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