GRANDFATHER CLOCK: AN ODE TO MY GRANDPA, HUMANITY & THE PLANET ON HIS 100TH BIRTHDAY

grandpa, thank you.

& congratulations!

the infinite miraculous legacy of love

that came before you brought you into existence.

you were given the gift of love & you didn’t

squander it. you accepted the love

offered to you with open arms & your heart

multiplied it & gave it back to the world

& that’s it. that’s all there is to it, doc, you did it!

you got god’s simple message: receive love,

give love, be love. that’s it! again, congratulations!

primordial stardust & the divine mysteries that be

combined over eons of time to create this earth.

oceans sprouted from dry ground & mountains

rose to meet the stars, plants gave birth to animals

& along came man out of the ooze, along came woman

to complete man & vis-a-versa, etcetera, every combination,

so we would not lose each other, so we could create,

so we could procreate, so we could love

the design is so beautiful & simple but time has proven

that this love we’re all given isn’t always honored, as time

carries us onward we realize we’re all on board this boat together

& while most of us get it & give it – the love that is – some of us

aren’t so lucky to have received it, somebody broke the sacred

pact of eternal love & there’s been a glitch in the system ever since

this perfect love that’s meant to be passed down

from generation to generation forever is at battle

with the glitch, & that’s why you’re so important,

grandpa, because you did it, you were passed the torch

of love & you passed it on, that beautiful warm light

that is love, you shared it with your parents & their

parents, you shared it with grandma & she shared it

with you, you shared enough love to create two

beautiful daughters who learned love from you

the love that created us all, you honored it, you were lucky

to receive it but you got it, you gave it, your daughters

were offered your love & their love cups were filled up

& the beautiful liquid love overflowed with joy & created

my cousins, my sisters … the love that formed from stardust

found you & that exact same love created me. your love

created me. there is no thank you sincere enough in the universe

to express my gratitude for this gift of life, this gift of love,

but i’ll say it anyway, thank you! i received your love. i am love.

we are love, all of us. all of us have been blessed with the gift of love

but that love is sacred, & it comes with a contract: if you get it

you must give it. so listen here, grandpa, lend me your good ear:

I WILL NOT BREAK THE SACRED PACT OF LOVE.

i’ve been given more love than anyone in the history

of this planet & that’s why i am who i am, that’s why

i write poetry & travel & play music & talk to the homeless,

that’s why it may seem like i’m lost, because i’m disoriented

from all the love that has graced me, i’m so flooded with love

that it takes everything i have to give all the love i’ve been given back

because i’ve signed the contract with blood, i know

the love rules & i know humanity depends on it, on all of us,

the very planet we dance upon depends on us honoring love

so i’m just doing my part, i’m just doing what so many of us

do naturally: love. & life & love can be confounding, the glitch

is compounding over time, which is why i feel such urgency

we must receive love & give love to everyone, to every person

& plant & animal & spirit on this planet, we must pass the love torch

to strangers, to former lovers, to those who are caught up in the glitch

& have forgotten what love is, we must bridge that gap with love,

we must remind our so-called enemies that we are actually love

we must empty ourselves of love to those who never

knew it, to those who had it stolen from them, to those

who were robbed of god’s greatest gift because that initial

glitch in the love system was stitched into their childhood,

a cruel fabric that’s hard to shed, but not impossible

i know this, this is undeniable truth. love can lift up

the suicidal into a tidal wave of love, love can blur

borders, erase races & dissolve politics. the bottomless

power of love can end wars, it truly can, if we just

let it, if we can all muster enough strength

to win this tug-of-war against the glitch

so back to you, grandpa, back to being blessed

to share this poem with you on your 100th birthday.

you are a miracle of love & so am i. so thank you,

thank you because i know that if every family

were so full of love as ours i wouldn’t have to write

this poem because we’d all be on board the love

boat together, thank you because your life is a prime

example of the magic of love, thank you on behalf

of everyone who didn’t get a chance to thank you

because they grew and bloomed from your love too

thank you from the bottom of my bottomless heart

because i love you & you love me & we’re part

of how it’s supposed to be, thank you for passing

along all of the love i’ll ever need to share

as much of it as i possibly can on this journey

Brian CoeMay 5, 20181 Comment

May 5, 2018

Polaris Star Trail

this final star trail image consists of 180 separate 30-second photographs (f4.5, 3200 ISO) of the night sky. utilizing a tripod, i set the camera to continuous shooting mode and taped the button down for an hour and a half. i then loaded the pictures into photoshop elements and manually made each picture its own layer, then lightened each one. finally, i adjusted the the flattened image’s levels to bring out the stars’ colors & darken the background.

all of the stars seem to rotate around polaris (the north star) because the earth’s axis is in perfect alignment with it. as the earth spins one way, the rest of the planets & stars seem to spin in the opposite direction. from cold to hot, the stars glow red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo & violet. the straight lines that cut across the image are airplanes passing across the sky.

Cut on the Dotted Line

The Matilija Dam outside of Ojai, CA provides simple instructions that salmon would surely follow if their scaled-down dexterity allowed.

May 7, 2018

Cody, Wyoming

There’s wisdom in Wyoming. There’s wisdom wherever you go. It’s up to us to open up & receive the knowledge of others, regardless of our so-called differences. Click the image to visit the Manuscript Across America website and experience the ideas of hundreds of Americans.

May 11, 2018

Himalayan Bricks

Each stone on this Mani Wall has been hand-carved with Buddhist prayers. It stretches for miles & miles along this trail in the Himalaya of northern Nepal. Where creeks cross the path, prayer wheels have been set up that spin with the water’s flow.