Exhausted by day

Distrusting of the darkness

She closed the shutters

The ancient forests

Compressed by the weight of time

Are blood of the wars

 When I fly in dreams

I go to my childhood home

Where it's safe and sure

 Above the ruins

The king demands his share 

Of worship and fear

Irrepressible

Capricious spring lifts her skirt

Barefoot - she dances

Cold and deeply blue

A pacific sea surges

  Its waves smooth the sand

Below my boot soles

 Poetry is ground water

A spring of fresh verse 

 

 With calmness it waits

Brilliantly unambitious 

Almost a secret

 Some clouds are weightless

Consumed by the sky's allure

Others spill to earth 

Anticipation 

 Gardening is a belief

In what is to come

It flies from the tree

Conferring a gorgeous song

Farewell or hello?

 Elegant gestures 

Poppies open - turn sunward

A bee stops to drink

 I am bound for home

Closer to the beginning

Just beyond the hill

Shall she hide her fears

On the highest closet shelf

Behind doubt and pain

After their lessons

Four boys meet in the plaza

To spin merry tops

New combinations

Notes played as never again

Thelonius Monk

a midnight terror

the sheet creased from the clenching

tears on the pillow

A surrounding heat

 The dog goes under the shed

Cicadas clicking

 I laugh at beauty

And its absurd miracles

Even as they die

 None can make true peace

Who do not hold it in heart

With enough to share

 Praise for the rotting

The bountiful detritus

Nourishment for more

Still shadows bereaved

Hats removed -  something spoken

Leaves fall on the grave

All the days holy

I will do without prelates

Birds lead my worship

 Colors bloom and fade

Greenness stays with conviction

The roots always fast

 if i were a law

i would want to be repealed

or broken at least

 Poems in the air

You can catch them in the breeze

Lest they drift away

 i try to describe

one particular moment

that only i know

 Now and tomorrow 

Something always happens next

Answers then questions 

 Quail in the hollow

Deciding on this year’s nest

In bursage perhaps 

 

 The anti-poet

 Free-swinging abomunist

Affronts everything

 A xeric winter

Incomplete in its essence

Slackens into spring

 Unlike the pebbles

A blue bit of polished glass

Once a jar of grog

 Pictures of lovers

She deleted all of them

But could not forget

 Morning air alive

The mockingbird’s rhapsody 

Carry on maestro!

 A wearied pilgrim

The innkeeper’s wife brews tea

Boots dry at the hearth

 The light ahead fades

The road behind overgrown

Each stride beloved

 The fugitive dreams

At large in regions of sleep

Escape forever

 Life of the story

The book starts when you close it

Not in the reading

Morning tide withdraws

Otters lounge in the kelp bed

A shorebird turns stones

 How can those with least

Cause fear in those who have most 

Which the greater threat?

Cranes are on the fly

As the couriers of spring

Headed certainly

 

To be truly blessed

One ought to have a garden

Holy with color

 

Deep ancestral drums

Elders sing of three sisters 

Hoop dancers become 

 The vespers service

Faithful in pews hear the call

Coyotes crying

 I could fill volumes

With all that I do not know

Of love and dying

 Look into my heart

It’s open - unprotected

Do you see yourself

Pure dancing passion

A bee has unbounded faith

Innate piety

 The mutable dawn

An artful sun paints the clouds

Each brushstroke unique

 Have we forgotten

The white columns of Athens

And the Republic?

 The cold and huddled

Those who cannot find the sky

Hope only for food

 By all the accounts

The void amounts to nothing 

Without everything

 Dry weeds - useful twigs

Bits of down -  a scrap of cloth

The wren’s nest of dross

Vanity’s folly

True esteem heeds no command

Praise follows virtue

 The puppy abed

At peace and warm from the sleep

Just barely breathing

 Unforgiving surf

A cypress bends from the wind

The pelican dives

 Everything we have

Comes from the same fiery source

All was once molten

On a placid pond

 An insect casts its shadow

Then it flew away

 An Ithican queen

Dressed in linen and despair

Who will string the bow?

 I sing of the thaw

Of the cracking and melting

From ice to liquid

 The politician

Just tripped over his own words

With no place to land

When fear breeds anger

 And anger festers to hate

Then domination

 A bitter morning

He didn’t know he would die

And rise in honor

 When the seen is blurred

And all is refutable

What space left for truth?

