Haiku: Spanish Moss Lake in the Autumn Glow

As we drove the seven hours yesterday from the Gulf coast of Northwest Florida to the hills of Middle Tennessee, the Autumn light and shadows were hypnotic in revealing the pristine nature of things as if being seen for the first time in their authenticity.

The little lake straddling the state line between Florida and Alabama at Florala, with its’ cypress trees in their Fall foliage, its’ Spanish moss, its’ mirror lake of blue and white, and it’s billowing clouds, was surreal in its’ fervent display.

Watching the Impeachment Hearings

Trigger warning: images of violence and suffering

Like a slap in the face
a punch in the gut
an assault on the soul

Feeling physically ill
like bile in the throat
and emotionally bruised

The president’s incivil sycophants,
dumbing it down, playing to their base,
such utter ignorance 

The president’s obfuscation
bombardment of lies
and efforts to intimidate

Performing my civic duty
following these proceedings
submitting to their violence, suffering

I cry, mourn, lament, grieve
I reflect, contemplate, pray, act
my being an act of resistance to this dominance

This I know is true: our young, unfulfilled
democracy is clearly on the brink
of falling into the abyss of fascist oligarchy

Down with the raw, partisan, power of dominance
down with efforts to control society for private gain
down with the violence being done to our psyche and souls

Lift up the alternative vision of freedom and liberty
together in authentic, diverse communities of belonging
of all peoples in their truth and wholeness, for the common good

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 2019

A reflection on the occasion of my writing this new haiku

Yesterday, as we walked solitarily along the deserted beach, the sea and sky were a lovely blue with the Autumn rays of light slanting on the waters’ surface, I could see the waves swell and dissipate, as if a living creature breathing, and I found my breathing falling into their rhythm in perfect syncopation.

It was a marvelous moment of flow in the natural order of the Cosmos and our Earth home of authentic belonging together with all Creation!