love the moment

The oceans are rising The markets are falling The sun rises in the East And sets in the West The whole world wobbles as it turns A top no child dare spin In the midst of worry Burdens lifted that none should carry A baby I know, barely ten days old Nurses at his mother's breast He believes all is well - secure In the only world he knows Such love always is Always will be We would do well To rest in this Happy New Year dg 12/31/10 Sent from my iPad http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/

"And the walls came tumblin' down. Oh, Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho..." All my life I have constructed elaborate, fortified walls Stories guarded and manned continually The cost was unconsidered It was a matter of national security It was decreed by the grand poobah of me Born to rule by a perceived Divine Right of Kings But thankfully The best laid plans of mice and men Do fail occasionally Possibly, frequently if we are honest Afterwards, all the citizens of the besieged city were Free to go - so unlike The bible story At first, they stood frozen As the wall's falling had shown them lands Never before seen Eventually, the strongest began to walk Heading out in all directions Determined to find the beauty That Before the fall They had rarely dared To even dream of dg 12/29 Sent from my iPad http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/

A Tisket, A Tasket A Very Crowded Basket Full of bills, Honey Do's, how to save the world It once was small, pristine - easy to carry Then life came with the inevitable upgrades A towing package, a rooftop carrier Where does it all go One day Atlas shrugged, Hercules took a vacation Remarkably, no one noticed but the party in question Everyone else just enjoyed the day Or didn't With no responsibility accruing To the party in question Isn't that nice dg 12/23 Sent from my iPad http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/

There is a man His skin is like chocolate His eyes are clouded, foamy Like the muddled milk of my latte Whenever I go for coffee - I see him Standing, calmly directing traffic Believing, faithful to His purpose to arise from his homeless slumber On those days, I understand Not always, but sometimes I remember the why of it all And I speak, I touch his arm, his shoulder And I pay him for his service Our eyes meet We both know It is never enough dg 12/20 Sent from my iPad http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/

Be still Stillness reveals The secrets of eternity Eternity embraces The all-possible Tao 16 It was said of me Even as a boy He cannot sit still Though said with affection Or sometimes so This is no laughing matter No stillness, no secrets Who wants that? Why is it so hard to do nothing What is so hard about quiet For me, born to this peculiar clan Doing trumps being Going, not waiting Saying says less Than listening could One only hopes Someday soon What once was said Is said No more dg 12/18 Sent from my iPad http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/

Eyes look but cannot see it Ears listen but cannot hear it Hands grasp but cannot touch it Beyond the senses lies the great Unity - Invisible, inaudible, intangible What rises up appears bright What settles down appears dark Yet there is neither darkness nor light Just an unbroken dance of shadows Zen Like the name of the grammar school friend You almost recall Or the obscure fact on the tip of your tongue Peace seems many times just beyond my reach The things you say on lonely days The tunes I whistle in the dark We all have a method For dealing with the mystery We say we know when we do not We say we are fine when the opposite is true Truth is not easily defined But after much toil and sleight of hand I usually return to a familiar place Like the tents and forts once built as a child It is as safe and solid as my favorite toy truck At the end of the day, I grudgingly admit I really don't know what tomorrow brings That is not mine to know Those things I mistake...

What does it mean "Endless affliction is bound to the body"? Man's true self is eternal, yet he thinks "I am this body, I will will soon die" This false sense of self is the cause of all his sorrow When a person does not identify himself with the body Tell me, what troubles can touch him? Mantras What does it mean? A particular turn of events A cloudy day on Monday followed by Unseasonably warm days thereafter No emails today, no Facebook posts The dogs slept right through my arrival The expected greetings, withheld Every day, like shaman We throw down chicken bones We read tea leaves We want answers Sureties paid against tomorrow There are none The only thing we know is that Love abides Kindness and grace - lightly scattered through our days - Will come back to us Not as we expect, but just as we need Anything else we believe are vapors Spells we cast, wordless chants thrown up Against the skies Hoping against hope We will finally be...

