Being Still for 20 Minutes

just trees and sky

nothing else to see here

everything else to imagine

if we let it happen

At the End of May

we walk among sentient beings

with respect for the coming-of-age

—may apple, sweet cicely, cleavers, blue cohosh, northern white violet

Pelagic

we drove to the beach in a long low convertible with wide fins

past flat-roofed houses the colors of shells fading in the sun

and swam alone on a peninsula of white sand

it felt real

turquoise waves rolled in from the point much like this world

i swam without tiring the swells lifting me i was of the sea

i knew the water its currents and tides its depths and its distances

you called me fish

Passing Showers

American chestnut

tell me again how i entered your dream

as clouds unravel to rain

sweet repetition

tell me again how it ran down my back

your voice is a song in the thunder

sweet sweet repetition

everything lovely passes away

tell me again and again

sweet sweet repetition

Meditation

i went to the woods in the rain

to be alone with my own soul

and i met her there in a candle flame

young leaves shook in the rain

everything shining and dripping

and the trees were in deep meditation

i lit a candle to honor the rain

thunder crossed a long plank bridge

and there in the glass the flame doubled

Apparition

first iris

you have but a few days

i heard the jays call

so i went to the center

and i waited for years

'til the soul of the forest appeared

green fire at her core

and showed me the way

and left me to yearn

for but a few days more

Space Traveler

From day to night and back again

i traveled through the orbit of the moon

indigo to flame and back again

immersed myself in endless space

from head to toe and back again

returned to solitude but not alone

for i have dreamed my way to eden and come back again 

and now i will my heart to waiting like a stone

Some Days You Know

cool under cloud

hot in the sun

some days you know

just where to look

for what you love most

columbine on the bank

family in the yard

that smile that is

cloud and sun to you

and everything else

in its proper place

in paradise

Botany

you should click

meant to be

the fern unfurls

a bit more

as we pass

imperceptibly

but undeniably

without ethics

or philosophy

and so do we

Beautiful

standing in the dark at the pond's edge

the day's warm rain an echo in the drain

the hylas wild for creation

and the toads dreaming in the marsh

i am the only man on the earth

solitary and stunned by the beauty of the night

the night is beautiful and i say so because she is

i am a poet and i tell the night she's beautiful and she is

the thousand-noted dark blue night with mars in her hair

so beautiful i say aloud because i am a poet

and she is beautiul and i am the only man on the earth

and i must

The Material of Heaven

lady slippers in the mountain laurel

i am seeing things this slow and delicate spring

that take the breath away that

interrupt the rhythm of the heart things

so rich my morning walks sustain me through the day and

evening rambles carry me to dreams and visions through the night

i have the material of heaven here

we have the material of heaven here

the standing miracle to man is man

behind the paling yonder     rain or shine     hope or doubt

there dwells an actual being who can sympathize

with our sublimest thoughts     the revelations of nature

hint to us of a remote future     of possibilities untold

but startlingly near to us some day we find a fellow-man

—italics from the journal of Thoreau, May 21, 1851

In Untended Corners

please click to go deeper

in untended corners

of not a yard but

the meadow i live in

like where the spring

fans across the grade

and crayfish build their

mud towers where

natives have reclaimed

their ground

there i find a natural

peace and the power

to slow down

  

The Bends

inside an abandoned silo

living in the abstract under the air

a planet of light rises in my core

from a rubble of doors drawing me up

through a tower of shadow epiphanous blue

too fast to the surface where i take my first breath

my blood effervescent in the presence of answers

bliss is an icy inferno and the rest is behind me

Answer to the Riddle

this way

Spellbound

if life can be

one dream flowing

into the next

i'm all in

Opening At Last

there you are dear one

unable to contain yourself

blooming with the force of May

moving toward fruition

useless to pretend

you do not love the wanton air

 the filtered light     the rain

the bee that visits you

again again again

Let the Stars Appear and the Frost Come Down

sunset in upper turkeyfoot

 lovely enough to allow you to think

you're a little ache in their hearts too

Willy and Maud

yeats looked her in the eye and she in his

and so they stood looking and were still

never give the heart outright he'd said

but as they stood still streaming eye-to-eye

her power took him like an opiate

her heat spread brim to brim

and his heart blew open

who could play it well enough he said

if deaf and dumb and blind with love

he knew the cost     he paid it     and he lost

there was     there was a second troy for her to burn

and it was him

—in "No Second Troy," a classic poem of unrequited love, W. B. Yeats compares Irish
revolutionary Maud Gonne to the mythical Helen of Troy, the most beautiful
woman in the world, whose abduction brought about the Trojan War.

After a Hard Fall

kind and gentle creatures of the earth

under the propellers of the sun

much has happened here

it takes a fall sometimes to make things clear

clearer what we have and what can be

which has no name except to call it one

Open and Celestial

click to count

there's so much more

there's so much more

a spring of chances and openings

each thing with its connection

dandelion involucre

tipped with wine our time

fourteen chances more

rich with hope and promise

to get it right before

all the stars in our brief lives

have sailed past the horizon

—The dandelion is thought to represent three celestial bodies. 

The yellow flower is the sun, the puff ball is the moon

and the dispersing seeds are the stars.