 The Tragedy of Alex Pretti

Vengeful Achilles 

Dragged fearless Hector’s body

For all Troy to weep

 A tender ratoon 

Betokens a fresh issue 

New life from a stalk

 Who would count the blooms

Or find one best of the rest

Each makes others glow

 Lucre means little

In the company of stars

As the space expands

 Colors in the wind

Headed west on the ridgeline 

Poppies on my right

60 Years Ago in America

 Instead of sharing

City swimming pools were drained

Then filled with hatred

 Leaping limb to limb

Rascals - rogues - and scallywags 

Squirrels in springtime!

 In my faded hat

And boots dusted from the miles

On another trek

 Stormy Saturday

Thunder and white hot lightning

Music on the porch

 Decency dispatched

The men in masks are restless

Justice left to bleed

It needn't be hard 

Necessity is simple

Love can make it so

 There's another meal

Buried out back in the yard

The dog will know where

 Night sky infested

Abuzz with perilous force  

Mosquitos and drones

 

The heliotrope

Frail and subtly purple

In love with the sun

 I found these poems

And thought I would pass them on

To those who enjoy

 The call and response

About labor and loss and love

Of rhythm and hope

 What happens in night 

Cannot be explained by day

Secrets in the dark

 What do you see in smoke

Timber - grass - dissonant dreams

Energy released?

 By what sovereign force

With what imperial will

Can one require faith

 A covey of quail

Perpetually hungry

Bobbing and pecking

In the tides of time

 There must be love in justice

Grace in our resolve

 When we are apart

Find me in clouds and gardens

Hear me in bird songs

 Winter quiescense

Springtime anticipation

Summer jubilee

 Graceful and unique

A soft shroud befalls me

She is the new snow

 Never by ourselves

Our ancestors are with us

In our flesh - our souls

2025

 A time unprecedented 

Kakistocracy 

I beseech myself

Favor living over life

Being more than been

 On the longest nights

Light the hours with candles

Hopeful white tapers

 The landscape of years

Deeper where the water goes

Beckoned by the seas

The Godess Selene

 Rides her glowing chariot

Across the night's vault

Why is this our choice

More of hawks than harvests

More power than grace

 Gifts of December

Iciles on the willow 

Yuletime's welcome hearth

This holiday eve

Follow the snowy foot tracks

To family waiting

 What place do we have

In the family of beasts

Not what we assume

 The day chuffs and stamps

Nostrils steaming in the dawn

Eager - unbridled

 Proper and earnest

The portly quail skedaddle

Quick aristocrats 

Take in this blue day

 Whoever will walk with me

There’s place at my side

 No matter the draft

Leave the door of chance ajar

Kismet may slip in

Obliged to follow

 This long familiar shadow

Away from the sun

 The air departed

A grey vacancy of grief

How can stars still shine

 Somewhere in stillness

See beyond the visible

Listen to silence

 Made ever smaller

A raindrop falls on  a leaf

Parts into many

 For pure poetry

The sinuous swim of fish

Writes finer than words

 Perching on the rocks

The seabird opens it wings

And lets the wind work

Feel it in your heart

In the rain - the trembling leaf

Rhythm everywhere

 Farewell to autumn

The hoary beast of winter

Steals down from the north

 With youth departed

Can some wisdom prove enough

To expect the best

 A holiday tree

Arrayed with berries and stars

Dusted with new snow

 Can you see the calm

On the far side of the storm

Fair seas and still skies

Could we purely sense

Could we surely smell and hear

 As animals do

Did something happen

To him when he was still young

To cause such anger

 Star-lit and moonfull

Gaze with me in the marvel 

The night sky shining

 Here’s a suggestion 

To advance the human race

Try to slow it down

The morning meadow

Mist rising from the flowers 

A doe and her fawns

 After my last breath

Do not lay flowers for me

Leave them in the wild

Swollen from the rains 

The satisfied saguaro 

A true thanksgiving 

A rare day distilled

Served over the winter's ice

Almost to the brim

 When you pull a thread

It might be the only seam

That comes unfastened

 Discount the answers

What would complete the questions?

The untold will tell

Concealed in the gray

Every storm has a  rainbow

Wanting for sunlight

 no one sleeps alone

the visitors in our dreams

are what we have known

Speaking with silence

Seasons expressed in tree rings

History of rain

 A life of moments

Some that will be remembered

Far into the past

 To what do you bow?

