Passages : 2025

Saturday, October 18, 2025

Nature's Pulse

Summer wanes humbly

Autumn crawls in with fanfare

Soul feels nature’s pulse

Summer Leftovers

Seaforth Beach on Jordan Lake NC

Friday, October 17, 2025

Letting Go

Autumn’s vibrant letting go eases hearts

And bespeaks release from shackles of strife

Foolishly revered on vile social ramparts.

Though rubbish, strife hinders good will in life.

Letting Go

Autumn colors in Pittsboro NC

Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Tranquility Reborn

These days humankind breathes a collective sigh

And gives good-natured hearts free rein worldwide,

To dance once more just like a butterfly,

Rapt with joy, on summer’s flowered hillside.

Tranquility Reborn

Haw River near Bynum NC

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Dream Weaver

Cast not aside mindful twilight thinkers,

Night owls who ruminate, burn midnight oil,

For life’s journey requires dream weavers

To help alleviate life’s mortal coil.

Dream Weaver

Self-portrait

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Second Spring

Turning of leaves wakes memories of spring.

Surge of red hues and gay shades of amber

Encourage wracked hearts to one final fling,

Before Earth realms embrace winter slumber.

Wistful Blues

Hydrangea

Daughter Of Elysium
Honeysuckle

Spring Fling

Pollinator garden at Pittsboro Market NC

Thursday, September 25, 2025

Haunted Reverie

Lakeside reverie haunted by flashback

To elemental chaos wrought by storms,

Whose fearsome wake dropped telltale beach wrack—

Ephemeral art beneath insect swarms.

Two months after mid-July flash flooding—when lake waters rushed into shoreline woodlands before settling some ten feet above current levels—Mother Nature tries her best to settle into a laid-back autumn mood. The rust-colored tinge on trees left by muddy water bespeaks the high-water mark.

Haunted Reverie

Seaforth Peninsula on Jordan Lake NC

Friday, September 12, 2025

Wholeness Of Heart

When goodness and love seem scarce far and wide

And evil boastfully rears its head,

Let the better angels within us guide

Bold wholeness of heart as a nation, instead.

A nation with a wholeness of heart, built on muddled perfection of shared values rooted in mutual respect and social cohesion, endures the test of time.

Muddled Perfection

Hostas in autumn regalia

Saturday, September 6, 2025

Without Regret

Make time to pause at life’s rockbound river,

Turn heart and soul to mindful reverie,

Wade into what-ifs and might-have-beens…linger,

But, regret naught, in light of life’s brevity.

Without Regret

Along Lower Haw River Trail near Bynum NC

Thursday, September 4, 2025

Autumn In Waiting

As the sun briefly ducks behind loose cloud cover, filtered light helps to accentuate the warm hues of early autumn foliage along rocky banks and drought-weary flows of the Haw River near Bynum NC. A tell-tale russet coloration on vegetation next to the river course is a grim reminder of the muddy torrents of early summer floodwaters. The river surged some 25 feet above current levels, ripped century-old trees from their bouldered river bank perches and shaped new channels.

The river and its environs are a metaphor of life. I close eyes and open my heart to its teachings. Go with the flow it gurgles, persist in the face of inevitable change…for only a bold heart will successfully navigate life’s rapids.

Autumn In Waiting

Haw River near Bynum NC

Monday, September 1, 2025

Illusory Tranquility

Our "100 Days of Summer" end in unhurried albeit illusory tranquility here in the Carolinas. Long, sweltering Dog Days of Summer have given way to near fall-like sunrise-to-sunset temperatures. Elderberry bushes are in full bloom and fill late summer airs with pleasant aromas. However, deepening drought conditions linger.

Vegetation is in survival mode and early leaf fall bespeaks dire conditions. Where early summer floodwaters on the Haw River wreaked havoc more than a month ago, rock-strewn riverbeds challenge meager flows.

Unhurried Tranquility

Elderberry Splash

Rock-Ribbed Serenity

Haw River near Bynum NC

Thursday, August 28, 2025

Heaven's Long Silence

While hot summer days take pause, hold their breath,

Parched trees survive on memories of rain.

Their thirsty pleas bemoan Earth’s dance of death

And pine for angel tears to end drought’s reign.

Heaven's Long Silence

Jordan Lake NC (view from ranger station lookout)

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Immortality

Immortality flows…by divine grace…

From essence muddled by a life well-lived.

Distilled by resolute human heart

And given wing into eternity

By man’s everlasting soul,

Our triumphs and backwash in pursuit

Of meaning and purpose in daily life

Become etched onto eternal pages

Of collective consciousness and legend.

In said timeless realm, in perpetuity,

Mortals realize immortality.

Divine Grace

(photo-impressionism)

Saturday, April 5, 2025

Vernal Awakening

Dogwood croons uncensored refrain,

Woodland chorus chimes in with zest,

Springtide spellbinds earthly domain—

Enchantment spilled at God’s behest.

Vernal Awakening

Path at Millbrook Pond in Powell Place, Pittsboro NC

Friday, April 4, 2025

Season Of Renewal

For the time being…Mother Nature throws hearts embarked on flights of fancy rapt in springtide nostalgia off balance, by insisting we take a joyride aboard her latest weather rollercoaster. Arctic airs and sweltering, summer-like embraces take turns in muddling the ebb and flow of our emotions.

It’s time to thrust aside any lingering solace of hiémal dreams—to stop hitting that late winter snooze button—and allow tides of the heart to lift living souls into another season of renewal.

Spring regalia in our Powell Place neighborhood, Pittsboro NC

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Friendship Forged

Unjust blame strains heart

Forgiveness lightens burdens—

Bear hug seals friendship

Tell-Tale Heart

Self-portrait at home on Cobble Ridge, Pittsboro NC

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Journey Of Life

Keep in mind days of wine and roses,

When life seems darkest at death’s door.

It’s by design life juxtaposes

The good with bad and ugly, once more.

The Good, Bad And Ugly

Flooding at Seaforth Peninsula on Jordan Lake NC

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Daybreak Soliloquy

Connect with nature at sunrise,

Let your heart renew strength and soar.

Childlike, hail dead of night’s demise—

Her dark dungeons hold sway no more.

Divine Awakening

Seaforth Peninsula on Jordan Lake NC

Monday, March 3, 2025

Solace

Anguish torments hearts

Solace springs from quietude—

Restores flesh and soul

Solace

Great blue heron fishes flooded shoreline at Jordan Lake NC

Sunday, March 2, 2025

Virgin Mary And Christ Icon

I am a lifelong artist and have a deep, abiding interest in classic Byzantine icons—their beauty and power as windows into Heaven and channels of divine grace.

In the early 1960s our family resettled in California. Within the next year or two, at age 16, I painted this icon—emulating the Byzantine style.The Mother of God looks out at us and gestures with her hand towards Jesus, guiding our attention to Him, as the Way and the Light.

Photo of my painting (c. 1963)

The Virgin Mary and Christ..the Savior of our souls

Courage Reborn

When heart brims with joy,

Each beat wakes strong emotions—

Passion fuels courage.

Courage Unchained

Oriental bittersweet vines in woodlands north of Pittsboro NC

Friday, February 28, 2025

Winter Daydreams

Snow squeaks underfoot
Hearth fire warms hands and nose
Heart soars with delight

Should I heed past experience and "beware the Ides of March" or allow expectations of imminent springtide beauty to take center stage?

A meander through waning snows in the winter wood helps to shelve memories of the drama and havoc wreaked by winter weather. As it happens, in my heart the good memories about Old Man Winter and his minions invariably prevail.