labyrinth

sweeping

the labyrinth

with a broken broom

I gather at the center

a thousand winged seeds

~Skylark 3:2, winter 2015

Digging In

Inauguration Day 2017

sleepless

at midnight I reread

the poet’s words:

what rough beast

slouches toward Bethlehem . . .*

one by one

the doors slam shut—

I tunnel

into the night sky

a wormhole to hope

clasping hands

with women black

and brown

like silent moles

we turn the Earth

*quotation is from W. B. Yeats, ‘The Second Coming’

blackbirds

dark energy

pushing space itself

apart . . .

a ribbon of birds

wheels across the winter sky

~GUSTS 21, spring/summer 2015

blackbirds

and the silver speck

of a jet 

winging into the distance. . .

the curve of the earth in my arms

~red lights 12:1, Jan. 2016

singing

the music

of tiny waterfalls

in midwinter

I follow a newborn brook

singing wherever it leads me

~GUSTS 23, spring/summer 2016

I sing

my thinking mind

to sleep—

a deeper way of knowing

wells up like music

~red lights 12:2, June 2016

the why . . .

a redbird

hunting crumbs in snow—

the child’s first glimpse 

leaving unanswered

the why of bright wings

 ~red lights 12:2, June 2016

breaking ice

from a frozen rut

I skim

the silver shards

into the windswept sky

~Eucalypt 20, May 2016

winter sounds

a slant of sun

across the snowy wood . . .

in crystal stillness

the barred owl’s voice

closer than breathing

~Atlas Poetica 24, spring 2016

the sound

of leafless trees in winter . . .

spaces

in the melody

to draw a breath

~Skylark 4:1, summer 2016

Going Inland

for Joy McCall

who lives 

on your inner island

she asks—

dipping my silent oars

I glide toward the answer

a sorrel mare

at the water’s edge

drinking deeply

dripping moonlight

we find the inland path

in a hut

fragrant with dried thyme

the old crone

at the hearthstone

feeds a flame with her words

at sunup

the reedy sound 

of piping

from a fold in the hills

where no path leads

clasping 

the hand of a blind harper,

I follow 

the song of the brook,

the whisper of trees

~Skylark 4:2, Winter 2016