At the alter

As a family we were sanctified

with the arrival of a new generation.
The vigil bringing us together
to bear witness.
Star stuff joining star stuff
to welcome to this world baby Wood.

Nathaniel's Facebook Entry upon the death of Tybee

Yesterday Jenna, Dubin and Myself lost the heart of our little pack to a terrible and sudden disease. Our little Tybee who we loved so much. Only 2 years old, but she lived every goddamn moment with joy and excitement and a sense of purpose that I've never seen in another creature. I don't know how I am going to deal without having her around, howling with me, leading me down paths but always checking that I was still with her. If you knew her, please just think about her today. Even at her worst she would try to play and greet us. Maybe we can all take a lesson from that.

Things fall apart, everything tends to decay
And so it takes a lot to combine atoms in such a way
That they resist the lure of that darkness
that lurks around the edges of every day
So I’m inviting you to join me in this fight
to go down to the river, and come up all three times
Hank Williams was right: no one gets out alive
All we can do is try to have a really good time
Resist the tide, stand in the water
That’s baptism, that’s making light
Electricity is proof that there can be
A little bit of light in all this darkness
So please don’t go so gently into that good night
Rage, rage, rage against the dying of the light
You know you got a voice, to talk with you can call your own!
So clear your throat, and start singing this song:
Resist the tide, stand in the water
That’s baptism, that’s making light
Electricity is proof that there can be light
It takes a lot of work, but oh baby, it’s worth it
-Cynthia Hopkins

Cell phones, who knew.

A morning call from Death Valley
to make me smile.

Fathers day 2013

Gifts beyond measure.
A hospital visit to join in receiving good pregnancy news.
Tears on the phone as a faithful dog's fate is wrestled with.
Don't get that in a Hallmark card.

I am a cairn

Yesterday I made a pilgrimage

without realizing it.

Standing next to Michelle as

Marcy and Jenna reached to

touch her stomach and the look

on their faces was a baptism. I stood

at the gate between this life

and beyond.

Baby shower.

Where does unease for a family event come from.
All around people rush to these with smiles
that are denied me until I am there.

5:30 am

This day is cool, green and wet.
This bed is delicious.
This morning begins.

Less eye chewing

"Podcast, a green smoothie of reading." -Than

Cull the herd

When Dubin snarls, snaps and growls
he is showing us his wolf light.

I know it when I see it.

In a cube with a standing desk

reading the office chair instruction card

is like porn.

Number one at thirty one

A son,
a man
a friend
a father to be
a love.

Crow

Don't get me wrong,
I like a song bird outside my window
in the morning however
it is the crow that speaks to me
with something to say.

Sampson looking between the banisters of the back porch.

Alveoli

Breathing
where
conscious and unconscious
meet.

Holy shit

On the night of April 14th, 2013
I held a device in my hand
that directed my eyes up into the
night sky to watch a space station
pass overhead.

A journey

'97 VW camper took me
back 30 years, welcomed into
a home filled with love, humor
and good soup.

Visitor at work.

A moment.

Her hand rubbed the folds of my jeans between thumb and forefinger,
brushed lightly two or three times over the picture
of onion scapes on my shirt
ran her fingers through my beard
and after a pause looked me in the eye
and smiled.

Number

The number 8 is no more to
the number 8 as a stick
figure is to a woman or a man.

Nerd-gasm

"Carbon is the slut of the periodic table." - Neil DeGrasse Tyson quoting Jon Stewart