The woodpecker

outside the kitchen window

is a triumph

of Tao

of the highest order;

the Ringo Starr banging

of his pecking beak

the heartbeat of the Cosmos;

his glaring colours

red, black and white;

the banner of life

at its fullest

in the minus 17 Celsius degrees

of a morning, yawning

at the break of a New Year;

my perception full of oxygen

and the slanting rays

of the sweeping sunlight,

sounding just like a Balinese gamelan

at full throttle