Young days
Nascent birth of a new year
We mark time with candles burning
Inside the man
Lives the child
Never much older
Play of light on inner walls
A laugh sounds across the years
Smile on a mother's face
Puppet hands dancing on the seat back
Three children in the back seat watching
Laughing to pass the long miles
Dry lands sweeping by
Sleep comes softly in a rumbling blur
And now, grown to middle years
The western lands still beckon
But now places of vast power and mystery
Precious water flowing in channels and springs
Across the great sere plain
The pull of the West
Space
Not empty
But full of promise
Promise of finding
Somewhere in the many miles
Not to claim and hold
But only to truly see
To suck the sweet marrow
To cry with joy under the burning stars
And now the years have turned again
And the look back seems like the look forward
A circle spinning
The snake biting its tail
Past and present blend
In a gestalt of emotion
That is my life
This is it
Right now
It is what happens every day
It is the faces I know so well
It is the people, and the places
Thank all the saints
I love it so
I am grateful
I have lived well
I want more