EMPATHY OVER ENTROPHY

"There is a force at work in our Uni/verse.."
(Actually,there are MANY forces at work in our Universe-
gravity,levity,imagination,property,humor,tragedy,farce and dull prose
In every given moment,one is hard pressed to know which will win
It is not as if we are at war-but this is a closed system-
where BP ,Iran,Palestine,governmental terrorism compete for our limited attention
Before you withdraw/ignore-your participation is implored
Your presence solves mysteries-how it is that one soul can change
anyone and everything.Start here and now(hear and know)
that everything is possible.And myth becomes factoid
Headlines become smilemarks, Truth and fiction mix and mingle
Everything IS possible.Just look at you!( as a miracle.

IN THE CLOUDTREES
we dream surreal circuses.Above us,aetherial us!Shapes and forms
melt,mold,dissolve in unpredictable patterns,so that categories
are only ever approximations.A box of clouds?A herd of rainstorms?
Lightning veins within varicose cumulus.Wifts of stratus stretch
Sheep herds of woolly white turn gray with worry and airlines
black stretch marks across the stomach of our sky.Vapor trails slice
mysterious markings -hieroglyphs?cloud crop circles?
Once,divination meant to learn the languages of clouds
Now they carry floods of portents-but we can no longer read
Our weather grows horse wild,stomping us out,until we
settle down,slow up,and ride (and read)the cloud trees

THE SCIENCE OF KNOTS
When ships were wood,rope was sisal and hemp
Servant of all,to be mastered via science of knots
Every mariner had vocabulary of bow hitch and hold
To stretch sails and connect intemperate elements together
All boats relied upon this knowledge-Almanacs of history
Generations would apprentice youth in the ways of making rope-
threading strands for strength like Samson's hair.
Rope held our universe together.(when boats were made of trees
and rope was natural fibers)Now we are plastic,imperfect,imported
Knots clove hitch,divorced from meaning and context
You do not know.You do not need to know
These mysteries went the way of sail-only little yachts
rely upon their stretched connections to secure moorings
Museums with knots on walls are not attended
You will not know.You do still need to know
How we are held together via Nature
and even plastic will not live forever
and the wisdom of elders holds us all together
O how you know! How much more we need to know!