sandy here she comes

today has been full of
early morning hours.

stacks of paper.
computer screens.
coffee mugs.
face-to-face encounters.
words, words & then more
words.

dinner and cauliflower.
designs and dreams.
hopes and goals.
listening and direction.

excitement
anticipation.
typing keys.
roommate energy
and roommate jokes.

today life, it was busy today.

coffers still coffeed at 
their favorite local spots.
traffic existed in only its 
predictably jerky inconsistency 
during the usual times of day. 

yellow buses picked up loads of backpacks 
with kids attached. 

and just like that, 
without hardly noticing...
today, my world went on.

but meanwhile elsewhere 
just due miles East, the world as they know it 
stopped.
No literally.
Stopped.

No subway lines.
No taxis. 
No buses.
No traffic lights.

No Wall Street.
No Stock Exchange.
Nothing.
just people...
being told to stay indoors. 
And wait.

wait for the rain
for the damage
for the unknown.

oh deary what's your name?
did they say Sandy?
oh sandy sandy
so strong and so mighty.
my heart goes out to
those in your
path.

- n.

tonight i went to service

tonight i went to service
for one purpose
and one purpose only.
to hear
to listen
to feel
the drums.

there's something particularly perfect
about music,
about drums.
the beat
the pulse
the rhythm.

it gets in you, through you
reverberating across within without
your entire being.

and if you can, just for a moment
zoom in on it, the drums.
only it.
the beat
the pulse
the rhythm.

in that moment
when you meet the drum
you might notice
that it guides the entire
collection of notes.

can you? do you?

it does. because
it holds
it brings
it defines.

it's particularly extraordinary really.
those drums.

and in that moment
between only you & the drum
if you listen closely
you will
hear
listen
feel

your heart.
in there.
in you.
contentedly beating inside.
reverberating amongst bones & echoing
down veins
in the only home it's ever known.

your heart.
it's content to be alive
and do all it has ever done and ever
hopes to do:

to beat out the rhythm
of your life.

there's something particularly perfect
about the drums.
to remind us
how to
hear
listen
feel

that one thing.
that one thing
that's always been inside.

- n.