The last

Embers of the summer day,

The sun suspended above the mountains’ spires,

Satisfied with its panorama on the high horizon, ready to disappear

And cede the region to mellow

Twilight?

*

From water’s

Edge we ascended on

 Waves of song and followed the music’s

Magnet through terraced woodlands and ample orchards

Until at last at dusk we reached the

Sanctuary.

There, we are cleansed by sound, immersed in fluid

Harmonies, cocooned in a

Temple of Light.

*

And on the

Shore, an endless chain of

Gentle undulations displace the playful grains of sand.

GG 2018

***

Yashodara Temple, Near Nelson, BC

   I was sent from the void to get you from the void.

You were sent from the void to get others from the void.

  We were all sent from the void to get others from the void,

  Before returning to the void…

***