Summer 2005
Surprise
Sour cherries glow
as red as coals, but don’t burn
the mouth they surprise
“Live small…”
“Live small and be large”
slight motto for a cruel time
when sloth and greed rule
Now Is
Now is the surround
that’s always here, for it stays
even as it goes
Blackbirds
The hypnotic grace
of birds in flight setting type
on the sky’s blue page
Fog SF
This fog is bracing,
muffles sight and cleanses mind –
soft life from the sea
Oakland Docks
Shining flightless cranes
lean over hulls heaped with “goods”
or should I say “bads”?
“Your days are numbered”
“Your days are numbered”
says the setting sun – I know,
long for the new dawn
As Little
Mother, dead mother,
you hear me as little now
as you did in life
Our Boots
Our boots by the wall,
dusty from the morning’s ride,
still and eloquent
Llama
I sit on the porch
and look out on the valley,
watch one brown llama
Curtain
Curtain of purple
delphinium by the creek
rushing down Lundy
Out The Window
Out the window now
mist shrouded hills running north,
still horses grazing
Small Black Frog
My horse’s hoof just
missed a small black frog – neither
of them were concerned
Whispered Thoughts
I whisper my thoughts
to the white dog, sure she’ll keep
my confidences
Abiding
The abiding green
speechlessness of pines under
the great mountain’s brow
Raccoons’ Window
The wild clematis
has almost reached the raccoons’
window in the oak
Rain Hesitates
The breeze barely stirs
the huge limbs of these old trees
as rain hesitates
Lost And Found
Each and every day
is lost even as its found –
memory’s a dream
Near 60
What I know takes me
by surprise as if I were
twenty and dreaming
Pasture
I move the fences
in my mind trying to keep
me in green pasture
So Many Beauties
So many beauties
have perished but still burn bright
in my heart’s night sky
All That’s Left
I’m all that’s left now
of so many that I’ve loved –
I cling like a leaf
My Sixtieth Year
My sixtieth year
and now autumn comes around,
death wrapped in rainbow
Soft Flights
Autumn’s beginning
in soft flights of golden leaves
in cool sheets of mist
40 Years Ago
Forty years ago
I was harvesting gold wheat
in Chanzeaux, green dream
Never
Time can slow and speed,
but never swerves from the course
it and I must go
Thought’s Mist
The cool of evening
settling through the green of trees
finds me in thought’s mist
Lost
Lost in reflection
I cross the path and wander
deep in these old woods
Bounding Deer
I love bounding deer,
how their leaps inscribe half hoops
in the forest green
Offshore Islands
The offshore islands
disappear and go to sleep –
waves lap with soft tongues
New World
When I go to sleep,
I wake up in a new world,
page after bright page
Opium
Opium’s a friend
because it banishes pain
and much else, alas
Drugs You Need
Drugs you need have made
your face blank and soft and sad
despite your fierce will
No Place
Looking at your face,
I take in the sadness you
have no place to keep
Hatless
I greet the acorn
that falls hatless at my feet
and then rolls and stops
Black Wasps
Black wasps in mint are
so massive the flowers bob
as the wasps hug them
Shadow And Light
Shadow meets light where
countless alphabets struggle
to be born and write
First Apple
Ma, the first apple
fell from the tree you gave us
when you were alive
Message
Clouds drifting blue sky
can’t decide on a message
so just sail along
Spicebush Swallowtail
Spicebush swallowtail
on wild white clematis – light’s
the spice of spices
Not Worth A Damn
Prayer is not worth
a damn unless it’s tattered
the way our hopes are
Clay Colored Toad
A clay-colored toad
motionless on a clay road –
white dog misses it
Shoreland 1003
Blue Lake Michigan
on the bright edge of autumn –
first day of college
Depths Of This Winter
I will be sixty
in the depths of this winter –
snow already drifts
Same Light?
Is the light the same
as when I was young, before
I saw through myself?
Autumn Raspberries
Autumn raspberries
darker than the red of leaves,
and sweeter than blood
Mulberries In Spring
Mulberries in spring
and the raspberries of fall –
white dog devours them
Summer 2004
As Pale Pink
Before its blooming
milkweed blushes as pale pink
as the shyest dawn
Boulder
Father, each boulder
is your monument for me,
you, who loved the earth
First Yellow Orange
The first yellow orange
squash blossom was just open
early this morning
What Music?
