subtle presence

your subtlety in your work

transforming sorrow and pain

to joy that, eventually

overflowing like the water

in the athabascan fall amuses me

while your hidden-ness remaining constant

with your patience, never short lived

like a water-fall but like a long river

continuing, with certainty to ever expand

to grow, to nourish another on the way

to give, and never ever count the cost

remaining subtle even in a merge in the ocean

henry victor     20.06.2010

my healing stones

bonnie, my friend, the native elder

offered my daughter

two palms and full of healing stones

now i play with, until my mind

overflows with, grace-filled healing!

these stones are not amethysts,

bloodstone or carnelian

neither are they red jasper,

white lace agate,

brown black purple white agate

the alias, coyomito agate

but simple stones of the simpleton

with red, pink, orange, and yellow

green, blue, indigo and violet

adding a few lime-green and blue-green

also silver-grey

brown, black, white, and gold

included among are some clear

but each one is powerful too

henry victor      08.03.2007

more attention!

i saw myself this morning

in every nook and corner

excusing my daughter

for her little age

her youth

apologizing three times

‘oh, she is only a puppy’

as i encountered the senior

exercising with Woofy

a cairn terrier

very undisciplined, unruly

following other dogs

on the walking trail

pleading for more patting

considering other walkers

as her faithful master

needing

more

attention

but not mine

henry victor      15.05.2007

paradigm of gratitude

mountain ash, elm, poplar and weeping

willow, my cherished sisters

children of my mother earth

you are a paradigm of gratitude

the blanket you knit to cover

our naked mother as the cold winter

advances to cover her feeble body

sustaining us in life and in death

shedding your very organ, you absorb

the energy our father sun sends

with such impartiality on the selfish

and the very liberal to warm and nourish,

your willing sacrifice puts me

to shame that i, the leader

with all my learning have mastered

nothing but egotistic grabbing

and have miserably failed

to learn even basic skills

on generous giving

you teach eloquently with regularity

henry victor     09.10.2002

barren greed

her difficulty is remaining second

with her heart full of greed

for money, knowledge, and fame

like a barren womb sucking sperm

she desires the same

also for those she calls, ‘mine’

craving to achieve

spending neither energy, nor time

like that black cuckoo

who lays her egg in a crow’s nest

for a crow to incubate, and nurse

her baby like the cuckoo chick

© henry victor     17.10.2003

spider grass

an egoless entity sits on my counter

growing silently while cleaning the air

i breathe in my home, adding colour

and feather to  my cap too: a gardener

now, as my ego bloats with a bonus character;

i am rich with purpose, meaning! yet, fatter

self i seek, though deaf and blind to matter

invisible, working on ego patently to counter

until i prick to make it par with a spider

on my wall crawling and making tighter

web to net the mosquitoes distracting my ear

with a song of might, intent to spill gore

© henry victor        06.01.2017

the fruit

the fruit in my hand

is for love i like to expand
but i hesitate to give
for there is a worm inside

the skin shines with colour

multiple and the wave within me grows
larger but i will, very soon, yield
for the sake of the seed

hidden, deeply buried within
to grow, to give
more fruits for my hand
and songs for all around

19.05.2014

being a grace

grace walks in my soul’s neighbourhood
like the gentle breeze sneaking through
the million hair on the surface of my body,
my form establishing my presence here

a space i chose to live, move, and to learn

the purpose of my being now that i decided
to break the fifth Mosaic commandment
hoping to increase the content of my name

among the maze of oil fields in the land

of opportunity, prompting, also, a becoming
elsewhere, in my mother land, a brain drain
denying those desperately needing my mind
 
henry victor     28.02.2014

my daughter, my love

a little leech leapt on me

and sucked a little blood
yet i stroked her with a little love
while the little leech crept into my heart

22.12.2013

buying and selling

unlike those days in my motherland, today
in my adopted-land despite its abundance
rarely i find one to give, or to receive
but in plenty are those that sell, or for buying

what cannot be sold is dumped

for elimination with those incapable
to buy, and those who lobby giving
too, will be pushed to the margin

to be marginalized, to be maligned

and silenced like a sheep ready for shearing
in a world taking from, and taking ruthlessly,
acceptable, than sharing with the needy

henry victor     28.08.2013

from your son

mommy! you made your slim and sensual frame

into a shapeless bundle, bundling my being inside
you for nine long months, keeping me, a worm, warm,
free from hunger and thirst, marks of the world outside;

and today! you struggle to work so hard to remain a mom
of great affection, cuddling me, as you march to a profession
greater, and your time for me is likely to reduce, to dim
like a lamp gathering smoke soot on her facial expression,

like your mom before you, travelling that path of darkness

prior to teaching you skills to swim, to avoid sinking in a pool,
without that settling in a trailer park, to bike and hike, distances
incredible to inspire me, that i may avoid the way of a fool!

henry victor     12.05.2013

i offer

at your invisible feet i offer this set

of bones of this body, mind and soul
this disjointed person, myself, like a poem
incomplete, un-poetic with rhythm

evaporated like the dew drop

on the tropical wild grassland
refuse not this inconvenient offering
unsystematic in its playing

of that flute, emptiness, the mysterious

hollow in the middle i missed control
with my licking the edge, the solid
casing that shone and my spirit misled