Friday, September 30, 2011

blows the wind

blows the wind
by winter
enthralled, trees
shed at end
of day, end
of summer
world fall-filled,
newly chilled,
crescent moon
disappears
all too soon.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Failure



The leaves are falling too early!


Strewn, green and pliant,
they drift to summer lawns
to wither and die.

Heavily falls failure when,
not yet the season of death,
impatient winds tear and shred,
suck dry life's tender
breath.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Diminished Vision

Dark lines dancing
on the edge
of distortion,

Slight things
not really there
darting just beyond
my searching
stare

when suddenly,
sidelong glancing,
I'm filled with
fear.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Sight Persists


In small cells it grows
glows in vitreous seas
like phosphorescent slugs
by currents released
holding all the motion, color,
loveliness
of the captured world,

until noticing, at last,
I see.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Vision



In the raw air of crystal dawn
the sun devours waning night
with dragon-song,

and rises to cerulean heights
to the vaulting domes            
of eternal sight.    

Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Eye Exam




I Struggle.
The white dropper
looms like a bird's beak
a little too close
to my tender eyes,

but finally the drops splash
over my eyelashes
my nose and cheeks.

First a sting
and then I feel
nothing.

Soon the quiet room
becomes immense and bright.

I gaze in wonder
as my hands grow
transparent,
throbbing veins turn to
blue rivers
coursing through pale ravines
of webbed bone.

Vision grows deep
with dilation.

The doctor peers
through my eyes,
looking past
murky vitreous,
right down to
my optic nerve,

and I wonder what she sees.

A small hole torn into the retina,
just to the left
yes! that's where
lightning flashed before,
where now lies blindness…
my own circle of night,
foreshadowing
Nothing.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Eye Trouble


Close by,
flashes
fill the night


my peripheral vision,

what's nearly there
just above my shoulder,
over my straining
brow.

I see in a blink
the paparazzi
ducking into dark alleys
patiently waiting for me to emerge
smiling into innocent lamplight


trap me, like Princess Di,
with their
flash.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Conscience


Deep in the dark
of the wind-thrashed tree
a rasping voice calls to me,
demanding I see
what I cannot see.  

The tree's dark core
deep shade obscures,
and try as I might,
I'm blinded by night 
descending.  

Yet still it calls, insistent and
shrill, when sudden silence
my aching heart fills
with cold 
apprehension.   

Oh Lord, whom have I 
offended?  

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Night and Day

Day and night the west
winds rise to the golden
edge, the threshold of sight.

I rise and fall and begin again
‘til at last I decline
into darkness of same.

Hot summer draws out spare
winter’s chill; my days flow
over, my life over-fills

‘til will forsaken, naked and
chaste,  at last I gaze
on your pure, living face.