There’s a girl in the war they make pictures, glossy black and whiteHard times come again no more.I gaze, tears glaze, cannot look awayIt is gloss and grit, so sick of itThere’s a girl in the warShe holds her brother’s hand, her father’s rusted shawlAll that is left is rubble and dust, hunger, rageHard times … Continue reading Whenever it Ends it Ends Like This
Road Trip Ghazal
We ride west for miles past tall windmill, prairie dots, anxious eagle eyesgun signs, god signs, broken fences, white sky.Crosses at the crossroads, this America is unamusedholding on to some misremembered past, a blinding white sky.Every metaphor, destruction, every forming thought fizzlesno break from a killing silence, dull road-ache, the white sky. Humorless you at … Continue reading Road Trip Ghazal
For Mr. W
I looked around the sanctuary and Just couldn’t recognize a soul today Kept eyes forward Listened for My own Name tucked deep among Other stories from every Person you touched Quietly over the years Reached back for Something you said Trouble you Understood Very Well. Xenial, You always were, and Zero-Hour 9 am. About your … Continue reading For Mr. W
Oh Dear, Poetry
What is it anyway? The faith that whatever occurs is as reasonable a thought as what does not. The looping lilt the loopy smile, a heavy lift on less inspired days. This, get-out-of-the-way but- stay- nearby- push and pull of lines that so want to be included but don’t quite belong. This tendency to storify … Continue reading Oh Dear, Poetry
Road Trip Shanty
We rose with the sun, ate a honey bun for the fair morning was a beckoning one and the purple fields and greening leaves ‘gainst a great blue sky above Yo Ho the open road Cups a-brim with our cups-a Joe Hi Ho press the pedal low Where the center line don’t show Road up … Continue reading Road Trip Shanty
Sonnet Seeking Sun
When I consider darker days I’m tempted sore against the light My Quaker forebearers clear of sight Might shake their heads, avert their gaze There is such sin as slothful laze Of inner gifts that languish while Powers that be ingest their bile a sad refrain, our wretched ways are amplified against the dark and … Continue reading Sonnet Seeking Sun
Triolet For Clearing
These heaps of trinket memories Your bracelets, blushers, long delayed Tossed away in waves and flurries Rooms of trinket memories I move around in waves and flurries These lettings go so long delayed No end of trinket memories Your girl life earrings well arrayed
Cento (April 30)
Where shall I climb, sound, seek, search, or find Further in summer than the birds In darkness and amid the many shapes Angels of rain and lightening The voice I hear this passing night was heard Said, yearn upward The whistle of the wind, it is not my voice The fly buzz, the stillness between … Continue reading Cento (April 30)
Duplex (day 27)
These rooms house ghosts and memory They whisper welcome, please remember me. Remembering, imperfectly, it seems Little mothers, tall fathers, the lights they burn at night Tall mothers, slighter fathers who read by candle light Hoe a garden - dream in poetry Dreaming poetry, garden tender Whose hands have shaped and shape of me. Whose … Continue reading Duplex (day 27)
Aisling (day 25)
They are so high in the laddered hemlocks fairy wings torn, dressed up pirate angels unaware of my watching them, caught up in their courage & gleeful ascent. Beseech you, mother of backyards protect my daughters when I can no longer reach them. Wrap them in green and gold. Repair those wings that they may … Continue reading Aisling (day 25)
Early Morning Poems 