Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Monday, December 17, 2012

the woods road

Sunday morning
jack-in-the-pulpit
his silent nod

climbing the gate
into no-sound
thick under hemlocks

birch and boulder
around the hill or over it
the path

on the granite boulder
tongues of lichen
the scraped knee

stony hillside—
even the cow paths
drenched with light

mother and child
the cows
always at  home

sweet fern
crushed between fingers
the scent of time

blackberry tunnel
round the oak’s bones
emptiness

empty acorn
under one white oak
a whole new forest


shades of green—
hairy-cap moss
five fingers deep

filling
her picnic basket—
seedling, shadow, leaf

scarlet
wintergreen berries
for winter’s glass house

red-headed
soldier moss marching—
the far end of a twig

pipsissewa—
holding its name
in her hands

bracket fungi
in earth-scented duff
concentric circles

the woods road
never going
to the end of it

   

Friday, December 7, 2012

[my only keepsake . . .]

my only keepsake
from a house of grand pianos
tiny brass Pan
piping a reedy tune
no-one else can hear


A Hundred Gourds 1:4, Sept. 2012




Saturday, December 1, 2012

[braiding . . .]

braiding
her sister’s hair
after the rape
so many
long dark strands



Ribbons 8:2, Fall 2012