i can’t wait
to tear out my heart
when we meet
please accept
the gift of my affection
–beating does not cease
Category: Poems
Poem 20160107
easy enough to count
the breaths
to breathe in
breath out
one
feel the tension
in your whole body–
make it tense
on purpose
two
and let it go
feeling muscles
go limp
droop
three
you did this
to yourself
or your body did it
to you
four
and now you have to
find some way to
even it all out
wait, what number–
one
Poem 20160106
this rain has not watered
the garden of my vocabulary
the opposite
it has dried up my word-hoard
left my tongue and spirit withered
and filled my cheeks with dust
Poem 20160105b
the smell of rain
is the smell of everything
ground into the earth
into the pavement
the asphalt
rising back up to heaven
the odor of ghosts
phantom deeds
and ethereal desires
to walk in the rain
is to be haunted
by what falls
and what rises
Poem 20160105
vast blanket of clouds
everything is gray–even
as my vision clears
Poem 20160104
every movement between them
like a clockwork
made of gossamer and shadows
the heat
long cooled into something
less malleable but so much more
flexible and durable
Poem 20160103
they stick in your throat
the words
they struggle
under your adam’s apple
a constriction
a spasm of the muscles
poorly coordinated nerves
preventing them from exiting
they stick
“i’m sorry”
try to swallow them down
“i was wrong”
let them
let them
let them open your mouth
let them open your mouth
“i was wrong”
let them be heard
“i love you”
Poem 20160102
still water
cut by boats
cut by the sun
shining like a knife
across the surface
still water
supporting floating gulls and cormorants
lazily chasing darting sandpipers
–somewhere out of sight
the bark of a seal
a dog shakes the winter water
from his coat
emerging from the sea
smiling as only a dog can smile
in this mix of warm sun
cold ocean and fresh air
Poem 20160101
It’s my first Friday Haiku of 2016!
—–
osprey on the light
tearing into some breakfast
–new year’s day morning
Poem 20151231
signs and portents on
viewing an owl in flight
and stationary in a tree
and again in flight
on the last night of the year
the owl, athena’s friend
and harbinger of eternal night,
paused in her flight long enough
for us to view her in a tree
tawny and silent she watched us
and allowed us to approach her tree
while holding her in the beam
of a flashlight
and then she flew again
wings silent
all we could hear were the sounds
of nearby freeway traffic
so much like unceasing waves
the day before we had seen
five hawks
sentinels on lamp posts
lining the road during a drive
and counted ourselves lucky
–a five-hawk day
but what does this night predator
so beautiful and silent
caught for a moment in her flight
in the white artificial light
in my hand
portend for the year ahead?
Words and Feathers 