That Must Be Me
What do we really know but a few days with the traveling circus, enjoying the elephants, tripped up by the carneys, in love with the girl in tights. Then the lights go down, the wagons depart and there’s only the stars, the smell of animals and someone new that must be me.
Held Close Like a Talisman
We have rituals of innocence, when we dress and undress, how we lean toward each other in the night and most of all how we’re still in the morning, letting the quiet remain, the dark slowly fade as we pull back the curtains looking east to feel what may be coming and see each other […]
On the Stafford Centennial
You spent your life writing poems shaped from the earth with the quiet force of water, reminding us of the danger putting anyone on a pedestal. Now that you’re gone we dress you up in hero’s cloth, but I recall the dry dust of the internment camps, the forgotten people on the edge of town, […]
Tell It All
When you’re writing the eulogy make sure to tell about the broke down trucks, our cabin on the creek with the blown off roof, the cobblestone curb on the lower Eastside where we found two junkies crying, remembering how they once had been. The dogs and pups you loved, the way the kids smelled in […]
Lifted from our Skin
Who am I to ask you questions, you’ve lived your life, taken the risks of love defeated and moments shining. Do I need to hear it all or can I rest with you in the silence, letting pulse pound until lifted from our skin we know the truth of the unscarred eternal, weather worn, bent […]
Blessing to Begin
In the dark of early morning when first light flickers the quiet peace intact before the city stirs, I lend my voice to the undimmed stars with news of the worried planet torn by war and secrets, the earth herself betrayed, offering a prayer of thanks within the unconscionable, grateful, open hearted asking for day’s […]
Belonging to the Night
The bare trees and gypsy fog are in love, our dark valley full of their entwining. No moon, only streetlights and winter silence holding their embrace, belonging to the night and movement of the stars.
She Speaks to the Night Sky
What rests below does not sleep unless by sleep you mean dream which she does but not slumber, the hidden soul of her forest body alive with minerals, tiny hair-like roots in stones awash with breathing earth. She will birth and she will die; we will grieve and rejoice with flowers. There is no end […]
Christmas 2013
awaiting your jewel-like
facets full of forgiveness
to complete this holy creation
To Break the Shell
We’re in December and something is thawing not just in the air with blankets of fog or in the rain soaked ground but in the deepest cavern where the unknown dwells. Hardened ice slowly dripping and what was locked in stone begins to seep, bearing the mystery like a tiny foot reaching out with the […]
Deep Within the Web
Before the head moved the body seemed part of the rock stepping down to the cold rising tide. When the head raised, with rippling layers of fat the seal was outlined, still more earth than animal until he uncoiled, and with small shapely fins dropped into the water. Taking his sea form his strength in […]
Before Descent
stirred and lifted
to the last of the sun
before descent
and the long rest
of winter
Soft Assurance
The feeling comes with morning, first light creasing the horizon, quarter moon high and the star cast of winter bright in the still dark west. The intimacy of this hour lives through the day, feeding through travail the nutrient of patience, making sure I don’t forget the life began long ago alive in the night […]
Pulse of the Deeper Sea
silent and still on the pulse of the deeper sea,
the water below dark, impenetrable,
home to the unknown
Smell of Sawdust
You bring your hand and eye to the wood,
feeling your way along the grain,
the smell of sawdust sharp and pleasing.