Blue Nettle Berries
Blue nettle berries
in the tangle by the stream
this first day of fall
Warming
This year mosquitoes
are everywhere – soon we’ll have
malaria back
Time Passes
“Time passes,” I wrote,
“when I am gone from myself”
what can I have meant?
Huge Orange Seeds
Huge orange seeds lilies
of the valley make bob like
balls on a fool’s cap
Tentative
Decades of writing,
always tentative, always
beginning over
Secret Root
I’ve been all my life
a secret root in the earth
starving for the light
Hibbing
Hibbing, mine tailings
in Lake Superior, and
then the Dylan fish
So Dusky Blue
Great blue heron lifts
so dusky blue that it seems
evening’s taking flight
Honking In Fog
Geese honking in fog
wake me from my reverie,
say life’s urgent, now
Bulk
As baleen whales strain
plankton, I swim through details
becoming immense
No Way Out
There is no way out
of whatever I’m in, but
through and then I’m through
Dark Bones
Snow-blossomed in spring,
dogwood turns blood red in fall,
then bares its dark bones
Earth’s Library
The earth’s library
is full of the bones of those
I’ve loved, great books’ spines
Leaf Strewn Lawn
Across leaf strewn lawn
squirrels play tag and white dog
quivers to join in
Gleaming
Through sixty autumns
I reach back to grab buckeyes
gleaming in sunshine
Ordinary
The ordinary,
that is where mystery lives,
in these sodden leaves
Tongue Without
The whisper of oak
burning in the fireplace, tongue
without any words
Navel
A thimble of flesh,
navel goes with me, reminds
me what thread bore me
Artillery
Report of acorns
on slate roofs – artillery
of oaks in action
Drum Voice
A drum has a voice,
hollowness speaking, even
as I do, same air
Cloud Dulled
Autumn leaves rustle
in rainy wind – the moon’s night’s
Cyclops eye, cloud dulled
Armless
A falling leaf scoops
back and forth, back and forth, hand
armless in the air
Tunneling 1
My mind’s not my own,
half belongs to the surround
that gives it its tasks
Tunneling 2
In the gloom are clues
for leaps of quick ecstasy,
but no mind-footing
Their Roots Refuse
Trees sway back and forth
beginning all the dances
that their roots refuse
Mouse Mates
The mouse attracts mates
with a substance in its tears –
how wise the mouse is
Fall Birdwatcher
The fall birdwatcher
is back now for the tenth year –
he’s a rare bird, too
Hickory Nuts
Green as tennis balls
hickory nuts fall from trees,
land with a racket
Unsettled Country
Imagination
always unsettled country
which is where I live
Fantasy’s Rib
For no one’s pleasure,
gourds have found shapes that have sprung
from fantasy’s rib
Cool Night
In the afternoon,
bronzed praying mantis and then
cool night with hard stars
A Second Skin
Shame’s a second skin
that glitters ominously
and then becomes flame
Sharp White Bite
Middle autumn cool
lets my flesh recall the small
white teeth of winter
Sheen Lines
In the sky, sheen lines
of differing light in grays
over green soaked fields
Most Hidden
What’s most hidden lies
out in the open – habit
blanks wonder’s vision
Green Grass Raft
Four paws to the sky
the white dog shifts in her sleep,
floats on fall grass raft
Heavy Shopping Bags
Woman with heavy
shopping bags smiles at a duck
bobbing on Jones Falls
Fall Migration
How many sorrows
can perch on a branch of mind
and then fly away?
What’s Left
What’s left of morning
when white dog and I walked woods
song and color filled?