I to the wind - rain - birdsongs

All that is graceful

Patience rewarded 

Replenished by Autumn rain

A grateful garden

 A coastal cottage

Thick Scottish stew for supper

Sea-winds howl outside

 High on the mountain

The first storm of the winter

Woods made dark and white

 Knit with Irish wool

Buttons of many colors

A wee lad’s sweater

 Higher than the pines

Seven crows for company

Where the wind flies free

 In whatever voice

We all desire to be heard

And then understood 

Facing to the wind

I'll be searching from the cliffs

For sun on the sails

Delusive prattle

Misshapen politicians

Talking to themselves

 When she smiles and laughs

It warms and illuminates

Constant as the sun

 I lounge and linger

Seduced by the grog of the day

Halcyon - in peace

Storms will come and pass

Lashing us with pure fury

For them be grateful

 What country of worth

Without native rebellion

Can think itself whole?

 Listen carefully

Everything has its own voice

Rocks - trees - and the sea

 The morning still dim

A lone mockingbird calls first

The smell of coffee 

 I passed a woman

Who chose to walk the same trail

Strangers no longer

 Gray and cold to touch

Scattered by the wind and lost

Ashes of her love

 Tragedy of fear

There are those who die while young

But live to old age

 Lilac and jasmine

The scent of mother’s garden

Lingers from my youth

Flour dusting her hair 

She kneaded love in the dough

And set it to rise

 What chances between

Can we say more than we know?

Intangible grasp

 In a muted room

She lingers at the window

Envying the light

A rotted pumpkin

Collapsing from its spoilage

Grist for history

 After All Hallows

Porches dark - candles burnt down

The spirits linger

 It’s Halloween eve

The original tricksters

Howl in the desert

Scintillating leaves

Sunlit Mexican village

The Monarchs return

 When it all goes wrong

That is when adventure starts

Raw and unforeseen

the whorl of colors 

summoning the revenants 

families rejoined

Ofrenda of alms

 The scent of the marigolds

Old souls awakened

The perfect stillness

Soft silent sessions of sleep

A child with no dreams

 Those who heed the gods

Have they ever considered

Do the gods need them?

This sudden morning

The birds start calling too soon

And drown dreams with song

 I’m in the green now

The shady side of the hill

With crickets and moss

 What color are you?

I'm blue but would prefer green

Without the yellow

 Guitar and drum kit

Mandolin and stand-up base

Tunes about tryin’

 Balance of my life

Not measured by biding years

But each precious breath

With the gate open

 An escape velocity

Ran cross the dog’s mind

 When the pavement ends

And it turns to dust and ruts

Folks wave on dirt lanes

 It bugles to the sky

Blood hastening with the rut

The cry of pursuit

 The seasonal flow

Coursing down forested hills

A river of elk

 Cold October rain

Leaves that would flutter fall dead

Remains of summer

 Beyond all the words

Most in our lives is not said

Nor does it need be

Frosted with moonlight

A squash still bound to its vine

Ready for harvest

A relentless will

Hoodoos shaped by desert winds

The sand creates sand

In the warming soil

The first crocus will decide

And spring will oblige

 remnant of the fog

dew hangs from the old man’s beard

a hummingbird drinks

 Diné matriarch 

Robed with silver and turquoise

Sun-faced and constant

 Shall we not forget

To remember together

What liberty means

From what other cloud

Can such flaming rain descend

To color the day

 

In pursuit of pride

 Is the game worth the candle

Can decency win

 Beyond equations

A darkness we cannot see

Force we cannot feel

Beyond what we’ve built

 Harmonious proportions

Balanced in nature

Begrimed and musty

Clothes that suffered the hamper

Rejoice laundry day!

Aspens shed tired leaves

 Squirrels make their arrangements

Geese are in the wind

It’s out of control

Undocumented migrants

Squatting in the park

As it falls to earth

The simplicity of rain

Belies its blessings

 The rain on my face

While soaking in the hot tub

The best of both worlds

He sits on the bed

Yet night - staring at the floor

Nothing but aching

The beautiful loops

Suns swirling in everything

Without night or day

From a tree

I will give you shade

Lend seeds of generation

Remind you of spring

 A bird on the bough

Gives voice to the morning

Singing to be heard

 Behold the array!

Layers of far flowing light

Each star its own time

Riding a blue draft

The vulture tilts its broad span

Circling - searching

 Thanks to the insects

Facilitators of life

Vital multitudes 

 Having done their work

Leaves relax and surrender

The roots will sustain 

 From how far away

Can they smell baneful decay

The stench of hubris

 The osprey nest is gone

Undone by time and weather 

Did the chicks fledge first?

