I Blacktop driveway, back warm Skyblue holds the spinning world. You know clouds in animal forms Giraffes, running dogs, a beautiful woman’s hair rivers behind her. She disappears. Perhaps She walks the creek behind a mansion’s dirt path broken by fallen trees, rusted bicycles that lean along eroded embankments shuddering with snakes, brown birds. Air-ripe … Continue reading May 22 Drift
Dear Madam
We’re happy to write from the Department of Extravagant Gratitude (D.E.G) to congratulate you on your recent extraction from the clutches of despair. We understand that the Safflower feeders are emptying and filling up again and that you, good woman, are keeping the finches well-fed, able to chuckle again at their quarrels on nearby branches, … Continue reading Dear Madam
May 11 Stone Streaked
From a cottage by water, out the back door, into a woods’ wavering musk, Mayapples umbrella up out of decay. Buried alive inside, I’m drowning in crosscurrents. Tolerable? Perhaps, on a day also glimmering springtime, but no. I stride out of the trees, wade a meadow stream, begin an ascent I want to feel the … Continue reading May 11 Stone Streaked
May 2 Make Light
Open your eyes. Scan the present dark, seek shapes in the shadow, and welcome yourself there. Lift the weight of dreams, the dog that ran out of view into tall grass, your dead father’s shouldered silhouette against the coming dawn, then rise to full extension in the morning gloom, breathe. Sigh deeply, stretch toward the … Continue reading May 2 Make Light
April 30 Return
It comes back around The April Rain The letter I mailed last week without an address by strange degrees: my memories My children grown to versions of myself Our voices back and forth on the telephone Is that me? Is it you? Our quiet Mornings These diseases that confound and disrupt an entire turning world … Continue reading April 30 Return
April 29 My Dog
This is a Sad NaPo cheat since Years ago, when I was playing music and making records, I wrote this--kinda for kids. I was working with young people those days and today I couldn't find either the lyrics or the recording so some of these are fudged due to time and memory constraints. My dog … Continue reading April 29 My Dog
April 28 The Corner Room Upstairs
A wall slants overhead Cabbage rose, water stained my ears ache hot against a cool cotton pillowcase in this slim single bed its knotted white coverlet walnut lamp–stand where Mama's grandmother Martha kept her teeth in a cup that now holds a glass of water a yellow thermometer. A jar of Vicks Vapo-Rub Mentholates the … Continue reading April 28 The Corner Room Upstairs
April 27 Stunning Debut
Stunning Debut You’ve gotta love it! Sometimes the way morning sun hits the chimney stone requires few words. The beauty of the thing saves us from its fleeting devastation. Each “reading “of the moment, another layer of awakening. Understanding. Simple. Profound. Challenging. I cannot recommend more highly this gorgeous interplay of what’s shown, then hidden, … Continue reading April 27 Stunning Debut
April 25 Glad For The Sound Of Another Voice
These hard times shut down –open up. “Thank you, Thank you and have a nice day.” So much Loving Kindness, of grieving safety. I’ve missed the sound of a stranger’s voice. I recognize unabashed gratitude and something like shame rises, with the aching need to ask for what is needed, the sound of a voice … Continue reading April 25 Glad For The Sound Of Another Voice
April 24 In Teresa’s Orchard
In Teresa’s Orchard Only two trees remain in the old apple orchard but buckets & sieves, a press, wooden pestle mashers, evidence of bygone industry nearby You cannot imagine your Victorian Grandmother would have tolerated much hooch for the household. But maybe. Who knows? Winesaps, pippins, northern spy, the trees Were there before the people … Continue reading April 24 In Teresa’s Orchard
Early Morning Poems 