The Races

The Races

I sit on the back porch

Night

Cool breeze stirring in its freedom

The crickets chirping all around me

An occasional change in their rhythm

Rarely a change in their rhyme

The waxing moon rests above

Saturn in her gracious clutches

Peace, tranquility, good

This is the realm beyond time

Off in the distance I hear the roar of the engines

The race is on

Another car goes down the road

Roaring

Fast, furious, growling

Loud

Obnoxious even, trying to drown out nature’s sounds

Blistering speeds

Conquering time

Driving on for that one precious millisecond

What a perfect picture of our world

In a hurry to run in circles

Raging on to get nowhere in particular

Enslaved to the clock

All the while the earth rests in quiet peace

And will continue to do so for a long, long time

Just listen to the sounds of the rock

The crickets are chirping all around me

There is so much power in the quiet

9/7/19 kdc

Etiology

Etiology

The source of all my troubles is comparison

Comparison always leaves me wanting

Or it leaves me full of pride

It has never placed me in the streams of peace

Never has it put me in the fields of love

Never has it let me sleep the night away

In dreams of wonder and awe

Everywhere I go now

I am judged and compared

I can’t sing like the one on the radio

So I forever stop singing and meekly listen

I’m not beautiful like the one on the gilded screen

So I don’t place my ugly anywhere in the world

Even where it is desperately needed

I can’t write like the laureate 

So I drop my pen

The poems are never born

I can’t dance like the ones on the stage

So I am still

Winds of joy never move over the earth

In other words

I compare

And I die

We wonder why there is such a despair in our world

It’s time to live

It’s time to stop comparing

To stop quitting because I don’t “measure up”

To hell with your ruler

To hell with your rules and measures

I am me

There is no other like me

Never will there ever be

I was planted in this world to grow

That is exactly what I plan to do

To grow right where I am planted

And not worry about the weeds around me

Or the weeds within

I will look to where the sun is

Ever growing toward the light

I will sing

I will laugh

I will dance

I will be who I am

And Life will permeate the earth

I will no longer compare

3/17/19

Choices

Choices

Too many choices now

I could spend the rest of my days

Searching for everything that is nothing

Toys, games, vacations, wares

Clothes, phones, mutual fund shares

I don’t even have to get up from the couch

I can sit here like a leather slouch

Consuming all that comes into my orbits

Yet there is always this stirring

There is always this stirring deep within

No rhyme, no reason, no cry, no whim

Seems to meet it or explain it

I think we all are made for something more

I think we all go beyond the meandering bore

Of the retail mall circuit

Not that any of the things we need are bad

Not that any of the things we want are ugly

But they do not define the who we are

They do not fulfill the rising star

That is continuously rising within our chests

I look for answers, I look for rest

It seems like it is only where the stillness resides

It seems it is where the mystery hides

It seems to go beyond all the reason

No shape, no circle, no time, no season

Seems to contain it at all

I look forward to the cool of fall

As I choose to go walk up the mountain

8/9/17

The Choosing

The Choosing

I’m at a place of mental exhaustion

And that’s a very humiliating thing for me to say

I’ve always been proud of my ability to handle adversity

Chaos, struggle were great unknowns

Now I find myself hardly able to remember my name

Is this the way it must be when all is the same

When all is a frenzied rendition?

