dazzling light - change...

the whole universe is an ocean of dazzling light
on it dance the waves of life and death..
                                    a service for the spirits of the dead

                                               .
                                              . .

coyote and earth maker whirling about in the world winds
found a meadowlark nest floating and drifting; stretched it
to cover the waters and made us an earth --

                       us critters hanging out together
                       something like three billion years.

                       three hundred something million years
                       the solar system swings around
                       with all the milky way --

                       ice ages come one hundred fifty million years apart
                       last about ten million
                       then warmer days return --

                       a venerable desert woodrat nest of twigs and shreds
                       plastered down with amber urine
                       a family house in use eight thousand years,
                                  & four thousand years of using writing equals
                       the life of a bristlecone pine --

                       a spoken language works
                       for about five centuries,
                       lifespan of a douglas fir;
                       big floods, big fires, every couple hundred years,
                       a human life lasts eighty,
                       a generation twenty.

                       hot summers every eight or ten,
                       four seasons every year
                       twenty-eight days for the moon
                       day / night    the twenty-four hours


                        & a song might last four minutes,

                        a breath is a breath.

                                  ~ gary snyder
                                  old woodrat's stinky house
                                 mountains and rivers without end