Archive for the ‘Existential Moment’ Tag

Life Begins At Dawn   Leave a comment

Sunrise — Image by kenne

Morning Path

Life begins at dawn,

the world does not ask

where you have been.

It asks only

whether you are ready

to take the next step.

 

 

 

We Share A Moment   Leave a comment

We Share A Moment In The Texas Hill Country — Image by kenne

The sun slips down

behind the live oaks.

We raise our glasses

to nothing in particular—

which turns out

to be everything.

Not Enough Time To Capture All The Moments   2 comments

Japanese School Boy in Okinawa (1967) — Image  by kenne

Photograph

Northern Okinawa.

A schoolboy sits
beside the road.

My camera clicks
takes his image,

but not the sound
of insects,

not the warmth
of the island air,

not the generations
who walked these roads
before him.

Still—

for an instant,

his life
and mine

cross paths
through a lens,

and the mountains
witness both.

 

Pressing Against The Limits   1 comment

Pressing Against The Limits — Image by kenne

One does not “understand” this.
Understanding would reduce it,
make it manageable.

Instead, it asks for duration—
for the discipline
of staying with excess.

What emerges
is not a resolution
but a sharpened awareness

of how much
we need things
to mean one thing
at a time.

— kenne

Moon Over The Double Bayou   Leave a comment

Moon Over The Double Bayou — Image by kenne

Moon over the bayou—
cypress knees listening
to slow water.

Somewhere, a night bird
knows the old stories
and keeps them.

Couples turning slowly
under crooked rafters.

Pete Mayes’ band doesn’t rush—
blues knows better.

Every chord says
the night’s still young
if your heart
can hold the rhythm.

— kenne

A Night At The Dance Hall — Photo-Artistry by kenne

San Carlos Sunset   Leave a comment

San Carlos, Sonora Sunset — Image by kenne

We become a silhouette in each other’s arms
as the sun goes down behind us in San Carlos—
the light withdrawing slowly
like a hand from a blessing.

All afternoon the Sea of Cortez
glittered without mercy.

I can’t see your face anymore,
only the outline of us—
two dark figures pressed together
against the last blaze of day.

It feels ancient, this vanishing—
as if love is something
the sun teaches by leaving.

— kenne

 

Kenne David’s Half-Marathon At 51   Leave a comment

A group of runners participating in a race, wearing colorful athletic gear and bib numbers, with one runner holding a pacing sign that indicates a two-hour finish time.

This was Dave’s first half-marathon, with the goal of running the distance in two hours or less.
The race organizers provided pacesetters, so Dave began his half-marathon staying with the 2:00 hour pacesetter.

A man wearing a red shirt and bright yellow shorts runs along a paved path in a park, with cars parked in the background and trees lining the area.

About halfway through the race, he picked up his pace, running the race in 1:55.20.

Finish Line

A man with a beard and a cap smiling while sitting on the back of a truck, wearing a medal and colorful athletic clothing.

Sitting on his tailgate at the end of the race.
Mission Accomplished.

Shoes on pavement,
a metronome of doubt.
Still, the body insists—
one more mile
into light.

I created the blog posting using the photos Dave provided. I was only there vicariously.

#######

AFTER THOUGHT

The friend who asked Dave to run the half-marathon with him didn’t show up.

Then and How   1 comment

Then—

I thought the mountain

was something to climb.

Now—

I sit and let it

enter my breathing.

What changed?

A few decades of work

tire tracks on my clothes,

children grown.

Call it life

if you need a word.

— kenne

Props, Not A Habit   Leave a comment

On the Outer Banks of North Carolina

I keep the cigar lit

long enough to feel dangerous.

The whiskey glows

like a small sunset

I can hold.

But when the glass is empty

and the scene is still there,

I know—

it was always theater.

— kenne

The Evening Works In Grayscale   Leave a comment

Black and White Sunset — Image by kenne

Evening works in grayscale.

The mountains turn honest,

stripped of their bright talk.

The sun lowers itself

behind the ridge—

another shift done,

another mark made clean.

— kenne

Witnessing Pain and Suffering   3 comments

Mother In Hospice (08/26/06)

Every photograph of suffering

proposes a contract:

you may look,

but you must not

turn away too quickly.

The stages of pain—

shock, endurance, vacancy—

are flattened into a single frame.

Time is arrested,

yet the body continues

beyond the border

of the image.

— kenne

Kenne David and Katie On Galveston Beach   Leave a comment

Kenne David and Katie on Galveston Beach — Image by kenne

Galveston still has that beach.
Kids probably still run it raw.
But Kenne and Katie grew up—
that’s the real crime.
You don’t notice it happening.
One day you’re just standing there
remembering sand
and wishing you’d paid better attention. 

— kenne

Love On Valetine’s Day   3 comments

Joy and Kenne — Old Western Look On The Streets of Tucson — Image by kenne

Beloved, count not distance, years,

Nor trials we have known;

For love’s arithmetic is this—

Two solitudes made one.

You are here.

I am here.

And absence finds no room between.

— kenne

Nurses Will Not Backdown   3 comments

Kenne Getting Some Arizona Sun On Our Patio
While here he spent some time running in Sabino Canyon
in preparation for a half-marathon this February.

Kenne David is visiting us on my birthday, January 15, 2026. He is an ICU nurse in the Texas Medical Center in Houston. What follows is a poem I wrote after learning of the murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

I can only try to imagine your words and thoughts echo in the long corridors of Memorial Herman,
where the scent of antiseptic mingles with your compassion.

I think of him — of Alex Pretti — and of all who labor, sleepless,

hands trembling not with fear, but with the weight of mercy.

Each life touched, each breath steadied,
a verse in the grand poem of endurance and love,

something Whitman would write: you do not falter;
rise again the next day, mortal yet eternal,

each healer a leaf upon the same vast tree of humanity.

 

Words Cut The World Into Pieces   1 comment

Douglas Springs Trail — Image by kenne

We believe language explains reality,
yet it only sketches its outline.
Those who cling to the sketch
miss the miracle
standing before them.

— kenne