Siinnnnngg-Ah, emphasize the ng abuzz in the nosethe four descending notes on Ah, listen to thoseOur director pushes us higher and higher up the scale in a warmup that leaves me dizzy and cold. Lately, I sing Tenor and had forgotten the fun of readingtreble clef, transposing an octave down, the thrill of carrying a … Continue reading Preparing to Meet Maestro
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
Why I Am
Remember the spooky French Horn theme in Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf (Op. 67, a “symphonic tale for children”)? The sound of the wolf brought tears to my eyes and so of coursea few years later, I asked to play the horn. “Musician!”, the grown ups proclaimed, and so I was, finding myself lost … Continue reading Why I Am
Delicate Things
Tiny bird skeletons shatterfrom chinks in the chimney flue. Another trapped bird struggles to find its way free from a matrix of plasterand lathe in clouds of ancient coal dustbehind an iron grate I cannot move.The cats crouch, waiting, and I too, in anxious anticipation. How long can it go on? Worse, what do I … Continue reading Delicate Things
Early Morning Poems 