Listed here is the most up-to-date installment of Poet’s Corner, presented by the Edmonds-centered EPIC Poetry Team.
Kenjiro Nomura, Artist
1. Black and White
The pushed leaves are gone
and skeletal woods are mounting from the useless
to dress the black with flesh once more.
Spilt ink on a blank web site:
ragged black clouds feather downward,
diminishing the white sky.
Suffering presents delivery to contentment,
joy to suffering.
Independently, they are black ink
on black paper
or white on white.
The evil and the great define each other.
They adore 1 another as pure black ink
loves the purity of whiteness.
Like all opposites,
black and white make each and every other,
suggest every other,
and conceptually are yoked jointly.
2. Shade
Streaming from the prism among the men and women and God
are 7 level seven billion slivers of gentle.
A spectacular variety of shade is flowing from the white.
Each and every sliver is unique on the limitless shade wheel.
Purple, orange, yellow, environmentally friendly, blue,
indigo, and violet are at a person with the original entire.
The rainbow is 1 continuum, like branches and the bole,
connecting men and women with folks and the persons with God.
Extinguish the gentle supply and the colours disappear!
All human range is component of a larger unity.
Our sense of a independent self is a functional necessity,
but the focus on the different self is the cause of struggling.
Focus rather on the infinite divine self,
which represents true truth, and you will discover
the source of gentle for the existence of all mankind
over and above the prism concerning the folks and God.
Dave Baldwin
~ ~ ~ ~
Adults Sitting down All over Ingesting
Friends and relatives joined us
for barbeque on our patio.
The climate was gentle
and some of the children
ended up however in the pool.
I was not in a fantastic temper.
It was just right after I broke up
with my initially severe girlfriend.
I was brooding in the shadows
quietly observing the older people
sitting in their folding chairs
with drinks in hand.
This was not a beer and wine group.
The martini was Mother’s favored
and, also, it was the most loved
with a plurality of the accumulating,
but there have been combined beverages
with gin, vodka, and bourbon.
Dad was consuming Jim Beam
with ice and a splash of drinking water.
There was a huge bottle of Seagram’s 7
blended whiskey on the kitchen area counter.
There was a lot of alcoholic beverages
and my dad and mom produced confident
every person experienced a total glass
at all situations.
I was made use of to looking at older people
sitting down all-around ingesting,
but for the initially time in my life
I requested the issue:
What is the issue of all this ingesting?
I knew the conventional explanation—
when individuals function tricky,
they want to chill out
at the close of the week
and alcohol can help them do that.
But in that minute, it occurred to me
my moms and dads and their good friends
could be looking for a type of numbness
to daily life alone,
and I unsuccessful to comprehend
how that made them truly feel
superior about on their own.
Meanwhile, I retained contemplating
about my personal failed adore daily life.
Like most fifteen-year-outdated boys,
I assumed marriage would be wonderful
simply because you could have sexual intercourse each night time.
But when I looked at Dad and Mom
and the other partners
on our brick patio,
it seemed that practice left the station
a lot of yrs in the past
and was no for a longer period a variable at all.
If it was not a element,
why were some of the couples
at the barbeque even now delighted collectively
when other people, like my parents,
have been decided to blur their expectations
in a fog of liquor?
Dave Baldwin
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dave Baldwin retired in 2017 from the Walt Disney Company following much more than 40 a long time as a specialized author and editor. He lives in Lake Stevens.