Maybe so

Maybe not

I refuse to enter the world of dry rot

The place where all is a beggar

The place where all one seeks is pleasure

Where all one finds is pain

I am not going there

I rather decide to see what is before me

A rising sun, a setting moon

A simple lunch I take at noon

These things brings a spark of the grateful into my soul

This is a step toward me being whole

Simply being thankful for the good around me

I understand there is frantic and frenetic maelstrom

But I also know there is dancing and music

So I choose to imbibe in the latter

Relishing a glass of California wine

Listening to the weavings of the Ponderosa pine

Allowing beauty to alter my course

I can feel the breezes from the oceans

Black Walnut

 Black Walnut

These trees have stood for over 100 years

Growing

Producing fruit

Emanating a stalwart beauty

Year after year they give

Because year after year they take

They take water in all its scarcity

They take the minerals, the dirt

They take the light, the dark

Then give out food and shelter

Beauty and strength

Wonder and amazement

They grow to great lengths

They do all this from this same, small plot

Year after year after year

Without one single complaint

I think I might just do the same

Skylight

Skylight

I’ve spent this sunny afternoon

Lying quietly on the floor

Right below the skylight

Relaxing in the More

I listen to gentle embers

Humming through the night

I sense the change and beauty

That flows through release of light

I hear the sound of His humming

As He caresses the curves of my face

I feel the vibrations of His throne room

Every atom quiescent with grace

The movement of His Spirit is constant

I feel the warmth of His wind and the chill

I am flattened by the beauty and wonder

Within these moments of just being still 

I see His stories pass by as the clouds move

I see His motions in love and in dance

I sense the immensity of His great loving Presence

I see Life is a growing romance

K, Duane Carter 4/19/13

Presents

Presents

I sit in the presence of golden and shadows

While my soul it does the same

Yet there is something wondrous about the light

In all of it’s amber revelations

That speaks of infinity, and, yes, beyond

A presence that is always there and always love

Even as the earth turns her face away

She is still met with warm and gentle kisses

Even though the light does fade

It truly never does

It is always burning, always bright, always beautiful

Nothing in this world can stop it

Nor can anything in any other world for that matter

I sit in the presence of the golden and the shadows

Knowing that even in the midst of coming darkness

The light is always shining on my face

K, Duane Carter 1/10/13

Carried

Carried

I spoke into the waters

The waters spoke then into me

My words went into their very mists

Their mists then set me free

I sit amidst the songs of God

Amidst the peace of trees

I welcome gladness into my soul

I rest here on my knees

I’ve walked around the bended path

The sights I no more see

But the roar is still inside my heart

Forever flowing out from me

No silence could ever stop it

K, Duane Carter 10/18/12

Reflections

Reflections

Years have slipped on by

As I have wandered this grassy knoll

I have steadily wandered further west

Until the ocean has hemmed me in

Now I stand with this familiar feeling again

Of the unknown, the untested, the unseen

The wondering of what everything does mean

While all the while not really having to know

Doubts are fading, peacefulness grows

In this garden that I have come upon

Where I never hear a familiar song

Yet my heart has heard them all before

My eternal eyes see an eternal door

My mind does not know how to unlatch it

The yielding does know how to catch it

Entering on the invitation

Not striving in dark gyration

I simply walk into something so much bigger than I

Not remembering the when, not understanding the why

I simply walk in realizing

Good Father led me the entire way

He’s led me far today…

Right in the midst of the stillness

K, Duane Carter 12-1-11

Quiet

Quiet

The wind blows through the sea oats

Flavors and aromas of salt

Water and air

Stirring the feathers, moving the hair

Like a thousand spirits dancing

To the music of the sunlight

All the colors of the rainbow

Exist in the yellows, reds, and blues

But none of the blues exist in me

For within the light, within the wind

I am free

Free to fly when I wish

Or free to stand on the shore and feel water between my toes

Within the grasps and throes

Of movements far beyond my grasping

They are there for just the simple asking

I relish these moment of quiet

And the Quiet relishes me

K, Duane Carter 5-21-11

Snow

Snow

You and I could be snow

We could rest in the heavens

Surrounded by clouds

Filled with unique others

Made to fall and fly and water all at once

Absorbing the sounds around us

Taking in the peace and the tranquility of space

All impurity and fear erased

And then released

Falling, soaring, never boring

Landing to the earth like owls to the branch

Quiet, quiet, quiet

Yet releasing a sound that changes all

Releasing a sound that redeems the fall

Bringing a calm that can be felt

Bringing a reassurance, a softness

A purpose, a dream

The white does tell us what life does mean

Though we don’t understand it

We know in our soul

The sounds of the heavens have made us whole

Even when we could hear nothing at all

K, Duane Carter 1-29-11

Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis

I have felt the darkness of the bats

Their furry, fluttering wings, elastic

And their gnashing teeth bombastic

And it is none too pleasant to deal with

I have stepped out into sun

Basking in the glorious one

Wielding heat and warmth and light

Chasing away the darkest night

And in that have seen the butterflies

Yellow and dancing,

Flying and prancing

A picture of my destiny

A metamorphosis like no other

I turn from enemy into brother

And dine at a table like no other

Where even the memories don’t hold me like they used to

In fact they don’t hold me at all

I found a cushion from the drastic fall

And it is light and love and joy and peace

A calm serenity has been released

And it dances on the clouds like the butterflies

Right here is the picture before me

Moving and hovering on gentle winds

Where all of goodness calls me friend

And lover of wonder all at once

K, Duane Carter 8-26-10

Grow Where I am Planted

Trees, lovely and stately
All throughout the mountains
All throughout the valleys
Placed in precision
By the Hand that knows all
And is all
I almost feel like the tree on the ledge
I feel like there isn’t much future for me
I am not placed in the fertile valley
I was placed right on the precipice
But I will grow where I am planted
Because there is a purpose here
Maybe it is to draw the eye to the beauty beyond
Maybe it is to just simply be
Maybe it is to draw the heart to the wonder and adventure that is here
I know not, and I don’t need to know
I simply need to grow
Lord, I grow where I am planted
And thank You for the view…

K. Duane Carter 11-14-09

The Cascade

The Cascade

you don’t have to tell water to flow
it just does
you don’t have to tell the waterfall to be beautiful
it just is
you don’t have to instruct the trees to praise
they simply do so with no striving at all

you don’t have to tell me to dwell with God
I just do

you don’t have to tell me to be His son
I just am

you don’t have to teach me what to do to please Him
I simply do so

I simply do so by being what He has made me to be
Just like the water
Just like the waterfall
Just like the tree
Just be

K. Duane Carter
12-27-08