What music do they,
white cabbage butterflies, hear
dancing in the air?
Rapturous
Rapturous, the scent
of milkweed crosses sunlit
clearing in morning
Content In Mint
Cabbage butterflies
are content in mint as breeze
ruffles the dapple
Not To Be Resolved
Knowledge is freedom
and tyranny both, riddle
not to be resolved
As Grass
As grass holds the ground,
I try to grasp a bit, hold
as I go to seed
Power’s So Hungry
Power’s so hungry,
it tries to devour pity
which sticks in its craw
Miscegenation
Brown as chocolate,
this magnolia blossom
after three white days
Golden Bee
Sky of powder blue
and the green day is immense
with a golden bee
Cloud Pagodas
Cloud pagodas float
in the soft blue summer sky –
cloud colored dog sleeps
Robins Arguing
Robins arguing
as first fireflies flicker
and sky is pale blue
No Fire
No fire can burn love
to gray whispering ashes,
nor make it forget
Napping
In afternoon heat
tiger lilies are napping
along the roadside
Indigo Bunting
Indigo bunting –
I had lost not just the name
but also that shade
Babel
I’m dreaming seven
different languages at once –
and I understand
Broadcasting
After the rainstorm
milkweed resumes broadcasting
ecstatic odor
Gnarl
I’d speak with the gnarl
of tongues buried deep in wood,
their thrust out of sight
Two Infections
A cold has me and
I can’t let go of myself –
that’s two infections
Circumstance Serpent
Circumstance serpent
winds around me while I’m not
looking – then squeezes
Flavors
I miss my parents,
missed them while they were alive –
different flavors
Old Oak
That old oak has been
half dead for a decade now –
how life clings to it
Prospector
I watch lightning bugs,
prospector crazed with delight
by a dark river
Green Of Summer
On green of summer
the white dog is a snow patch
that moves but won’t melt
Graveyard
Here in the graveyard
no one but stones and silence –
butterflies play tag
Making Them Up
My parents – I can’t tell
where remembering stops and
making them up starts
Slab Of What
Sometimes I feel I’m
a slab of what I don’t know,
a very strange rock
Adagio
Early summer cool
and lightning bugs flickering
gold adagio
Figures
Geese, ducks, herons, deer –
figures in this morning’s fog
and white dog and I
Palominos
Grasses bend their heads –
palominos in a field
in early July
Blue-Gray Boulder
Morning sun and grief,
how that blue-gray boulder sits,
persists in itself
Brown Bouquets
The cicadas pruned
the tips of small oak branches
so left brown bouquets
Ever Said
I knew more of you
than you ever said, maybe
more, Dad, than you knew
Stuck
My whole life I’ve loved
thunder, as if it could say
what’s stuck in my throat
Cotton
The sky is cotton,
yesterday’s forgotten,
tomorrow’s a dream
Sleight Of Mind
Sleight of mind fools
me over and over, but I
can’t tell myself why
Sudan, 2004
Grief for mango trees
of Darfur – this is murder
of the deepest green
What?
What am I thinking?
I’d get as straight an answer
if I asked a stone.
Homebody
I’m a homebody
who’s not at home even when
I’m right here at home
Deep Inside
Home is deep inside
where all that I’ve lost still lives,
interrogates dream
Even Near Sixty
Even near sixty,
I lose track of myself when
I look at the stars
Infinite
Each trip’s infinite
I never know where I go
or if I’ll come back
Pink Tongue
The white dog is named
song or poem, as you like,
but her tongue is pink
Enchanted Snow
Enchanted snow flakes –
white cabbage butterflies swirl
over woods’ green floor
Tiny
A tiny beige frog,
the size of my fingernail,
hops – a clay hiccup
Stargazer Lilies
Stargazer lilies
are perfumed towers under
the moon’s quiet eye
What Tunes
The wind doesn’t know
itself what tunes it will find
to play in oak woods
For The Living
The quiet of death
is only for the living
who make all the noise
Cosi Fan Tutti, Variation, 7-11-2004
So we all do and
so we are all undone and
so embrace the earth
Sullen
Heavy and sullen
summer’s at its peak – white mold
on the green squash leaves
First Squash
I picked the first squash,
yellow saucer full of seeds
and no aliens
Statue of Liberty
From Battery Park
the Statue of Liberty
is the size I am
Monkey Island
Myself a monkey,
Manhattan, largest monkey
island ever built
NYC
All these people – real
and hallucinatory,
bedded in dream’s depths
Worm Kisses
My parents are both
decomposing, father, first –
are worm kisses sweet?
