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Road

The open road has played a significant role in my life. I ran away as a teenager and spent a few years wandering the narrow black lanes of America. As an adult I’ve explored most of the states west of the Mississippi by bus and by car. As the cost of gas rises, this has become less practical, but I’ll still take to the highways once in a while when I need time to think, meditate, and reflect.

Road

There spanned before me a long wending road,
Stretching aloft a life-mending road.

Expanses stirred in my spirit a goad,
Spurring adventures along trending road.

Drifting alone with a great mental load
I wandered far on the peace-lending road.

The changing lands were my phasing abode
Beneath the skies of an unending road.

Hope was reformed through steady erode
Of useless views on strength-spending road.

Amid moving seasons wandering strode
The dreamless Zahhar on soul-tending road.

This is my 12th ghazal.

Publication History:

LYNX (web-based) — October 2002

Posted on by EAT

moonbrush

I have blogged this as a backlogged post. It is presently November 2, 2012. Having stumbled upon this as I go through my old poetry, it seemed worth having here.

moonbrush

delicate moon beams
silken sift though elder pines
flickering pallid
owl feathers dancing gentle
float through trembling canopy

Posted on by EAT

twilight

Nature can never provide enough imagery for poetry. This particular expression of nature seemed to deserve a tanka.

twilight

a dismal expanse
trees fade into silhouette
life forgets to breathe

embraced by the fallen hush
an oak leaf lightly trembles

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Guidance

There was a time when I was more religiously minded. That was a long time ago. This ghazal was written a long time ago. Still, religious or not, it never hurts to seek the guidance of a higher power.

Guidance

Our souls and spirits, minds and hearts all need God’s guidance;
It seems we have the most to gain to heed God’s guidance.

When all the worst occurs and you lose your only footing,
A cry of need into the sky will speed God’s guidance.

When relentless fears assail with crushing weight and swell,
You will be blest beyond a doubt to plead God’s guidance.

Ask for knowledge of his will and willingness as well,
Else there is a likeliness to just misread God’s guidance.

It benefits to cognize his way is not our own;
Without trust in his will we retrocede God’s guidance.

When his loving way is shunned we dimly walk alone
And stumbling comfortless in pain impede God’s guidance.

In leading us he tends to veer for growth and learning;
There may be pain, but nothing can exceed God’s guidance.

Zahhar himself has walked through fearsome blazes burning
And has availed in knowing to concede God’s guidance.

This is my 11th ghazal.

Publication History:

The Penwood Review — Spring 2003

Posted on by EAT

sundown

A tanka to the sunset. Probably inspired by the sunset as seen from the summit of Cow Mountain, just east of Ukiah, California.

sundown

far away dimming
lonesome sun melts quietly
on the horizon
birds fall into reverie
only a still breeze whispers