Bell

Iceman rings a bell pushing orange wheel cart down Dream Street in Kampot.

He survived The Dark Years ('75-79)

No one ate ice cream then

They ate death, fear, suspicion, doubt, uncertainty

Rice and fish paste if they were lucky
He is lucky to have survived

Now he wanders the river town

Ringing a bell

Enlightenment echoes through hearts minds souls
Survivors cherish bell’s memory music

Flowers at pagoda whisper laughter
Respect love courage dignity compassion

Meditation
Poem nature symbolic butterflies

Silence

Void wheelchair fate
Wheel of Life eats anger greed ignorance

One Hundred Aspects of the Moon - Yoshitoshi

Clowns live on the moon
Flaneur - the sacred prostitution of the soul

Projections of shadow self
Time
Space
Matter
Energy

Being

You are an experiment of the universe with a free will.

Grow Your Soul - Author page

Dance Wing

Butterfly shadows dance in your face
Street theater drama

Feed Me
said the capable girl of 7 in her blue skirt school uniform

to a parent or teacher telling her what to think

sitting on a cement Vietnamese bench
surrounded by green plants and yellow flowers swirling

bakery aromas of baguettes

French dialect dependency waited for her dwindling courage
Draw the future
Poetry sits with sea sky blue
Black swift lets
Dance wing
Saliva
Bird’s nest soup
Delicacy
Negotiate clouds

Calligraphy
Cut up
Less is more
Old man’s face carries future of child innocence
beauty
clean pure radiant

luminous
Dream Sweeper
Kep ocean songbird waves islands
sky rain sings green blue purple
white yellow gray sheets
clouds dance

Space is geography
Time is history
Bird song sings wings

A dying caged bird sings Goodbye Blue Sky - I never knew you ...

Grow Your Soul

Author Page

Spring

One Kampot morning  
Dawn struggles to create music hearing
 Brooms dance with dust as Khmer and Vietnamese women
Bent like branches in strong wind

Hover over leaves, discarded fruit skins
Memories
Bird songs
Night dreams
Sweeping swish a wish
Rain glorious soft smooth clear rain

Cloud tears echo silence
Calm way
Spring speaks laughter
Cool sky jazz

Water imagination seeds with bliss & gratitude

Diamonds reflect a universe on bamboo leaf

In a Brave New World you shift from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness.
I ate civilization.

Breath brain 157 neurons
Attention arousal
Mortar pestle music
Rhythm kids
Chatter with mom on crutches

Reality is a crutch
Steaming gleaming aluminum containers
Meat, eggs, vegetables, soups, rows of BBQ fish, sausage

Smoke curls from charcoal flames
Backpack tourists avoid motorcycle mama mayhem

Little boys with little toys all 125cc
At the speed of light

Be light about it
Blind female masseuse meditates in a green room
A slow steady rain falls
Clean air smells good

A single star,

flickering out in the universe,

is enough to fill the mind, but it is nothing in the night sky.

Grow Your Soul

Author Page

Kindness

clowns decorate random acts of kindness

with the gravity of tenderness

look and leave people dance

as death

chases them through life

go go go

Mont Blanc rollerball stands tall purple thin strong
Tell me about the frugal gambling foreigners investing in Kampot

the sleepy little town with corroding French architecture

How Italian, French and German expats describe their passion

for becoming along rivers of life with restaurants, bars, movie theatre of the fantastic,

OM Hindu therapeutic Moringa powdered elixirs, guesthouses with miniature golf hole in one, pepper plantations, organic yoga retreats, sunset river boat cruises
opportunities for physically challenged humans signing

“Hello” as blind masseurs knead muscles trekked out

after paying Chinese casino gambling debts hiking through deep unconscious jungles

hearing silent footsteps of serene orange robed boy monks

meditating on compassion chant sutras in gratitude

Pure mind: illusion

Create

Imagination

Experiment

Dream

Play

Smiling makes you happy

Be happy for no reason

Your compassion is greater than your fear

Grow Your Soul

Author Page

World as illusion

Kampot ceremony
70,000 years of pointillism
 
Walking makes the road
 
Khmer wedding music clanging symbols
Yellow silk accompanies jackhammers
In a brave new world

Mawlamyine, Burma

*
 
Pure mind Buddhism - world as illusion
 
How’s this for coincidence chance fate
You walk to market
Past a massage place greeted by seated smiling woman named Cosmos
Connection strong married two kids 14/5

used to run her own place until husband said no

now p/t for sister needing help
Delight intensity oral pleasure friendly and communicative
 
A few poetic words about Kampot morning
Energies
Frequencies
Transmissions
Cool fresh dawn breeze
Swift lets in kitchen prepare bird nest soup using saliva
 
Boys tear down wedding celebration immaterial
after food conversations song dance concert
celebrations in narrow park garden
red bunting where

loud happiness

spills into a brown river below green silent mountains
 
Funky second-hand shop discovers Burmese

cheroot aha flashback to Mandalay market purveyor of rolled leaves

Mawlamyine, Burma

*
 
Dancing possibilities in Kampot dawn
Delicious stream-of-consciousness
Be invisible little angel of light
Have mercy becoming Wushu meditation
Comedy
 
Chanting monks flame orange voices
Ageless Vietnamese woman pushes wheeled trash treasures
Her spine curves toward tomorrow’s promise
Mystery light
Sensation perception intuitive
 
Line
Shape
Shading
Discernment
Detachment
Calligraphy
Breath
Line pressure
Sign language

Riding the rails in Burma - 2015

Grow Your Soul - Poems and Prose from Laos & Cambodia