White Dog’s Tail
In the white dog’s tail,
oak leaves wag when she sees me –
an enchanted bough
Rainbow Chicago
Foot of a rainbow
over Lake Michigan, hard
rain in Chicago
Shoreland
How red the maples
against Lake Michigan’s blue
out Shoreland’s windows
Smell, Subterfuge
Each city is an
encyclopedia, rich
in subterfuge, smell
El
The el, anything
but elegant, yellow steel
holding trains’ rumbles
My 60th
Sixtieth autumn –
a cloudy October day
quiets all colors
Dead Relatives
So you’ve come to live
in me, all of you – I wish
I’d known you were me
Deep Analogy
A small form requires
not only compression but
deep analogy
Bottle Of Ink
A bottle of ink
is what night is to me – I
dip myself in it
Blackbirds High
Blackbirds high in oaks,
compositor’s drawer can’t
hold them anymore
Memory Lies
Memory lies, then
finds its lies are true, despairs
of any escape
Demiurge
Soup is a river
that’s run through my life, through me,
warming demiurge
Mandelstam 7
Beauty’s a bright child
playing at tragedy’s knee –
unbearable sight
Just A Sip
I take just a sip
of Osip – I’m lost, drunk on
a hopeless beauty
Your Gaze
Dad, your gaze, gentle
inquisition, holds me now –
I see it in dreams
Wild Garlic
Gray question mark cat,
asleep by a cliff of white
blooming wild garlic
Cell Phone
Mistaking cell phone
in my hand for a treat, horse
knocked me over – yes
Adversity
I became myself
in adversity’s prison,
adversity’s prism
Sun’s Favor
Autumn woods put on
a coat of many colors
mark of sun’s favor
Freshman Year
Wooden animals
my father made my daughter –
still here now she’s left
Sumptuous
Sumptuous autumn
rises from the dawn’s pale blue –
into this you died
Flotillas
On the still lake now
flotillas of geese and ducks,
leaves that have no wings
White, Pink, Black
The white dog’s pink tongue
lolls out under her black nose
as she pads along
Already
I’m getting ready
for what’s already happened
long autumns ago
Tomorrow’s Wind
The weeping cherry
is going orange – tomorrow’s
wind will strip it bare
Purple In Autumn
I’ve picked red saffron
from the crocus sativa,
purple in autumn
Golden Branch
Phantom life pain is
mind haunted by what’s long gone,
golden branch of me
Patches Of Blue
Patches of blue start
to show through the forest’s roof –
fall prepares winter
Yet Quite New
The things that I say
have been a lifetime in me
and are yet quite new
Alone With
The provinces where
I’m alone with my mind are
the ones I prefer
Lost And Found
I am most myself
when my attention wanders
to be lost and found
Old One Now
I’m the old one now
and yet I’ve traveled only
such a short distance
Deeper Mine
The gold of fools is
everywhere – what’s rare is twist
to find deeper mine
Wonder
High in the mountains
I walked in wonder at how
they and I got there
Never Quite Know
My love for the light,
for how eyes investigate
and never quite know…
Blinds
The Venetian blinds
stripe light and shadow across
the wood of my mind
In A Chair
I sit in a chair
and listen – my mind wanders,
won’t come back to me
Death’s
Death’s starting to come
to collect my friends, I’d just
as soon keep them, me
Soft Shadow
In a moonlit night
I move with a soft shadow
down towards the sea
Rattle
Moon in torn linen
and the wind out of the north,
rattle of dry leaves
On A Hanger
The cadaver held
his skin on a hanger –
could not take a step
Cadaver In Heels
In high heels, shopping
bag in hand, she looked chic dead –
no worries at all
Next Of Kin
When you crumbled earth,
you questioned it tenderly
as your next of kin
River Moment
White dog drinks, rippling
reflections of sycamores
as their leaves fall up
Rack
Each bare sycamore’s
a magnificent rack, horn
erupting from earth
Middle November
You lay comatose
brilliant day after brilliant day
as I felt for you
Apples
Apples of the air –
that’s what poems are – pommes d’air,
not gold, not silver
Shira
Shira, you are what
your name means, poetry, song
all in a white dog
Memory’s Ready
Memory’s ready
to devour tomorrow, just as
it has yesterday
Hope’s Beginning
How did hope begin,
given that it torments me
each and every day?
Crows
West Nile virus killed
so many, half this flock’s widowed –
caw and remember
Nude Oaks
Nude oaks on blue sky,
two ducks in flight, clarity
of cold morning air
Not This Rock
What is adamant,
not this rock, but formless flux
that can not be still
Kingfisher’s Chi-chi
Kingfisher’s chi-chi,
blue burst of its underwings
as it flies upstream
Beginning Under
Decades of writing,
always tentative, always
beginning under
Ecstasy
The scent of oak smoke –
ecstasy in this cold air –
as I fetch more logs
Who Says
Pansies still blooming
in cold want to know who says
pansies are pansies?
So Many People
So many people,
so much loneliness – can it
be the two are one?
After Thanksgiving
After Thanksgiving
dandelions are blooming
studding grass with suns
Six Of Them
Redheaded flickers
six of them on just one log –
bright blue jays fly by
Hudson, December 3, 2005
The sleeping Hudson
starts to blue in the first light
of December dawn
Old Coffee Warehouse
Even in winter
lost coffee warehouse smells haunt
white Lincoln Center
Out Gray Window
Paris winter rain –
lost little boy looking out
gray window and in
Hard To Know
What was hard to know
can become quite suddenly
easy to say, play
Small Prints
This snow is silence –
the words I speak make small prints
twisting through the pines
No Way
No way to record
how hours slip through my fingers –
but you know yourself
Tiny Bird
From that tiny bird
comes a huge song – so it is,
exactly, with us
Thin Ice Skin
Like a snake, the creek
is shedding its thin ice skin,
slithering through bends
Quizzical
White dog in white snow,
visible but quizzical,
she’s almost not there
Cat Asleep
I slept in the sun,
woke to find day almost done,
cat asleep on me
A Few Lights
A few colored lights,
next to nothing, stand for hope
as the days shorten
Clay Trees
The clay trees I made
years ago still have not put
out any green leaves
Rescue
Time to wind the clock,
though pendulum’s still swinging –
time to rescue time
Beyond Trapeze
Each moment’s letting
go, taking hold, art beyond
the trapeze artist’s
Inside The House
Inside the house I’ve
come to write inside myself,
where I dwell…and how