NOW (c) 2022 Oma Dok (Gail Doktor)
We couldn’t have known
All those years ago
What this journey together would bring
Couldn’t have guessed how, today, we would
Pause and lean into each other
Catch our breath
Grin
For the moment we’re having just now
Eyes red-rimmed
About those who can’t be with us
Laugh out loud
In exultation for those who continue
To travel with us
So every next adventure
Becomes one more surprise
That may include, yes, heartbreak
Yet also includes healing and hope
And another reason
To choose each other
All over again
BEGINNING (c) 2022 Oma Dok (Gail Doktor)
If we had known
The journey we were about to undergo,
Would we have taken the first step?
Would we have dared the road?
Endured the sorrow for the joy?
Accepted the loss with the gain?
Expected the light break through the darkness?
Would we stand at this intersection
Of past and future
And choose “yes” again?
ONLY (c) 2022 Oma Dok (Gail Doktor)
There is no other world
There is no other home.
There is only here. This place.
Where we stand, where we exist.
There is no past,
There is no future,
There is only now. This time.
When we act, when we choose.
There is no you,
There is no me,
There is only us. Together.
Who we are, who we become.
TRANSLATION (c) 2022 Oma Dok (Gail Doktor)
I sought an interpreter
To stand between me
And the unknown.
A mechanism
Or an aide
To help me understand
What you were trying to say
In your foreign tongue
That I could not mimic
With my bipedal, single-tongued, mono-brained
Way of speaking.
I was willing
To let someone else,
Another sentience,
With greater command
Of universal expressions,
Render my truth
Into unknown words.
So perhaps you could hear me, too.
Technically this exchange was just
The roll of energy
Moving through real space
Rather than vacuum
Detectable within a time and place
Where something carries the wave
And resists the particles
So they take form
In windpipe and palette.
Yet what you want
Me to parse, to perceive,
Is also shaped
By your intention.
And now,
Just now,
Watching you,
Without someone to utter it for you,
Or explain it to me,
I realize
Beneath all the layers
Of syllable, of sound,
Whether audible to my naked ears
Or beyond the reach of my senses,
Outside what any translator might state,
Is simply this common language:
Love.
SPECTRUM (c) 2022 Oma Dok (Gail Doktor)
My light. Your light.
We see different stars,
We study different constellations,
We observe from different parts of the universe.
You look out from the heart of the known worlds,
And I peer from the edge of the Outer Rim.
We do not know the same sky.
But the Light we share
Is the Force within.
PORTALS (c) 2022 Oma Dok (Gail Doktor)
On the other side of this transit,
Beyond this jump,
Where will I be?
What coordinates will guide me?
By what map shall I find my Way?
What sextant, what astrolabe,
Can measure my going and coming?
What instrument can chart my location,
In this place between departure and arrival?
My teacher would ask,
Did you ever leave?
My mentor would wonder,
Can you ever arrive?
Such questions I cannot yet answer.
So I inquire, too,
Are we always moving,
Ever on a journey,
Without beginning or ending?
Will I discover my path
With the astrolabe or sextant of ancient mariners?
Will the next planet’s gravity
Orient me to up and down?
Will the turn of the great station’s wheel
Give me sure footing?
Will the ship’s drive offer me
Temporal weight and certain heading?
Will my sojourner’s compass f
Fnd true north in new magnetic currents?
Will a nav computer
Plot the course between
Where I have been and
Whom I might yet become?
Will the solar winds
Fill my sails and
Turn my prow in a meaningful course?
It seems
All the astromech pilots
And ancient tools
Cannot answer me.
My only sure guide,
From system to system,
From passage to Passage,
Is the Flow within
Is the Force between
All worlds
All hearts
All souls
All beings
All life
All
BE (c) 2022 Oma Dok (Gail Doktor)
Be still and know that I am the Way.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