Sway
I can’t imagine
the hurtling roaring subway,
just ride it and sway
Artichoke
Artichoke – thistle
whose heart’s a delicacy,
soft, tasty center
Point
Cool muggy morning –
a woodpecker makes his point
over and over
My Blood
While it’s biting me
I smash a mosquito, smear
my own bright red blood
Bile
My sense of humor –
so full of bile it threatens
to choke on itself
Secret
Father, you were not
a secret, and so took me
past the bounds of shame
Rainy Season
A rainy season –
yet here is a hummingbird
by a red flower
Lick
I laugh at myself
as rain pours down in torrents
and I lick at it
Tether
I’m dreaming my way
to the end of my tether,
how I become new
August 1
Hasta blooming white
make an august innocence
against sea of green
West Coast 2004
Over Utah 4 August
Sky over Utah –
green irrigation dots pressed
against lean mountains
Buson
Buson in cement
on the Embarcadero –
stiff breeze off the Bay
Alcatraz
Green container ship
silhouetted in front of
stone still Alcatraz
Hulk
The older I get
the more I know I’m a hulk
in which others rest
Little I Am
How little I am –
how more and more I become
less and less and less
Cotton
Like tufts of cotton
fog perches atop Golden
Gate’s ruddy towers
Shape
Shape of my substance
was yours before mine, mother –
and now you are gone
Ill And Cure
No way to give life
without also giving death,
ill and cure in one
Freshness
As time steals freshness
memories of memories
are what’s left of me
Bellowing
The thrill of that note
of this black bull bellowing,
making sure I know
Irrigation
Whisper of water
in irrigation ditches
moving through the green
Kilimanjaro
Kilimanjaro
dapple of banana and
coffee interspersed
Harmless
Harmless happiness
of inhabited instant,
slick twist of now this
Immortals, August 9
Do the immortals
come her to sit on soft clouds
of pink wildflowers?
Lightning Fire
Smoke comes from the north –
lightning’s set another fire
haze changes all hues
White Afternoon
From Yosemite
smoke over the Sawtooth Ridge
turns afternoon white
Dead Sea Otter, August 20
A dead sea otter
still swimming on his back, cast
in Morro Beach sand
Live Sea Otter
A live sea otter
swimming in afternoon swells,
pleased, playful, pleasing
SF August 21
Rose scent in salt air
San Francisco in August –
and the nasturtiums
Boat of Reads, August 22
In my boat of reads
I’ve floated through countless worlds
that could never be
Summer 2008
First Day of Summer, 2008
The season has changed
but I remain just the same,
riddled by inklings
Geography
Now’s geography
I am always exploring,
yet can make no map
A Long Time
To live a long time,
to outlive so many selves,
to have been a crowd
Instant
A black cat slinks by –
not our own resurrected –
but for an instant…
Prophecy
Not so long ago
yesterday was tomorrow –
this is prophecy
Bluebird
Bluebird flashes by,
concentration of the sky
crossing this black creek
At White Lily
Just about high noon
hummingbird refueling
at the white lily
Alike
Firefly in my hand
a single glow and then gone –
how alike we are
Hot Muggy
This hot muggy day
the white dog lolls in the stream –
why should she come out?
Doubloons
After thunderstorms,
two goldfinches in the oak –
doubloons in mid-air
Wave
Wave is, then is not,
crashing in lace on the shore –
I’m the same fabric
Insouciant
Insouciant snow,
morning glories in summer
as the day’s heat builds
Softly
Accompaniment
I recognize, my childhood
plays softly inside
Heat
The heat of summer
changes how all reds are red,
how yellow yellows
Fact Losing
I go most often
on fact losing missions, not on
the fact finding ones
That I Am
This fact that I am
or is it a fiction I
can’t find my way through?
