Wild White
Few degrees warmer-
late March morning carpeted
with wild white flowers
Exacted
Each word exacted
from heart’s beat approximates
what can’t be spoken
Greta
The black cat is dead
whose swift and lithe loveliness
leapt twenty quick years
Kingfishers
Up the river, down,
kingfishers, needles piercing
this cool April dawn
Souvenirs
White dog is sleeping,
white snout propped on mud black paws,
souvenirs of stream
A Single Breath
Every word I write
shorthand for a single breath
shorthand that falls short
Spring Frog Song
Bright chirps of small birds
overlaid on spring frog song
boiling in the bog
Dying Fox
In our tiny wood
a dying fox lies quiet
in deep green ivy
Horizontal Snow
Horizontal snow
in early April before
cherry blossoms come
Whimsy Whinnies
When whimsy whinnies
like a horse, I kick my heels,
run under the moon
When
I can’t remember
when, so full of emptiness,
I’ve been so content
Green Eden
White dog is sleeping
on her back in green Eden
of a spring evening
Young Again
Pink cherry blossoms –
the old tree is young again
under a gray sky
White Fungus
How white the fungus
on the trunk of fallen oak –
white as dogwood’s blooms
Unopened
Unopened lilacs
are stains of a purple blood
against green branches
Exact Pink
Blossoms’ exact pink
I’d forgotten – old cherry
takes me by surprise
Wonder Of Sex
The wonder of sex
is in the morning’s white mist –
and the worry, too
Rasp
Sorrow rasps in me
like a cat’s tongue on my hand –
peculiar pleasure
Step To Wisdom
Each step to wisdom
is a new embarrassment –
what awkward freedom
Yellow Surprise
A yellow surprise
fluttering up from ivy –
year’s first swallowtail
After Two Decades
After two decades
sky blue blue jays all about –
mockingbirds vanquished
In Bamboo
Blue jays in bamboo –
is that swaying brown nest theirs
after twenty years?
Shovels
Exuberant spring –
shovels of red and yellow –
long-handled tulips
Rash Vision
Interior dark
is where light most surprises –
sudden rash vision
Spring Bursting
Cormorant on rock
near the lake’s shore with green spring
bursting all about
May Apples
Like furled umbrellas
May apples break the surface
and then spread green arms
Hinge
A door worth seeking
is in and out all at once,
anchored by a hinge
Pirate
I’m my privacy’s
pirate – I hijack vessels
that sail inner sea
60
I tire easily
and indefatigably
go on being me
Giraffes
Giraffes in the air
Chicago construction cranes
work on the Sabbath
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan blue
flat plate to the horizon
holds an ore boat up
Words
I try to resign
from words and into them, too –
such deep confusion
Bare Wood
The feel of bare wood –
intimacy with my skin –
carbon knows carbon
Monument
A single morel
amid leafy detritus
is a monument
Phlox Filled Meadow
In phlox filled meadow
a patch of white violets –
a cloud in blue sky
No Order
I can’t put my mind
in order no matter what
season I am in
Overrun
Gold centers of white
peonies are overrun
with small greedy bees
Spring Sickness
Sick in the springtime –
old fox has been dead a month –
white blooms everywhere
Lost Beyond
The dark uncertainty
of my deepest dreams, when I’m
lost beyond myself
Sixty-First Spring
My sixty-first spring
hair and beard almost as white
as the peonies
Camouflage
In my dreams the dead
wear the camouflage of life
I’m not done weeping
Restless
The trees are restless
in the night and so am I –
wind blows through my dreams
Vast
Now I inhabit
is just as vast as ever
as death shadows it
Ghost Moon
I sit down to sketch
without a clue what’s coming –
ghost moon in blue sky
Small Things
Small things are the keys
to the biggest locks, riddles
of being right here
True Rubies
These false strawberries
gleaming in lawn I’m mowing –
tiny true rubies
Wilderness
Wherever I am,
there is wilderness, baffling,
unkempt, riotous
Hollow Oak
In that oak raccoons
have lived more than fifty years –
now home is dying
Rasping Voice
I’m dying into
this tiny form – grain of sand
with a rasping voice
Illness Fades
Illness fades away
leaving shadow and promise
of future demise
In Silence
Something in silence
strives to be released – a bird
in the subtlest cage
Lithe As Ever
The black cat is dead
and still as lithe as ever
in mind’s undergrowth
Subterranean
Subterranean
palace of morel’s making
pocked spires’ inventor
Gathering Clouds
May afternoon’s sky
as white as an egg’s inside –
I’m always hatching
Ambition And Dust
Ambition and dust
are closest kin, for they both
steal the touch of now
Next To Nothing
I’m next to nothing,
always hard up against it,
persistent phantom
Ruined Hopes
In the aftermath
of ruined hopes, quieted
beauty starts to sing
More Clearly
Ever more clearly
I see what I’ve lost – losing
and finding – are they one?
Fragments
I speak in fragments
aspiring to mosaic
as yet undefined
Birth Of A Perfume
Aroma of skunk
and the scent of wild roses –
birth of a perfume
Shining
Turtles were shining
on the bank – did swallowtail
flitting by spook them?
Evening Calm
Evening calm, white dog,
purple allium, birdsong
in the green of oaks
Old Fox
I can’t help missing
the old fox who used to pad
through our woods each day
Moon Knows
I’m trying to fold
the tent of my ambition –
moon knows I’ve been drunk
Last Night
Here’s where the deer slept
last night away – a bower
of white wild roses
Gander On Rock
Gander stands on rock,
stretches his neck and bugles,
his brood at his feet
Leisure
Leisure is rough work –
when the fish aren’t biting,
that’s when regrets do
Bottom
I’m trying to find
the bottom of what I am –
under all the waves
Snake In The Grass
A snake in the grass
stops the white dog in her tracks –
an old enemy
Small Dryad
Huge Dryad’s saddle
is joined by a tiny one
for a small Dryad
Orisha
Berl in tulip tree
is the rough head of a god,
some lost Orisha
Sun Comes Out
The sun comes out
from behind a cloud, I do, too –
where have I been, where?
Restless Leaves
The breeze stirs green leaves –
desire searching for balance –
restless leaves stir me
Someone Else
Ask me my name and
I’ll invent myself for you,
become someone else
Tail?…Tale?
Gray cat doesn’t mind
going through life with question
mark for a tail?…tale?
Joined
Nothing and something
tried to part ways, but found they
were joined at the hip
Deer Sleep
In wild rose bower,
deer sleep under bright May moon –
can dream surpass this?
Heavy
Early June morning –
heavy honeysuckle scent
floats above the creek
Lavender
Almost open now
the lavender blossom just
hints at its own scent
Home At Last
Magnolia’s first
giant white blossom crowns it,
star that’s home at last
White Mountain Laurel
Brown deer are sleeping
amid white mountain laurel
above the valley
Special Bark
I still miss old fox,
the special bark the white dog
used only for him
Hunter-Gatherer Glee
The first ripe blackcap-
a hunter-gatherer glee
awakens in me
The Old Clock
I wind the old clock
as if it could tick time new,
so tick me new, too
One Purple
One purple iris,
unaware how it changes
everything that’s green
Hot Day
Hot day of late spring –
the gray cat is stretched out – when
will she melt away?
White Clover
Sea of white clover
here in late June, each head fine –
I won’t mow today