leap day

forgotten lavender drips from the cherry tree
blue jay steals the sun
with whistles
rich
and
sharp
suddenly he stops
and all lies silent
wind stilled to thinning clouds of day
sitting long enough--quiet enough
i can hear the crocus rising
blue jay starts up again
rich
and
sharp
chatter amongst the birds celebrates jet streams
and
sandhill cranes
come Spring
come ....
rich
and
sharp

undone

came undone in '79
winter day that started out fine
sweet soft tumbling outta the gray
no one day should end that way
tattered scars and flash of light
fear and sorrows bound up tight
nothing made much sense anymore
love walked out through the basement door
undone
when bone is crushed by the hand of fate
when spirit sinks into the grave
when mind circles back to black
life never quite gets back on track
undone
rise to challenge with poppy-seed lines
beat back blues with blood & sunshine
transcend to phoenix--transcend to new
cracked open to expose the violet-blue
sections chipped from flesh & soul
hardly noticed by those i know
forged the bars, built the cage
meadowlark trapped by yesterday's rage
undone
years to miles to pieces of eight
mapped the course and stormed the gates
words and places and love untombed
diamonds & dust willow'd bloom
faced the fear, faced the lights
memories shape-shift of that night
find the truth, feel the sun
become one

undone

snow moon

damsel dressed in fibers of vetiver

opalescent diode foliage-green shining
performs in solitude
against
the bark of nevermore

hold fast against my sternum 

your hand warms tender the fragility of

this unexpected illumination  

Keep it there ...

shelter the sorrow along with the falling
spark the weary lost bones 

shatter the ampule open 

smell our verdant delight
of this passage 

rest your hand there
always.

It is home 

come

it may
not
seem like it

but i'm with him

be fooled by appearances
be blind to truth
tempted by
my strength to think i am other than
what you know

but i'm with him

ice melts
the river runs
cranes they come
flannel against skin
becomes more than i can bare
hold fast

always believed life would
bloom
buckets of fullness
richness unfurled
particles of brilliance
even in separation
even in darkness

i'm with him

waiting for the next hurrah!!
waiting for crocus to burst
content in the chaos
blessed by magic

i'm with him

gray is the color of .....

fog thickens as the hour deepens to day
sun cloaked in gray
birds silent in their feathered slumber
do birds sleep?
felled to dreams of seed & sky--where summer is long & rich
do birds wish upon waking?
for vast blue sky & love
of flight & fearlessness
fog thickens
birds wait for sun
i wait for cedar wax wings & the teapot to sing
dreaming of birds
and
flight

inepta caeruluem caru volta

how was the world before our skin met?

was there glimmer? butterscotch .... the linger of mint? 

did licorice pour from your veins to flannel pockets of mirth?

did icicles recite tales of the battle of Dunkirk?

did energy collide to form thundersnow?

did children laugh as they swung high to low? 

however that works

wherever you go 

the place where you are is home for my soul 

whatever it means 

across fields of time

the place where you are is home for my kind 

so somewhere in Cali 

beneath a sun with tongues of blue 

I know you love me 

and
my truth
is you 

deterministic causality

lucid
skirted crinoline of days ...
scarlet teeming
teeter-totter brimming
no one thing more vital than another
dressed temperance of a mythic storyline
telling of waking fields & water
reaching
yearning
being
light … 

dew-anthem-to-a-nebraska-morning

when the day opens slow and gray
put Stapleton on for his groove
body creaks with the weight of morning
coffee cools somewhere hidden from view
it gets easy to think of you

the furrows of time on your skin
the intentional sway of your gait
the luxury of the place your body occupies
hard sweet subtleness of every sinew
it gets easy to think of you

thoughts of you rescue me
your love soothes the ordinary
strong strawberry line thrown across the miles
looking out the window to the vast wide-open sky blue
easy
to
think
of
you  . . .

red

light cast
whispered thread of ordination
sublime red cardinal morning
doubt flickers in its gasping rise and fall
rise and fall
into arms capable of holding all
the
rumbled beautiful feathers of my furrow welt
rise and fall
rise and fall
the felted fit -- luminous in moon's wake
know our trail
by
the stars above
and
the turning of word and weather
rise and fall

Fixing the ravel

To fix the ravel
wax the thread
staunch the wound that bleeds rose-red
bandage with salve, sunshine & tears
press firmly
define the fear

sew on the patch
tender the hole
smooth the ends, extract your tole
return the borrowed
enfold the night
kiss the broken as it takes flight

fix the ravel
wax the thread
to mend with mercy

love embed

a study of the things he loves ....

with an intensity
reserved
for
mathematicians and wizards;
quantity divided variety
divided
by
barometric pressure
squared by the velocity of the sun
he watches .....
day's blizzard roars beyond walls
drifts--billows
small birds fall
the sun lost behind this solid front of silver-white
branches whip, bend
quiver with weight & sharpness
he worries over shelter, seed, suet
accessible nourishment for the brave feathered ones ....
resolute fearless flyers against storms fury
he watches with an intensity
interest plus compassion
equal blindness to pressing things
human things
things with holes & human hearts
Ah! what elegant desire
you;
noble keeper of chordata aves 

fatum

shadows & light
shadows & light
fate lies curled in the corner tight
we move with hesitant steps somedays
intent upon the golden page
open, close we kneel and then
backs to the wall, we learn to bend
tea d'ironie - we lift our cup
and drink our fate
blue-lavandar hyssop
shadows & light
shadows & light
a corner turned & hope takes flight ,,,,