Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Crows in a Stubble Field


Along the tracks
in this field of straw,
tawny stubble
cut down by indifferent,
efficient hands,

I see sentient crows,
black shadows scrutinizing
lifeless stalks
like careful surveyors,
reclaiming this savaged world,

when, blaring, the train
shatters the air and scatters
the redeeming birds
into black angry clouds,
cawing into the twilight sky.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Wolf Moon




2013 (Richard Barnhill via Flickr)

the wolf moon rising
hard, red, sure
black night’s
bloody core.

The Modesto SWAT Team Waits in Violent Weather


Violence is essentially wordless, and it can begin only where thought and rational communication have broken down.  Thomas Merton

unquiet night
sky rushing
past peace
past even
the thrill
of anger

howling clouds
slowly twist
to darker thoughts
and drop
mute ice
on lavender fields
on lilies, white and life-
less.

In Whispering Woods
his mind snaps.
He fires off rounds
of death,
and, wordless, waits
for the ice.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Day and Night

Bright shield, blue sky
conceals the broad universe
with brilliant ruse of
solitude.

Jealous sun
brooking no lesser lights,
tells us
that we’re all alone.

Up to the sun
you may cast your gaze,
but hide your eyes
with fingers splayed
or dazzling day
to inner darkness will fade.

But as the tyrant sun declines
look up again, and you will find
how luminescent night
strips away blue day’s
bright lie of “same”

and dagger stars
pierce
the milky silk
of outer-space.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Radiant Day

radiant day,
gentle winds
blow away
all raw weather
as skies dive deep
into blue ponds  
while above in barren trees
the young sun
strokes small branches,
and emergent buds wait
for the green season.

Friday, January 3, 2014

once it begins



once it begins
i cannot stop
nor would i wish to
end the torrent of words
crush of photons
bright weight of day
driving dark worlds
through eternal space
trains howling
poems careening
through silver morning
where i sing
out my
warning