Plaintive and Haunting

ragwort

in the rain and the night and the half-light

we stood long with the hylas and listened

to the pond spinning down the pipe

and their singing

weaker still this spring

take my hand dear one

so few calling in their mates

we hear them now as cries for help

All Things Beautiful Are Brief

cherish one

who breathes in lilac dew

and waits 

Adrift in Moonlight

tonight i am

a man adrift

and cannot sleep

moonlight fills the boat

–after Ching An, c. 1900

Existential

fog just after sunrise

the planets' fiery lodestar

cooled into the moon

by the mundane

and what of us

Some Would Call It Prayer

each of us contains it

sit just sit

and find what's there

He Thinks of Years Ago and Wonders If She Will Return

i wait for you at the desk beside

the long fogged window of the cabin in the woods

i see you beautiful and sad

and not yet here and yet not here

while this mid-may evening never ends

and never ends but is slowly dimming

the path beside the stone row where i

can see you beautiful and sad as you draw near

and i am reassured you are coming yes

all night i wait at the cabin desk beside

the webster's second open to the m's

your absence makes you beautiful and sad

come now do not come come now do not

and lead me to the desk deep within the hidden woods

where you undress beside the webster's open to the m's

where we will stay forever come now do not yes

–commandeered and manipulated through poetic license from a poem by Sean O'Brienn

Philosophy

be blown on

by all winds

the poet said

so if it rains

we'll be wet

and happy

Grand Opening

cliick to expand

It takes but one summer day to fetch the summer in, the poet said, and so it is in Turkeyfoot. She walks through the theaters of evening from ridge to ridge, and in her wake the lilacs bloom, the woods fills in, mosses launch their spoors, wild apple trees cast their white petals onto the dark ground, and from out of the newly formed crowns, with the violets closed for the night, the moon rises yellow and round. The owls and frogs sound in. You hear the rush of your being, and you thrill at the hum of living.

Under the Mayapples

working is the only thing that works

i should have worn jeans and a cool shirt

karma police or maybe 350.org

your languages conflict and i'm perplexed

my limbs hold their own opinions

desire used to be simpler under the mayapples

The Next Moment

almost never once in a lifetime

equally astonished at the ordinary

living for years too parallel to meet

except for blessed happenstance

and now

the next moment

shared

and now the next

and the next

staying alive

if not younger

Rain in the Woods

a rumble in the near beyond

everything looks better in rain

easy to believe the trees have consciousness

easy to believe almost anything

when you look up from your reverie

and the spirit of the woods appears

i think i see her in the wind

that touches off a second rain

but then i think i see the wind

(the 7th and 9th lines are derivative, but the source has been forgotten)

The Distance

the tide had glazed the long wide beach

everything swept clean and true in the slide of a dream

nothing between us but shining sand and the wine-dark sea

me where i stood and you on the sunset horizon

and the distance was constant and nothing

Of the Forest

the wind freshens for rain

the forest is tender

i am of the forest

i trust you to trust me

Tall

lying on the ground

to watch the bluets open

i grew tall

and when she called my name

i stood up

and my head was in the sky

The Godly Sense

this world deserves

a closer look

hold still dear one

let me be amazed

(click on the dandelion or tulip poplar and be so)

Spring Woods Until Dark

i praise this slow and gentle spring

with time to mark what grows in me

watching the mayapples rise

in pools across the forest floor

this slope of sighs and violets

where the clearing rain absolves me

and the stars grow out of the air

—last line by Yeats, a poet for spring if ever there was one

Prayer in the Future

great balance of the universe

show us the peopled sky

show us the encroaching sea

help us to find each other

keep our minds clear

lead us to intimacy

preserve those earthly joys

we miss so much

sweet water

trust

and human touch

Reaching

blue cohosh and solomon's seal

in the woods the rush is on

rooted green beings of the layered floor

in a desperate reach for the sun

before the tree canopy closes over them

we're reaching too

 while there's still time

we've known it since childhood

nature has the most to teach

Thunder Late

hail splashing in the woodland pool

a pop of light across the slope and thunder late

as soft as passionate admission

when you dare to speak its name

and then the rain

Sarvis

sarvis yesterday

how bright and wrong the morning seems

where are the tin sky and tearing wind

so right for yesterday's dusk

where the tossing shadowed sarvis

nodding ironically bowing to loss

Pleading with the Elements

great powers of the falling wave and wind and windy fire

encircle her and sing her into peace

—extracted from Yeats

On the Appearance of Bluets

sharpness and clarity have their place

like in microsurgery

but give us subtle tones and soft focus

more like the way we live our lives

no way to know tomorrow or explain yesterday

but we have the fiercely beautiful blur

of the present illusion

and it's enough to make us cry.

And She Is

A return to the blessings of Unhurried Spring

she spun and the milky way spun with her

 raison d'etre

she cupped her hand over the seeds and the roots of the earth

and the earth bloomed

clouds parted and the sun warmed the fields

 dandelions sprung from the ground where she walked

and leaves spread their fingers on the hill

worlds i had only guessed at

made themselves known for an instant

transparent spheres that moved with her

whorls of shifting form and shadow

the hue of tarnished gold

lives have never been more precious and she asked

do you know     do you really know

and she was gone and left a void in the air where she was

and the air was ringing

and i do

and i would

At Sunrise

i lied too

afraid the truth

would be too much

but now it's May

i'll walk the beach

promise the sea

i'll keep you safe

and next time when you ask

i'll tuck my wings like the circling seabirds

say always

plunge deep into the glittering swells

and barely make a splash

Sea Change

no subtle fugues between blue nights

the wind shifts 'round

and even from this distance

we sense the sea change bending light

it's been a long time coming i suppose

and yet it comes too fast

the beach is blasted clean

the surf shellacs the sand

the energy of passing storms

come back upon the bar

i see a second heaven there

kindred and shimmering

Life at the Edge: Test Flight

i want you to see this pathway to the ocean

built to catch and hold the moving sand and rooted grass

and see this narrow cedar-shingled house above the dunes

with narrow walks to save the fragile bar from feet

could you live like this dear one for just a week

could this be the unconditional we seek

—Swan Beach, North Carolina