Too many colors blind the eye Too many notes dull the ears Too many flavors deaden the tongue Racing, hunting, and galloping about Only disturb the mind Wasting energy to obtain things hard to get Only hinders one's growth So, the sage is led by his inner truth And not his outer eye He holds to what is deep And not what lies outside "No Mas" Days Crammed, Jammed Full of things Things to do, People to see People to please I'm thinking of that circus clown Juggling household things Irons, skillets, bananas, and eggs Some things fragile, some hard Life is funny like that Today, one by one Thoughtfully, I catch each of them Tenderly, I put them down Thankfully, I walk away On another day, when it is time I will, again, embrace them And with joy, I will, again Pick them up and carry them But only as far As their appointed place dg 12/11 Sent from my iPad http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/

What we believe It's complicated It was simpler When the teacher's diktat determined It was easier when Preacher, Priest, or Rabbi Painted the picture clearly And we bought it Then, life came - and all it's contradictions And now, what is left? I believe in love I believe in beauty The power of the sunrise Of wings wide, riding the thermals on sun-streaked days I believe in play Of joyful children at the beach Or grown children playing with the dog But, mostly, I believe in love The love that endures That withstands sorrows and setbacks In sickness and in health The love of a hand, softly resting on a sobbing shoulder The sleepy love of good mornings and good nights Of all the things I believe And sometimes doubt Only love lasts Only love In the end Matters to me dg 12/8 Sent from my iPad http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com

Sent from my iPad http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/ Begin forwarded message: From: David Gamble Date: December 7, 2010 10:59:51 AM CST To: jdavidgamble.bimmer@blogger.com Subject: The shift Note: for some reason, the blog won't publish a photo in my post... What do you see? Do you remember the picture? From Psych 101 They call it an illusion Of the optical sort Do you see the woman? Young or old Can you see them both That question From my freshman year I still encounter in varied form Whether queries about water Poured into a glass Or about my journey Half full or empty Only I decide Halfway to heaven Halfway to hell It all depends on Not so much where I'm standing But the direction I'm heading That alone determines My glass Is half full dg 12/7 Sent from my iPad http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/

I haven't played it so much Lately It has patiently waited In it's case, in it's corner Quiet strings, seasoned wood Memories of a thousand songs When I finally pick it up Adjust the pitch One string at a time I am thankful The melody never chastens The music never chides The soft sounds embrace me like a lover Once gone on a long journey But still, just as beautiful And never for a moment Forgotten dg 12/6 Sent from my iPad http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/

The moment of conception Usually attended by strong emotion Even exhilaration And birthing Always a memorable event For a dreamer Ideas are like children I have thousands They clamor and throng around me Demanding my attention I am chagrined That so few I have Nurtured sufficiently That they might stand alone Confident and free Able to engage in adult conversation Unafraid to move In the crowded, bustling streets dg 12/5 Sent from my iPad http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/

This is not about me It is about cold fronts and jet streams It is about ADP & ATP and cell respiration It is about rust and ground water and nitrogen fixation It is about great and hidden things Powers unseen Things that touch us That move our days There is no right and wrong There is no intricate scheme They are content to be To play their singular part In the great and wondrous mystery That we call life dg 12/3 Sent from my iPad http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/

What do I want to be? Surely not as prosaic as Hamlet But basically the same question as the Bard's I've pretty well eliminated every one else's idea Tried those, didn't work In the fifth grade, I wanted to be a Senator Later, Governor of Tennessee My Mom wanted me to "make a preacher" As Southern Mom's say For a while I tried the family business But the problem is the idealist, the dreamer He is so pesky, problematic So many jobs I thought I could clean up the mess Make it work just so But now, like a long simmering soup I've reduced the recipe to it's basic, condensed self Every day, push back the darkness If only for a while Bring light, and hope, and laughter To as many - or as few - As are looking for what I'm selling That singular, unique recipe I have perfected After years of failed dishes dg 12/2 Sent from my iPad http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/