November Soul Survival

 

 

 

Alive to the shimmer

a fishing egret

 

 

 

 

 

Comorants you always have with you,

a less common variety 

 

 

 

After some wild atmospheric river rain storms 

it went back to sunny, mild and, alas, dry

 

 

 

 

 

What's left of Eden

 

 

 

The relatively new and glorious garden gate 

open at last

 

 

 

 Late appearing bloom

 

Bees love these

 

 

 

Resurgent grasses

 

 

 

 

Pavilion of Shade

 

 

 

 

Thriving in cool moist semi-shade

 

 

 

 

Patterns of life and culture

 

 

 

Buoyant colors

 

 

 

A head of green

 

 

 

 Burgundy and fuchsia

with delicate lavender flowers

 

 

 

Petrified serpent

 

 

 

Fungus is a force of nature

 

 

 

 

Incarnadine leaves

 

 

 

 

 

Machine of loving grace

 

 

 

 

Rhododendron in heaven

 

 

Au revoir

 

 

 

 

3. 

Desert clime

 

 

 

 Everything has its point

 

 

 

 

 A succulent scene

 

 

 

 

graphic cactus

 

 

 

You may eat them

if you dare

 

Nature is seldom embarrassed

Touch me not

 

 glimpse into the Palmetum 

 

 

Another lark in the park

or in this case crows

 

 

Exit via FAIRYLAND

 

 

Another afternoon in November

 

 

 

Little pal

 

 

 

 

a short visit

 

 

 

 

 Life is sort as well

yet I don't agree with this idea

The plaque will go on and on

as fewer and fewer people remember who

 

 

 

 

 

 Young lady modeling

 

 

 

 Puts a little bush in the old tail

 

 

Read of a trend in Japan 

of "forest-bathin"

Mindful idling under trees

 Essentially what I've done my entire life

 

It's closing time

 

 

And then the finger of Fate

indicates it's gotten late

now they must lock the gate 

But I linger on benches just outside

where it's not lonely for long

 

 

 

 The gounds-keeper gave them some food

This fellow wonders if I have any more in store

 

 

 

 

Soon afterward I am joined

by lovely petite l'oiseaux

 

 

 

They find what squirrels leave behind

 

 

 

 

Avifauna accompany me

on my way out of the park

 

Zip a dee do dah

 

 

 

Epilogos

 

 

Evanescence at sunset

hello Darkness, my old friend

 

 

11, 21, & 24 November 2021

 

Oakland Blues

Piano abandoned

It started on the sidewalk

then began a long

slow stop-motion

animated walk

through the park

Play me the

Oakland Blues

on it

So blue

it has a patina

 So blue

the sky could fall

The birds and I

wouldn't mind

We've been expecting it

all along

Life goes on

exuberantly

until it does

 There was a city-wide strike

going on that day

We were barred

from the inner sanctum

garden plot

(photo shot through fence)

A lone gardener

watering what

cannot do without

A broad leaf

against the fence

turned the silent red

of embarrassment

 

Locked out

and in need of a rest

I sat in the grass

At this point

a gardener appeared

an insider

we exchanged salutations

A girl pulled up

on a bicycle

who had unattended plants

 she worried over

She was restricted

to outside the fence

just as I was

The garden lady

gave her scant attention

You won't see

the serious gardener

in jiggle-bottom drawers

The entire park

is of course

as once was

the entire world

Outside the park

I await transport

home

The strike didn't last long

and eventually

we'll have new level

easy-walking walkways,

And so one withdraws

having had an adventure

nevertheless

December 2018