Circles

More works by the hurricane.

Amid the wreckage

look closer

the plain beauty

of the world

outlasts us.

-

Lesson

Storm gone

seven feet of sand

a new start

and this time

let us not force ourselves

upon the yearnings

of the margins

with our impulses.

Engage.

-

Longing in Storms

High tide, morning, 10/29/12, Kill Devil Hills, NC., (photo by Oregon Inlet Idiots)

The earth the earth and its seas

if you live here you know

we wake up empty and frightened

this world is drenched in that drowning

i am so small

i can barely be seen

how can this great love

be inside me

look at these eyes

they are small

but they see enormous things.

Please click the link below, then on Coleman Barks:

– from the Outer Banks during Hurricane Sandy,

adapted from Rumi as translated by Coleman Barks.

Attraction

Duck, NC,  before hurricane Sandy's worst day.

The earth would take you if it could

see how it lunges toward you

hear the moan of its yearning

feel the sea's seduction

its cold embrace.

-

Floor Plans

A gale shook the house i had rented for a week on the beach

Forcing me inland feeling unlucky but safe

In a tall hotel in a town that had seen better days

Where i ran in the rain through its streets past its hollowed out shops

And the homes of the people whose dreams were no smaller than mine.

–Homes in Elizabeth City, NC

Suspended Afternoon

Not seen since morning.

The beach is deserted

empty of people but full of sound

the sea frothing jade

the air abandoned

squadrons of pelicans unseen

since the clouds crowded them out of the sky

the storm spreading a heavy wing

over this trembling bar in advance of

its beaked mouth

its staring eye.

-

Awaiting the Hurricane

Sunset behind the village of Duck.

The sensation of what is coming

high winds again

there was a time when we liked the feeling of telling the truth

hold onto that if you remember it

a time when we not only lived on the planet

we were it's inhabitants.

-upon finishing "Sea Change," by Jorie Graham.

Head Down

Last picture from a trusted compact.

Walking the wash before sunrise

seeking the low angle in weak light

preoccupied with framing and focus

tide coming in with its cargo of sand

who sees the wave that ruins us?

-

Our Time

Here but a moment

forces of the universe

conspiring toward beauty

stunning in its brevity

awaiting the next wave

this our time for being.

By Instinct

Day trippers following the coast

south out of the breeding grounds

frame the morning moon

undulating lines of incredible creatures

some a hundred lives long

keep us looking up all week

until we load up our cars and fly north

knowing our direction to be wrong.

-

And Then Again the Moon

Against the Atlantic in Duck, NC

The night was full of wonder

the dipper rose from the churning sea

and stood glittering upon its handle

balanced on the clean dark line

that is the roundness of the earth


First the moon out of the sea

followed by the constellations

in their ancient order

and then the blinding sun

and then again the moon and then the stars

the nights and days and nights and lives

in ordered and immutable procession.

-

Country Porch

Chickens in the yard,

cows at the gate.

It lifts my spirits

just to pass by.

-

Wind and Water

The singing now

comes mostly from the oaks

i hear the ocean there

and in the ocean

i shall hear the oaks

a harmony

of three parts.

-

After a Cold Night

Emerging sun incites

a celebration of midges

thrilled with each other

––ah, to be living,

to crave

-

Still Here

I know the speed

of the turning earth

as the sun moves down

the hardening stems

I'm sitting still

on the colder ground

and holding on.




-

Place of Origin

Hasn't enough time

passed by now,

the universe is

in your mind as it expands,

the years are disappearing,

and it is October once again

as it must be.

–extracted from  Jorie Graham's "Place."

In October Woods

Please click to enlarge.

Every step

a crush

of muted color

picture

yourself wandering

the barren steppes

consider

your amazement.

Portrait

Common snapper

Twenty pounder

under a tub

in the truck bed

awaiting fate

rescued from

the hard road

not aggressive

stoic, aloof,

this his nature

when not prodded

with a stick

before we

dropped him

in the pond and watched the lilly pads map his deep escape to sleep.

