two birds

wind scours

the hospital grounds . . .
a sparrow 
tumbles sideways 
in the empty air


~GUSTS 20, Fall/Winter 2014

I walk alone
with the wind at my back—
one swallow
slicing  through dark clouds
with the edge of its life


~Ribbons 10:3, Fall 2014

The Passage

                  going west
                  along the river—
                  water sweeps
                  around a stone cairn
                  shaped like a woman

                 on the riverbank,
                 a gate without a fence—
                 two windows 
                 frame the flow
                 of my journey to the sea

                 stumbling
                 onto a sand bar 
                 drenched in starlight
                 will I see your face
                 or will our eyes be one

                         ~Ribbons 10:3, Fall 2014

one thread

the exile

in her prison cell

scratching poems

on a bar of soap . . . 

bubbles rise to the moon

~A Hundred Gourds 3:4, Sept. 2014

(for Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian poet & dissident) 

scribbling 

faint words to address 

the infinite —

I pluck  one thread 

in the harp of stars

~Skylark 2:2, winter 2014

hawks

one by one
red-shouldered hawks
slip into the blue 
beyond the hills. . . 
this fire in my hearth

~Skylark 2:1, summer 2014

seizing 
six minutes alone
I soar
with a red-tailed hawk
four hundred heartbeats high

~Skylark 2:2, winter 2014

All Souls

change your clocks

change your batteries—

how much longer

until I fall back

into that good night

~A Hundred Gourds 3:2, March 2014

All Souls’ Day—

against scudding clouds

a raven

rides the wind

from another world

~GUSTS 19: spring/summer 2014

the last few seeds 

on the dandelion clock

letting go

I set my watch 

to the next season

~Atlas Poetica 15, July 2013