Quinceanera

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Arriving today
With each milestone attained
You’ve been a bundle of joy
So perfectly precious
With each year unfolding
Petals you have adorned
Claiming your beauty
The most demure and timeless
With Latino roots
From maternal Mexicano
To paternal Nicaraguan
You stand so very unique
Young lady
Your quiet mild ways
Serve well to disguise
What a force you really are!
With strengths unseen
You choose the challenges
Most would never entertain
And find too rigorous and leave
You’re a boundary breaker
Setting records and heights
Leaving proud parents in a daze
“We have claim to this wonder?!”
Today, as you celebrate
Your Quinceanera
Your gentle morphia
From sweet girl
To young lady
Hold onto all
That makes you so you
Then tend and grow
To complement
What an amazing being you already are!

Tanzania 🇹🇿

Irreplaceable
One of a kind
The stars aligned
And our time came to fruition
The apprehensions
Anxieties, dreams and expectations
All surpassed
Even the best author
Could not have written
At first glance
Came a knowing
‘Unfold what may’
As I stood in your hands
And walked as if with a friend
Pockets of people
In towns to villages
Children to men of the Maasai
All smiles and welcomes
Hospitality endearing
Leaving warmth
Down to my core
With spectrum of adventure
Wide, wild and of wonderment
Yet secured by the guides
With rifle, machete and spear!
The call of the wild
From lion to elephants
With splashes and scurries
By hippos and gazelle
Terrain of diversity
With rubbles roads to wild bush
The crunch of dried salt beds
Even great whirls of red sand
Monumental forms
With Kilimanjaro and Meru
To Oldionyo Lengai; mountain of Gods
All footed by plains and lakes
No less than the great Natron
Just a piece of this planet
Yet you’ve left me awe
Stirred me deep
And revived me well
They call you Tanzania
I shall call you the soul
For all you are
Has always been just so
Live long, Tanzania
Be fruitful
Your survival is the legacy
That Mother Nature
This Universe
Is strongest of all

Ngorongoro

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Above : Curtesy National Geographic

Winding down the ridge
From the dense thickets
Acacias, vines, tall grasses and more
Decent steep and curvaceous
Bronzed red earth guides
Deep to the crater
Belly of the volcano
Flat with vast plains of grass
Pools and alkaline lakes
Predators gorge
Lions, hyenas, jackals
Hunting and scavenging
Prey
Wildebeest, gazelle, zebra
Languidly lounge
Or frolick and prance
Birds flutter like Fischer lovebirds
Trot like gineafowl
Wade, treading water as pelicans
Fly and swoop those vultures and cranes
Asantesana-Thankyou
For my opportunity to bear witness
To gatherings of lifeforms innumerable
To the world largest ecosystem
Asantesana
To the powers of this universe
Sun, moon and Earth
Bringing life
Sustaining life
Recycling life

The Baobab Tree

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You may not tower
But stand you do
Strong and grounded
With reassuring girth
Your vertical ripples
And segmental trunking
Branch up symmetrically
Dispersed across the plains
You lend life to many
Hosting beehives
Nesting Superb starlings
With dried out river beds
Elephants gnaw deep into your trunk
Sucking your rich sap
Parasitic plant life
Twine around and into your branches
No harm done
As your longevity is into the hundreds
Oh mighty tree
Humble and kind
In this arid bush land
You stand giant-like
Sharing all you are
Giving house and nutrients
Denying not even the termites
In awe of your qualities
Humbled by your lessons
You teach it is possible
To live with all who share your space

Man of Maasai

 

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Standard 6 foot 3 inches
Draped in colored shuka
Spear and machete unconcealed
No mistaking your identity
Footprint invisible
True to your ancient ways
Treading soft on your red earth
As one with your land
You live side by side
Beast, bush and Man
Boma-home, simplistic
Matted or bricked
Domed or steepled
Housing your family and livestock
Your community ways
Protect the elderly
And teach your young
What men of honor
Trust once gained impeccable
Unity undeniable
Accepting of right and wrong
No law keepers required
Justice served from within your circles
With tolerance to political and western tyranny
You have accommodated ‘globalization’
By being inched out of your land
Of the ‘worldly’ new ways
Not all is needed
For human existence
Nor this great planet
Much we can learn from you
As you sustain yourself
Your families, your communities
My prayers for your survival
I shall never forget
Our precious time
Meeting at rock mountain bed
Guided through adventured lands
Dancing by light of campfire
Thankyou
Nameste
Kwa heri
May we meet again

Yogis in Africa

Yoga was a repeated practice and component on my recent adventure, lead by the instruction of Erin Elizabeth Young

 

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Bandstand cabana
Kindly made available
Yogis international come together
On rainbow colored mats
Circular goddesses rise
Then dive to savasana
Egyptian salutations
Welcome almighty Sun
Seeding love, joy and life
Atop the A1 Hotel
Daring to face Mount Meru
We reach for the clouds
And dive to forward fold
Happy as clams
We clasp our hands
Then spread to warrior woman
Our strength never too far
Chirping birds surround
We perch on terrace edge
Stretching out in free dance
To reach the Tarangire plains
Above the Ngorongoro Crater
Amidst the thick foiled ridge
Sheltered by Acacias and more
Joined by creatures big and small
The sunset claims the backdrop
Making backbends a must
And finally a full circle
With morning, noon and night
Glory be to this kingdom
This gifted abode my body
And this divine privilege of existence
May I remember always
My breath
And strive to dance in its rhythm

Sunrise

The next few poems will reflect my journaling during my short stay in Tanzania…

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The following was written as my plane came into the morning of 6/25/18 as we approached Ethiopia..

Sunrise

First glimpse of you
At the break of dawn
And you are present
In all your glory
Along the horizon line
You rainbow in
With zestful orange
Richer than I’ve ever seen before
Slithers of yellow streak
With warmth of amber
Depth of your beauty
Assures me of your welcome
The night’s blue darkness
Looms above you
And you both meet
With equal forces
But you, Sun, rise to the days call
And golden wings spread
Pushing the night’s navy
To pales aqua
Oh the Lord of every land
Oh mighty Sun
How to acknowledge you?
Salutations
Is all I have
To honor you