Stilts
On stilts of sunlight
morning rises up through oaks
to grasp blue of sky
A Cloud
The blue of my eyes
suggests an internal sky
where I am a cloud
Thyme
A huge golden bee
in tiny pink blooming thyme –
this scent stops me, too
Two
Bull frogs are twanging
this hot close summer morning
after two murders
July 6, 2008
Last of the blackcaps,
the very first blackberry
fifteen feet apart
White Veins
Delicate white veins –
brown magnolia petal –
beauty in ruin
Scent
Lose track of myself?
all the time – can’t get the scent
to track myself down
Small
A tiny bird flies
by my ear so I feel wind
as small as it is
Plush
Plush of summer grass,
bare feet, half moon overhead,
syncopated bats
Dream
A dream shifts my mood
to melancholy – I sleep
inside my sorrow
Wet Heat
Wet heat weighs me down
I move in a summer daze –
chaste new moon thrills me
Pieces Of Sun
Swift slices of sun,
tiger swallowtails sail high
in summer green oaks
Shy
I’m shy, if I speak
it’s to get to know myself,
almost someone else
Mantis
Green praying mantis
more Giacometti than
Giacometti
Elbows
The old oak’s elbows
are awkward in all weathers –
ah, their inky grace!
No Good
The breeze in the trees
stirs them for no good reason –
just the way I think
Think
As the heat eases
and the evening brings breezes
I can think again
On The March
Summer luxury
morning sound of cicadas
squash blooms on the march
Combs
Breeze stirs each green leaf
as it combs through the garden
in search of nothing
Praia
Old man on the beach
where I was young – two of me
stare at foaming waves
Back
Back to Bahia
which possessed me, so became
a myth in my mind
White Ringed
Down the black creek’s spine
kingfisher with white ringed neck –
urgent his errand
Small Boy
A little boy’s eyes
remind me that the white dog
is a miracle
Chipmunk
Chipmunk in brown suit
up on a gray teak armchair,
deliberating
Pepper
After long green time,
the pepper has become flame,
fire for fire eaters
Daisies
Tiny shy daisies,
beside the thyme, unblinking
all through their short lives
Lover
Longing for the rain
is longing for a lover
who will bring life back
Next To
Somewhere is always
next to nowhere, the town with
secret citizens
Sullen Skies
To live or to die –
I’m doing both, all at once
under sullen skies
Goodbye
How to say goodbye
to the sun and to myself,
to the moon and me?
In Glide
Over the river
a great blue heron in glide
silent as the moon
Summer
Monarch on milkweed,
two swallowtails on thistle,
bee in tall daisy
Oak’s Foot
Gray question mark cat
disappears into the oak
at whose foot she sleeps
James.O’Conor. August 9, 2008
Monarch butterfly,
second of the year, flies by –
memorial glide?
Black Wasps
Black wasps in the mint
have driven the sweet bees out –
unequal contest
Enter
Enter history
as a leaf tumbling to ground
to become the ground
Lushness
Summer’s lush riot
that predicts rot and ruin –
beauty bares its teeth
First Scarlet
This first scarlet leaf,
drop of blood promising more,
time the deepest wound
So Rich
This hundred armed oak,
proud green against a blue sky,
so rich in acorns
1966
Back from Bahia,
the thunder of candomble
ringing in my ears
Sudden
Sudden as lightning
I’m an old man – the thunder
crashes in my heart
Bug
Am I just a bug
caught in the bottle that’s me –
I’m green, small and lost
Paradise
However I sing,
I’m off-key – so locked out of
paradise of song
Far Short
I’ve fallen far short
of who I mistook for me –
curse and blessing, both
Question Mark
Gray question mark cat
fast asleep on pink cushion –
why do you move me?
