Saturday, October 18, 2014

black door

black door,
impenetrable portal
to the silent night,

when a sudden train rushes,
filling the darkness
with wailing desire,

and suddenly is gone.

Now only my fingers linger.
pressing your giving flesh.

(10/18/2014)

The Vine

The ugly stump, desolate, dead
and too deep to pull, waited for my saw,
but I, lazy and pre-occupied, lingered
as winter inundated
the mud and rock desert
outside our kitchen window.

Then spring came, and all excuses spent,
I slogged out, grim executioner,
ready to cut and pull,
when I beheld green, craggy fingers praying
for just one more chance;
so putting the saw back into our messy garage,
we began the project,

raking, hoeing, cutting, digging
(hard work for a lazy man)
and soon sod to lay
and bricks to haul for a patio,

when, bushwhacked, we spied
the truant stump
proclaiming itself a grape vine,
stringy runners running rampant
through the little garden we built around it,
hooked fingers grabbing for anything
to pull nascent leaves up,


up to the warming April sun,


out of the dark winter earth,

and alarmed we cut it back, fearful vintners,
afraid for threatened geraniums
and knock-out roses,

but a treaty agreed upon, the vine settled
for one corner and left the rest
to more delicate flora.

Life will not be denied
in our backyard.

(4/10/2009)

Friday, October 17, 2014

First Rain

first waves of grey
push in from the sea
impatiently  driving through
wind-thrashed trees

my back yard's aglow
with the strange, filtered sun
red garden blooms sway
against dark, stoic trunks

Oh,inhale the sharp fragrance
of autumn's first rain!
infuse your dry world
with life once again.

(10/18/2010)

Monday, October 6, 2014

Unknowing

"Unknowing" photo by Steven Federle

“The most excellent way of contemplation is to ascend by unknowing…as Moses was led into darkness.” Thomas Merton


Dry October hills -
life fulfilled. and dying. See how the ridge cuts the sunset, draws a thin edge of blood. In the valley of man red lights throb. Leaves fall, unknowing.
(10/1/2012)

Nocturne: October

level land

fields
blown brown
and hard

fade with day
to
hazy
night.

the wind does not move!

there’s
a smudge
on the
moon

and

even
the geese
are
silent.

(10/8/2013)