Nolo Segundo is the pen name of retired teacher [America, Japan, Taiwan, Cambodia] L.j. Carber, who became a published poet in his 8th decade in over 240 literary journals in 21 countries and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize, thrice for Best of the Net. Cyberwit.net has published 3 collections in softcover: THE ENORMITY OF EXISTENCE; OF ETHER AND EARTH; and SOUL SONGS. These titles reflect an awareness gained over 50 years ago when he had an NDE whilst nearly drowning: that he has—is–a consciousness predating birth and surviving death, what poets since Plato have called the soul.
To a Friend a Continent Away
You turn up often in my mind, though it be
in subliminal fashion, iridescent flashes
of your quiet image flit into consciousness
like flies in spring, when they are quick.
I think of you in your silent parade, you
marching in your eastern-black robes,
your body and face towards the sunset
but your mind and soul see the sunrise….
During our brief piece of the vastness
we learned thoughts, taught codes and
traded essences, so now you can never
be away from me, for my imagination
and memory and will, shall, like some
formidable trinity holy, penetrate
mountains and forests and oceans
to sense your presence
in the movement of my arm
lifting a cup of tea….
Fragments
A bit here, a piece there,
that’s all we really have–
be it the tail end of a dream
as you awaken to a more
mundane world and feel it
slip away from you, and
knowing you will never see
that wondrous universe
again– or the books you’ve
read over a lifetime, the
millions of words that
went through your brain
like cars speeding away into
the encroaching night….
You know you can keep
nothing really, nothing
whole, but still you want
to—you want life and yes,
love too, to be solid, sure,
unfading– but sentience is
a melange and your mind
a bubble on a wave that
rolls in and out, in and out,
as time’s undercurrent pulls
you relentlessly into that
unfathomable ocean–
Eternity….
My Own Small Slice Of Paradise
I look out my backyard and
rejoice in its greenness
(even though green is not
my favorite color) and I
think I am so fortunate
to have a tame jungle
for a backyard with its
own little zoo of squirrels
dancing like dervishes and
birds fluttering like mad
and fat crafty groundhogs
continually trying to dig
under my shed for their
own comfy rent-free home
and the occasional skunk
(so beautiful at a distance)
or even a proud wild turkey
but best of all is when a
deer or two or three come
like virgin queens to quietly
meander o’er my ¼ acre
domain– it may not be like
sitting on a beach in Hawaii
overlooking the Pacific as
the sun gracefully dies yet
again but it is my own, my
very own small slice of
Paradise….
impspired 