-

Polled in the Milky Way

Calmed by the surf of the wind in the leaves

by the lift and fall of the swells in the crowns

I sit on the cabin porch and rock,

chances are if I meet another man on the path home

he will be generous and kind

chances are if I build a fire in the stove and read by candlelight

my evening will be peaceful and warm

and if i have forgotten to turn off the phone

and answer the tone on a whim and am asked

Is our country headed in the right direction?

I shall say, Are we not circling our star,

One in the four-hundred billion?

-

Warming in a Cold Climate

Hard cold

kills the bloom,

turns the fruit

 to wine and

cures the seed.

Have you not felt

enough hard cold 

to cure and turn?

Then let us glory in

the base and basics

of  breathing in the air.

-

Woodland Pond

Jewel

in the woods

life-giver 

birthplace

of beings

may we be

wise enough

to honor

your purity

and save

ourselves.

-

Sunburn after the Freeze

First freeze

bursts

us open the

wild impulses

of sentience

dividing

the light

into the cool

and the hot

in our rage

to go on.



-

Idyll

Appealing to

an artist's eye

perhaps if this

were on display

with overgrowth

and catalogued

you and I

might call it

beautiful before

the drillers come.

Sassafras Vertigo

Click to go bigger.

Under the sassafras tree

becalmed, looking straight up

'til we rise through the leaves

as the heat from our bodies

convinced in a rush of blood

yellow is god.

From the Top of the Field at Sunset

Looking east.

Rolling back

into the dark

back from

something

bigger than

the sun

summoned

by the sea

welcomed

into the night.




-

Note to Selves

Goldenrod

in a second

blooming

this one

productive

ultimately

you can

do that

keep working.



-

Reduction

Please click to enlarge.

Paring down

for a faster swing

around the sun,

honed and sharp

in the sweet smell

of decay, focused

on the baring points

of living on.

Settle

Pickup bed rattling

dust curling over the gate

we launch a flight of grackles from the corn.


They settle further down

and so de we

shutting off the engine and

sitting on the ground

to learn what we've been missing.


We hear their wings.


Time and wind

flow 'round us

like the creek around the stones.


How singular are we

practicing tranquility.

-

Orbit and Tilt

Called to spareness

by orbit and tilt

the trees covering

the deepening fish

geometric pastiche

on the wobble we await

the reassurances of ice.

Our Turn

New  growth this summer

on the tree

her teachers planted in her name

and moved

from the school by her brother

when the board

closed it down.

The leaves on the fragile new stems

have turned red

one falls as I sit here i hear it

touch the wet grasses

now another now it's another's turn

to lose its purchase on the world

look the sun is a neon arc

and that too falls

behind the ridge now it is gone

you go back up

four lines it is still there I can't

go back it's gone

yet still the slightest trait recalled

leaves me almost unable to speak

the thin branches with their slender red leaves

between us and the sunset each of us

a never-again rush of blood and words

crickets steady and slow in the cool woods

each of us all of this

turning turning

our turn

is all we'll ever have.

–with a trick and eight lines from Jorie Graham.

How Do We Live?

All afternoon we felt it coming.

We were close to knowing,

it felt that way when the sun

fell through the clouds as it set.


The secrets we hope to learn

are already written.

They are only secrets because

we do not take the time

to truly read.


So said the teacher, asking:

Can you see jewels in mud?

–from the writings of Deng Ming-Dao.

Essence

Even asters

past their prime

intrigue the

honeymakers.




-

Inverse

An autumn

of your

own making

solitary

still

empty

of loss

at last

you can

dream without

clenching.

-

Entreaty

Please enlarge by clicking.

Crowns in the clouds

that have risen from the valley


leaves letting go

one at a time

in a breeze you can't feel


the essence of life

returns to the earth

for safe keeping


and you must.

-