Radical Right-here-ness

Decided to practice
radical righthereness
as antidote to
overwhelmtion
using presence
to pierce
fog of fretfulness.
Radical righthereness
snapshots:
see the snow
lacing the trees,
feel the movement
and muscles while gyming,
watch Oscar's tail
curve into a comma.
Right here,
right now,
only this.

A.H.

A Good Man Gone - for our friend Robin*

Told our cat

that his buddy Robin

wouldn’t be back,

ever.

Think Tom understood,

stayed close,

seeking solace.

Suspect Robin,

being a statistician,

always knew

the odds were poor –

the diagnosis last spring:

colon cancer with metastatsis.

Rounds of chemo,

hospitalizations, weight loss,

Thin to start,

became gaunt.

Robin crossed paths

with my very ill brother-in-law,

sharing a rehab. center,

was kind to Roger

in what became

Roger’s last days.

This is what

was there

as Robin faded -

a core of kindness.

He was a good man

and he is gone.

* John's colleague - and our friend - Robin Reich died on January 3rd. Robin (Dr. Reich) taught statistics at Colorado State University. We were fortunate to have him visit us in Alaska many times and he would "commit science" at our kitchen table. 

Special gratitude to Robin's dear friend Vanessa.

Goodbye 2015

A fierce wind
howled thru 2015
uprooting untethered
words and worries
flinging them
against the end
of the year.
Now the sad scraps
and tattered bits
cling to the barrier,
dregs of 2015.
But look back there -
see the shiny spots
where the wind-whipped grit
scoured places clean,
an almost sparkle.

A.H.