 Allow no fences

Henceforward to far fortunes

Trust in the expanse

 Leathered by the sun

Bent by the weight of his life

Headed over there

 

       Remains of the rain

    Inheritance of the clouds

    Two oak leaves afloat

 all the small new things

unnoticed but for their green

glad to be alive

Thunder shakes the house 

It's raining up the mountain

Call the dog inside

 A black and white blaze

It crouches - fixes a stare

And the whole flock turns 

 his destination

no farther than he can see

one stride at a time

 It’s an easy ride

Shining sky and passing pines

Exit 201

 From a Birch Mouse

When the barn owl hunts

If you see it let me know

And I will stay still

Quiet varnished cliffs

Imprinted by ancient hands

We see what they saw

 I’ve had good fortune 

To be planted in rich soil

With plenty of rain

 All comes as it will

When the student is ready

The teacher appears

 What’s that on the roof 

A quick edacious squirrel 

Stashing for winter

Make it always now

Go slowly in the forest

Bathe in its embrace

The patterns of nature

The fern - snowflake- succulent

Replicate fractals

 Without a goodbye 

On a crisp day in autumn

The finches were gone

The elderly man

Sentimental by nature

Waited for the dawn

 Bees beavers and birds

 The masters of construction 

Pure geometry

 Fire burns in the cave

Mammoths dance on the walls

Dreams of the pursuit

 

Gather new broomcorn

Lash it to a staff of chance

Sweep the chaff away

 In the deepest night

Somewhere someone is singing 

Melodies of hope

                                                               

I make offerings

Placed in hopes of a visit

From a migrant bird

 The bees have it right

From the beauty of summer

Eternal honey

 From quicksilver clouds

Gray rain in the afternoon 

The forest sends thanks

 my laundry questions

who turns my clothes inside out?

what happens to socks?

 They dance for the rain

Thunder rhythm of the drums

They dance for the corn

There's no contentment

Without the peace of others

Until we are whole

 

Aspen collonade

Topped with leafy capitals

Holding up the sky

 a torrid morning

i am hoping for a cloud

even without rain

 Take a stroll around

It’s hard to ignore haiku

They are everywhere

 Glowing in sunlight

Softening with the season

Peaches almost ripe

 Birds feed eagerly

Then make away for cover

A slow shadow sweeps

When pride contends truth

The cost cannot be tallied

No honor conferred

 The apple tree bows

Laden with bountiful fruit

Weighted with beauty

 The Quartet

It starts with the tune

They scuttle it - trade it up

Then bring it back home

Seasons remind us

The modesty of nature

And savagery

Like rumors whispered

 The wind in the highest limbs

Roots will never know

 An early firefly

The night crawls out of the woods 

Crickets sound their knell

 A doleful portent

Iron wheels strike a rhythm

A train warns the town

Without metaphors 

Birds do as well as poets

Troubadors in trees

 never discouraged

ephemeral seeds must wait

for rightful seasons

rimmed with misty pink

the last reserves of the day

dissolve into dusk

 Here's the paradox

What if we had no questions?

And only listened

You're free, dear Virginia

She waded away

Where voices could not follow

Her coat filled with stones

 Face toward the moon

Bathe in its borrowed luster

Be soothed by its peace

 Like a thristy tree

Whose roots spread slowly outward

He searches for love

The bloom almost spent

A butterfly's dalliance

Still nectar enough

 When there's a chokestone

Or debris that blocks the flow

Clamber - see beyond

 Cycles of water

As though it has memory

Always reforming

 All instinctively

No transactions in nature

All one benefit

 Are we so prideful

That wealth must come at the cost

Of those who have least

 Stillness of the pond

Belies its vitality

Nature's artfulness

Flashing - undaunted

Bold lancers of the garden

Hummingbirds on guard!

 Beckoning brown eyes

Patient anticipation

Canine persuasion

 Mostly ears and legs

Dappled to conceal its youth

Invisible fawn

 To juke the rhythm

To make the song swing with soul

Stay behind the beat

 Who first made the claim

All that lies within these bounds

Is by my rights mine

 The doe stands and waits

Her fawn wobbles to its feet

And finds mother’s milk

 Why I cheer the rain

Its chill and song and essence

Life in every drop