Master of Light

There are three subjects most of my poetry is usually about: Love, Spirit and Nature. Even though I consider Dave high in my list of favorite people, I could not fit a poetic tribute to him into that category. And though Dave and I share a spiritual path, I rarely think of spiritual experience when talking to him. Nature, on the other hand, does have possibility, because of his photography and his expression of light therein. This morning driving up 494 it came to me:

Have you seen the light today?
I see it on the sunlit birch stands
waiting for the first winter snow.
It shows in weeping willow domes
yellow with expression.
And in the marsh grass
stark against dark wooded hills.
The few golden leaves that still top young cottonwoods
like summer's standard still flying.
Then the blue sky behind the skeletons
of black walnut whose leaves fall first.
Or the few maples that have not yet
released their claim to autumn
where red and burgundy once ruled.

Have you seen the light today
in the season's progression?
On the road home?
Or in the portraits
by the master of light?

Happy Birthday, Dave!