Black River
Cardinal over
the black river makes a shock
something like waking
Right Hip
I slip on the ice,
land on my right hip and see
the world made all new
Print Roosts
Blackbirds in bare oak
shadows of blackbirds on snow –
print roosts then flies
Recesses
In such recesses
of me as I but half know
I invent a life
Dark River
Across dark river
sycamores reach bright white arms,
join against sky’s blue
One White Whisker
Just one white whisker
caught in sun says sleeping cat
is not a gray rock
Sloppy V
Geese in sloppy V –
the settled ease of rich fields
has wrecked discipline
Clocks Buried
Sixtieth birthday –
clocks buried in my cells know
nothing comes easy
Peas
Today’s dawning is
unlike yesterday’s, unlike
as peas in a pod
What I’ll Never
I swim in detail,
what is unaccountable,
what I’ll never say
Fallow
Garden lies fallow,
but underneath is ferment
just what works in me
Heavy Heart
Dad, I watched you pry
boulders from the earth and knew
your heart was heavy
Mute Transmutes
Now clouds cloak the sky
as a mute transmutes horn’s sound,
finds a new beauty
Light’s Insignia
I don’t mean to tell
the whole story, just to show
light’s insignia
Finches
Dozens of finches
in tangled winter bare vine –
all still an instant
Piece Of Cloud
Dog’s a piece of cloud
come down to wander the woods
sniffing for squirrels
Not White
I’d begin again
if I could find alphabet
whose hair was not white
Cherish
I cherish the crows
who lived through West Nile virus –
surviving’s glad, sad
My Creation
My creation is
a dog howling at the moon
which is a deaf pearl
Almost Twenty
Black cat I wait on
demands water fresh and cold –
she’s almost twenty
Fierce Photon Flood
Trees hold their arms up,
children as we are of sky,
the fierce photon flood
Capsules
Contraptions of breath,
these words try to seal my time
into small capsules
Smile
The sun is a smile
in a pale blue winter sky –
its warmth is a kiss
Last Year’s Compost
The garden is black
where I spread last year’s compost –
once and future food
All New
I keep wandering
both in the past and present –
it’s all new to me
Scales
What’s concentrated
can be small and then explode
beyond all scales
Gray Cat Jumps
Gray cat jumps white dog
this rainy winter evening
and heads out the door
Hard As A Pebble
Feeling can be round
and small, hard as a pebble,
ten thousand years smooth
Right There
Every single day,
I start from the beginning
and end up right there
Soft Sunlit
Soft sunlit morning
and the birds that are singing
brighten it further
Rich Beyond
Circle I survey
is small, perhaps just a dot –
still rich beyond me
Faces
Faces of the dead
are so alive inside me,
full of expression
Do I Keep
Do I keep the dead
or do they keep me, each one
an inspiration?
Traveling Still
All places I’ve been
fit easily in my head –
I’m traveling still
Least Exact
What’s least exact, though
most exacting, is how love
enters a heart, leaves
Winter Sky’s Cotton
Winter sky’s cotton,
as far as the eye can see –
bare oaks are pitchforks
Listening For
I’m listening for
what barely announces
it’s coming to be
The Huge Now
What I remember
flowers in the huge now, casts
the spell of its scent
Old Elms
Under those old elms,
I read books – they held sky,
wouldn’t let it fall
Lipless, Not Lifeless
Lipless, not lifeless,
those elms didn’t criticize
but let me read me
Ancient Elms
I couldn’t suspect
ancient elms rooted in me
to outlive themselves
Gray Drizzle – 12-31-2005
After gray drizzle
comes golden sunshine, last day,
unexpected joy
How Loud
I’m surprised how loud
a downy woodpecker is
drumming under clouds
Red Gold
These winter meadows
are red gold with last year’s grass
bent low to the ground
Reddest Berry
The reddest berry
on thorned cane is cardinal
that flies up, away
Drowsy Gold
A warm winter day
the sun is a drowsy gold
willows start to green
Silos
The skunk cabbage tips
come up out of their silos,
point into blue sky
Autumn
In autumn I lose
everyone – leaves falling
from the tree I am
Tawny Winter
Tawny winter fields
under silver rising sun –
white dog and no snow
Patches
White dog patches holes
in my heart even before
I can feel their hurt
Silver Snakeskin
The river at dawn
is silver snakeskin, moving
and still all at once
Bursting
Skunk cabbage bursting-
a green rhinoceros horn-
from winter puddle
Like A Blanket
Silence is on me
the way a blanket of snow
lies on winter woods
Aconite
Winter aconite,
arrowheads of fierce sunshine
piercing the doomed snow
Greta’s Gone
Now that Greta’s gone,
the white dog and the gray cat
lie together, still
In The Ground
Greta’s in the ground,
yet she leaps swift in my head,
meows, as black as coal