GOOD FRIDAY

If ever rain should sing a hymn

throughout and through in;

if ever unfolding buds with tiny pain

should bloom big over meadows;

if ever hearts in deepest pain

should find a silver light—

let it be on Good Friday,

our day of holy surrender to

more than we know,

our bow of reverence to

more than we are,

our wail of grief for

all that might have been,

our needed emptying

of the cup of self to

find an inner morning—

an Easter wherein

the Sun of Love

will rise again

GRIEF IS A THIEF

Grief is a thief

you have urged

to take you away

but with your own

key locks you,

wet with tears,

inside your musty

woolen closet and

turns out the light.

Dark in your trap

shared with moths

you cry long past dry

and choke on all why.

When you know it’s

time (and you will):

burst

the closet open

into a room,

burst

the room open

into a sky,

settle for no moons,

pray past all suns,

inhale from Cosmos.

Not earth are you

but the damp wick

of a future shining.

Strike your match

and light the way.

INNERNESS

How potent is the silent voice within the heart—

like roses screaming quietly

at the top of their scents.

Our inner self turns a valve here,

flips a switch there,

rechannels a thought, all undetected,

guiding the mind with commands never heard by ears.

We inhale a vital force sent up from the sun,

full of planetary power, star strength,

universal unity.

We exhale such love as we can muster from our

little microverse,

radiating peace into nearest air

and farthest galaxies.

We breathe our relentless ripples

onto shimmering oceans of spirit.

Each star hears our silence.

Our mental voice imprints itself

on a forgetless tablet of inner space,

indelible as a baby’s first cry.

When we listen, the cold wind carries

the moan of mother earth

and the rising moon reflects

the sighs of setting sun.

Those who hear the universe

humming its silent symphony

learn to love each lento chord.

Strum my heart, you silent waves of love,

with your tuneful touch,

and help me sing the song of space

in the sanctum of my skull.

TO HIS LOVE

THE island dreams under the dawn

And great boughs drop tranquillity;

The peahens dance on a smooth lawn,

A parrot sways upon a tree,

Raging at his own image in the enamelled sea.

THE island dreams under the dawn

And great boughs drop tranquillity;

The peahens dance on a smooth lawn,

A parrot sways upon a tree,

Raging at his own image in the enamelled sea.

THE FALLING OF THE LEAVES

AUTUMN is over the long leaves that love us,

And over the mice in the barley sheaves;

Yellow the leaves of the rowan above us,

And yellow the wet wild-strawberry leaves.

The hour of the waning of love has beset us,

And weary and worn are our sad souls now;

Let us patt, ere the season of passion forget us,

With a kiss and a tear on thy drooping brow.

EPHEMERA

‘YOUR eyes that once were never weary of mine

Are bowed in sotrow under pendulous lids,

Because our love is waning.’

And then She:

‘Although our love is waning, let us stand

By the lone border of the lake once more,

Together in that hour of gentleness

When the poor tired child, passion, falls asleep.

How far away the stars seem, and how far

Is our first kiss, and ah, how old my heart!’

Pensive they paced along the faded leaves,

While slowly he whose hand held hers replied:

‘Passion has often worn our wandering hearts.’

The woods were round them, and the yellow leaves

Fell like faint meteors in the gloom, and once

A rabbit old and lame limped down the path;

Autumn was over him: and now they stood

On the lone border of the lake once more:

Turning, he saw that she had thrust dead leaves

Gathered in silence, dewy as her eyes,

In bosom and hair.

‘Ah, do not mourn,’ he said,

‘That we are tired, for other loves await us;

Hate on and love through unrepining hours.

Before us lies eternity; our souls

Are love, and a continual farewell.

BUILDING A GOOD RELATION WITH YOUR PET DOGGY

From the moment you choose your puppy, there is some considerable urgency regarding socialization and training. There is no time to waste. Basically, an adult dog's temperament and behavior habits (both good and bad)are shaped during puppyhood—very early puppyhood. In fact, some puppies are well on their way to ruin by the time

they are just eight weeks old. It is especially easy to make horrendous mistakes when selecting a pup and during his first few days at home. Such mistakes usually have an indelible effect, influencing your pup's behavior and temperament for the rest of his life. This is not to say that unsocialized and untrained eight-week-old pups cannot be rehabilitated. They can, if you work quickly. But while it’s easy to prevent behavior and temperament problems from the beginning, rehabilitation can be both difficult and time-consuming, and it is unlikely that your pup will ever become the adult dog he or she could have been. Learn how to make intelligent choices when selecting your pup. Learn how to implement a course of errorless housetraining and errorless chewtoy-training the moment your puppy arrives at her new home. Any house soiling or chewing mistake you allow your puppy to make is absolute silliness and absolute seriousness: silliness because you are creating lots of future headaches for yourself, and seriousness because millions of dogs are euthanized each year simply because their owners did not know how to housetrain or chewtoy-train them.

If your pup is ever left unsupervised indoors he will most certainly chew household articles and soil your house. Although these teeny accidents do little damage in themselves, they set the precedent for your puppy's choice of toys and toilets for many months to come. You should treat any puppy house soiling or house destruction mistake as a potential disaster, since it predicts numerous future mistakes from a dog with larger bladder and bowels and much more destructive jaws. Many owners begin to notice their puppy's destructiveness by the time he is four to five months old, when the pup is characteristically relegated outdoors. Destruction is the product of a puppy's boredom, lack of supervision, and a search for entertainment. Natural inquisitiveness prompts the lonely pup to dig, bark, and escape in his quest for some form of occupational therapy to pass the day in solitary confinement. Once the neighbors complain about the dog's incessant barking and periodic escapes, the dog is often further confined to a garage or basement. Usually though, this is only a temporary measure until the dog is surrendered to a local animal shelter to play the lotto of life. Fewer than 25 percent of surrendered dogs are adopted, of which about half are returned as soon as the new owners discover their adopted adolescent's annoying problems. The above summarizes the fate of many dogs. This is especially sad because all these simple problems could be prevented so easily. Housetraining and chewtoy-training are hardly rocket science. But you do need to know what to do. And you need to know what to do before you bring your puppy home.
As soon as your puppy comes home, the clock is running. Within just three months, your puppy will need to  meet six crucial developmental deadlines. If your puppy fails to meet any of these deadlines, he is unlikely to achieve his full potential. In terms of your dog's behavior and temperament, you will probably be playing catch-up for the rest of your dog's life. Most important of all, you simply cannot afford to neglect the socialization and bite inhibition deadlines.