Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Larry's Produce




The market rings with laughter.

In Spanish and German,
Russian and a dozen other tongues
weary children cry
in the mid-morning sun

as old eyes, wise hands
prod peach and mango
mounded peas and beans
looking for any flaw.

Finding none,
they fill their bags
with the fragrant gifts
of this milk-
and-honeyed
land.

(28 June 2014)





Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Advice to the Candidate




Everyone wants to
be heard! Speak louder than the
rest, fill raucous rooms

with your rancorous
thunder, flail all resistance
to the ground. Your lies

will win the night; but 
in the clear morning, be still.
Listen as small birds

rest lightly on sway-
ing branches. With piercing song
they paint a new day.

(5 Feb. 2012)

Thursday, June 2, 2016

We Must Be Grateful

"For all God's gifts there must be in us a response of 
thanksgiving and happiness and joy." 
Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation.
***

We must be grateful
when the old ones leave.

Forsaking the March sun,
they brush off tender, white blossoms.

Past the fleeing migrations,
they exhale their final, tainted breath.

Rising from earthen bones
in deep silence, new hymns intone

of thanksgiving and joy
and home.

(28 Nov 2013)

_________________________
Dedicated to my aunt, Sister Rachel Willett, who died today, June 2, 2016, at the age of 94.

Image: Stephen J. Kaltenbach, "Portrait of My Father"  Crocker Museum. Acrylic on canvas