Cathedral
Towering thistle
is butterfly cathedral
with soft pink blossoms
Shade
Sorrow comes with me
into this summer sunshine –
I am my own shade
Here, Gone
Hummingbird – here, gone –
moist green morning’s not the same –
I’m here and gone, too
Clematis
Snow white clematis
in late summer cascades down
the massive old oak
Prospecting Eye
Goldfinch at twilight,
a sudden surprising swoop,
thrills prospecting eye
Rhapsody
Rhapsody in dust
is the gray question mark cat,
flopping and rolling
Rio, September 8, 2008
To change continents,
exchange last breaths of summer
for winter’s last breaths
Summer 2007
White Egrets
In the tidal marsh
white egrets at attention
as stiff sea breeze blows
Opened Mouth
An open mouthed fish,
white, dead in seaweed tangle
washed up on Drake’s beach
After Point Reyes
On the other coast
I left myself walking the beach
with wind for my thoughts
Just As Flimsy
I try not to put
pressure on words, let them know
I’m just as flimsy
Pepper Red
Here in mid-July
drought has brought a few leaves down,
turned them pepper red
Too Many Of Us
Monarchs – not a one,
blue fin tuna are few, too –
too many of us
River Talk
The river can’t hear,
but it talks and talks, says things
that sound new each day
Peppers
Little green rockets
poised atop their green fuel tanks –
hot chili peppers
Trilling
Trilling cicadas
ancient chorus of summer
under a deaf moon
Dead Mouse In The Path
I cover distance
so I meet such diverse fates
looking for my own
All Wrong
I’ve done it all wrong –
but what was it, anyway?
I’ve no idea
Monarch In Maine
A monarch in Maine,
first of this long hot summer,
flying speck of hope
Waves And Clouds
The waves and the clouds
get all mixed up together –
they’re only water
Notes
Take notes on nothing –
these may well prove instructive
should you meet something
Slant
Birches on a slant
half fallen after the storm –
white slashes in green
Subway Platforms
Living and the dead
mingle on subway platforms
where my mind runs trains
Never Speak
If I understood
what I meant to say, I might
never speak a word
Terns
The chattering terns
are gaiety and terror
sharing the same sky
Popham Beach
All’s apparition
on Popham Beach in the mist –
my feet, yours, the sea
Flash
Flash of kingfisher
down the spine of the dark creek
after a hard rain
Tiny
Tiny hummingbird
sixteenth of the cardinal
that passes over
Self And Sparrow
For self and sparrow
each evening’s setting sun is
renunciation
August Firefly
August firefly
virtually the last one
tiny spot of gold
Sheets Of Sunlight
Like sheets of sunlight,
yellow swallowtails flit through
green of late summer
Siam Queen
Siam Queen basil
has grown dark spires, now flowers
a subtle purple
Daisies
Orange daisies bloom
the eyes of unseen tigers –
sultry afternoon
Riches
Of the world’s riches,
I’ve tasted next to nothing
and that is plenty
Like Snares
Cicadas are mute
as a soft rain takes their place,
playing leaves like snares
Twanging
The frogs are twanging –
has a string instrument drowned
in the lush green bog?
New Minted
Lifetime’s wondering
doubles back in itself – I’m
new minted naive
Getting Older
I’m getting older
and am almost innocent
whatever the charge
Stormy Skies
Perfectly peaceful,
the snapdragons make rainbows
under stormy skies
Day Of Rain
A whole day of rain
I’m waiting to spy the first
lean praying mantis
Milton, Delaware
Scavenging the beach
for dead fish, fox spied English
professor, bookless
Rest
I can’t imagine
the rest of my life, how rest
at last will find me
Before
Before the downpour
the gray cat, storm cloud color,
sleeps at lily’s base
My Beginnings
Stranger and stranger
to me are my beginnings,
once all that I knew
Brainforest
I am wandering
restless as the wind all through
the deep brainforest
Salt Shaker
Salt shaker, can you
rain down wisdom on my head,
even if it’s bald?
Now
The strangeness of now
is how familiar it is –
I dream I know it
Afternoons
I spend afternoons
walking the groves of my mind
while shadows lengthen
Pigments
Pigments of feeling
color the autumn landscape –
am I more than haze?
No Bindings
Empty shelf fungi
long for books as leaves float down
but without bindings
In The Woods
These hours in the woods
in light, wind at water’s edge –
do I think at all?
Loose
White dog’s middle aged
and I am older than that –
we’re still on the loose
Lasso
I am a lasso
that’s thrown about emptiness,
which yet slips away
Silver
Silver winter sun
getting ready now to set,
glorious pale bird
Hat
Today wears a hat
of varied and subtle grays,
clouded as am I
Disappearing
Words are swinging doors
that lead into and out of
disappearing dreams
Blue Rivers
Sunlight on my hand
that has blue rivers running
beneath the pink skin
Way
I’m the only way
I know – I must travel it
even when I’m lost
How Stumps
I love how stumps rot,
each becoming cathedral
of its own demise