07/14/26 A New Poem for a New Day

Photo Credit: Christoph Krichenbauer

I did not settle in the place
Where the sun rises slowly over the rolling waves
Where the mountains kiss the gentle mist
Where the voices chant under the rising sun

I did not settle in the place
Where the cicadas cry in the forest
In unwavering melody
A premonition of the horror to come

I did not settle in the place
Where the scent of food permeates
To entice people to stop to buy
From their endless stream of motorbikes
Taking them to and fro

I did not settle in the place
Where others sit and drink
Each new round a toast
For a tomorrow they’d rather not see

I did not settle in the place
Where everyday I once breathed
Long sighs in my desperate attempt
To remain in old debates long settled
And follow where I did not want to go

I did not settle in the place
Where everyone says hello
Excited to meet a foreigner
But never understanding me

I did not settle in the place
Where I could see
The ocean and its waves,
The mountains and its mist,
Or the people and their flurry
Become the wallpaper of my life

Blast from the past:

Do more than see. Seek.
The assent to the finite.
Desire to create.

05/06/26 A New Haiku for a New Day

Photo Credit: igorovsyannykov

No one cares about
Patching up ruined lives when
They are wandering.

Blast from the past:

Life remains easy
For the person who lives with
No sense of shame

05/04/26 A New Poem for a New Day

Photo Credit: Farah Almazouni

Here I sit
On my way
Forever on my way
“When are you going home?”
I have no home
I have only forward
Somewhere new, somewhere new, somewhere new

A new place, new culture
New questions,
New challenges,
New places to see
One after the other
Can I remember the last one
A faint memory
As I venture into the new

Blast from the past:

The forgotten fire
Took almost nothing along
The road not taken