tonight, my son is king of the birds in his last middle school play a noble black hawk with outstretched wings and gentle eyes whose ever watchful gaze is not unlike our own his mom and I holding hands in the dark knowing one day soon he will fly away
Moonroof
for JKM your hands are raised through the moonroof small, sure wings on rushing wind you are smiling, raving about choir practice singing me show tunes from bygone musicals my hands are at 10 and 2 eyes fixed on the darkening road it's my job to steady the car while you soar among the stars
Psalm
today, the snarling sky is black as hate the fractured clouds crumbling in angry heaps but take heart a rainbow kneels before us— beauty, our strength and our refuge
March
it's March and the white sun is a soft pearl, veiled behind a swath of bluegray here below the fields are empty the trees, inscrutable there is nothing much to see so, close your eyes open your ears, listen-- in the stillness you will hear a whispered warble in the distance
self portrait
I had hoped to be an intellectual to astound all with my impressive grasp of the French Revolution, the Second Viennese School and James Joyce But I am a sieve knowledge pouring through pooling for a moment then retreating in a swirl into the inner expanse irretrievable So, there's nothing left to do but peel... Continue Reading →
day and night
often, after a long night, we rejoice at daybreak as if the sun leapt over arching blackness to rescue us from despair but the sun doesn't leap— it is the cursed earth, restless Sisyphus, which pushes us from darkness unto light and back again
Beloved
out back the blue Adirondack I neglected to put away for winter, slowly is filling with snow in summer I often sit there late into the evening looking up, to behold the beckoning Moon but tonight that luminous white light has abdicated her starry throne to grace my chair, unexpectedly: beholding me
February
for Bayla the world is waking like an old dog in fits and starts, cattails emerging as matted fur damp from mud white has melted into pale green and there are warm, earthy smells if you stop, attend to the rushing wind rise on aching bones stretch and shake race me, headlong through the empty... Continue Reading →
be cold
be cold, sometimes: sit in your frosted-covered car without starting it or, walk coat-less through a green-less park in January let your cheeks go pink and your fingers numb, allow yourself to shiver this winter and, in the absence of warmth, give thanks
obliged
has a tree limb ever caught you by the shoulder with the worn touch of a loved one entreating you not to leave? surely, Nature cares not whether we come whether we go: the leaves still fall the wind still blows and yet, a tree caught me by the shoulder today and I felt obliged... Continue Reading →
Line & Landscape 