Incantation

Whirl up sea

emergent dripping tides

cold skinned scaled with sun

whirl me necklaced yak bone mantraed

whirl up mountains wind stripped oaks

hurl me home

cover me with pools of care

my ribboned inland sea.

—after H. D.

Darkness Over the Bar

Darkness over the bar

comes as a relief

for its beauty is too much

each fresh wave of consciousness

can tear you to pieces

now below the splendid silent sun

now below the incandescent stars

in love with too much

in the ark of the ache of it

we come to understand

satisfaction is a lowly thing,

how pure a thing is joy.

—with lines by Walt Whitman, Marianne Moore, and Denise Levertov,

and with guidance by Maureen N. McLane.

Off Continent

Off continent off season

against the open sea

where late afternoon expands

into langorous banded hours

night never comes except

there are stars in their passage.


All things rise from the sea

its shattering cleans the soul

to an eloquence of silence

you know what you feel

your truest thoughts

proved on the pulse.

Relativity

What might that draws the liquid sand

back toward the sea

yet holds the stars in place

even as the universe expands,

the same that pulls the you the me

down rivers of attraction

toward an ocean of the we

our constellation pure?

Where We Started

Hasn't enough time

passed by now?

The universe

is in your mind

where it expands

the years

are disappearing

and it is October

still again

as it must be.

—adapted from Jorie Graham's "Place."

Phased

Water tower, Duck, NC

And so we pass from beauty

to the other beauty,

peace, the night splendor.

— Robinson Jeffers

Asia Minor

Please click to expand.

In the settling veils of evening

she dances in the tents of the east

twirls in a mauve sky

celebrates the life she knew

and beckons to me

to join her in this life i know

to dance in the world of the living

in the incense of the sand and the sea.

The earth is a beautiful place.

I just wanted to say so.

Hero and Leander

U.S. Army research pier, Duck, NC

Let the sea rage, they knew their own hearts.

How else could they risk

an apocalypse of love?

Pelagic

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The ocean is heavy and fatal

the wind is a thickness against you

yet there are chasms of silence

above the stars over the thunderous sea

and a warmth beside you is everything you need.

Off Season Aesthetic

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Clouds low in the east

more on the sea than in heaven.

Water like violets.


A dream swims down in darkness.


Be glad for the summer is dead

and the sky turns over to night

good storms, few guests, glad tides.

— adapted from the work of Robinson Jeffers

The Verge

Not long before first light

over the onyx verge

the streak of a comet

a year long

a burning hope

and a benediction.

We are not wrong.

What the Sea Says

6:50 a.m., Duck, NC, 10/20/14  

First morning

against the sea

begins as a promise

in your eyes

and all the rest

that follows

whispers to your

deep worry saying

this is true

this is good

this will be.

Further Gone

Isolated by patience

on the island of the present

under the dark birds

dipping over the field

and its wreckage

apples fallen in the thorns

the swallows gone

the night trill gone

absence settles in.

It seems so obvious to say

this is where we are

but none of us

are going back.

Time Catcher

two days difference in mid-October

So fast everything

happens so fast the rain

while we sleep the wind

stay awake stay awake

over this hill one more time

one more time in the mind

before we let go

gaunt longings

less for what has passed

than for what may never be.

At Peak

Peak color, 10/15/14.

Do you think I'm afraid of crashing to earth?

Love we've been falling ever since falling

made way for a leap.

—from Maureen N. McLane's "Terran Life."

Next Layer

The earth puts down its next layer,

covers up for colder nights.


In health i look forward to the winter,

a sparer time just right for contemplation,


No hibernation here, but a migration

into the mind, a journey with my kind,

consciousness entwined.

The Now and What Will Be

west

Seen from a higher place

what's close-at-hand

has been a long time coming.

south

Death By Snapshot

I walk the woods at night

having had my fill of color

so many blooming enhancements

so many million sliders slid

so many vivid scenes not seen

in nature's world where men live wan

and languid lives listening for rain

promised by last evening's train

echoing down the posterized valley.

Downhill

Upshifting for speed through the leaffall.

Flying in the company of monarchs.

A short lyric about passion.

Another sonnet to life in the provinces.

I know this is difficult to follow.

Just give it up and keep pedaling.

Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?

We could ride forever.

—Italics from Shakespeare's "As You Like It"

One October Morning

These gilded days

magnify when shared

like light through water

a soul so strong

and so alike

it penetrates the mist

blooms like morphine

in the chest

warms the heart

and blows it open.

Standing on the porch as coffee brews

looking out across the fulvous aromatic field

a joy in you like color through the lifting fog

strengthens and your life is changed.

He Waited

He waited all day for the sun to appear

then late in the afternoon like a good prince

it showed itself for a few minutes

igniting the maple beside the unpainted barn

before the clouds closed up again

and all evening he thought he felt

the presence of one long absent

there beside him on the path

where the goldenrod gone hoary

leans and he heard the wind

shaking the withering corn and closer

the creak of trees and the sigh of boughs

and as crimson drained from the sliding sky

he zipped up his coat and warmed his hands

in his pockets and he waited for the moon.

–an adaption of Raymond Carver's "Vigil"

A click will please.

Week of Spells

 



















Breathing deeply the day's incense

changing by the hour

each moment underestimated.


This is the week of mountain spells

outside even in the rain

ready for the granting of wishes.

Unprecedented

Erstwhile sugar camp. Expand with a click.

Is this real to you

this tumbling color suspended

in the emotional air

this anticipation of brilliance

this brimming tenderness?


How fragile this light.

How volatile this unexpected joy.

Finally There Is Only Soaring

Imagine yourself high on a cliff

overlooking the sea

drawn forward by intellect

and by desire

until you unfurl like a ribbon

into the fiery sky.

Give us intersection.

Give us ignition.

Skywalkers Redux

There is no beauty in the sky

but in the eye that sees it

health, high spirit, serenity

these the great landscape painters.

Let us engage our bodies and our hearts

 strong while beauty lasts

'ere we rock beside the fire

dreaming of the sky as it once was.

-with words by Henry David Thoreau, October 3, 1859

In the Shadow of the Earth

In the shadow of the earth

this place i've made

comforts in the common night

and the breathing that i hear

beside me in the dark

becomes my own.

To Stay

Blackbirds cross the setting sun.

A cold wind shakes the corn.

Her hand is warm in mine.

Pause

My wool thick enough

the cold of heaped stones

never reached my back.

The woods never fails me.

More sky in the crowns by the hour.

Clouds poured into the east.

Birds poured into the south

shoulders gold with the west.

The moon rose into the wind.

I stayed with the trees

until night moved about me.

Sunset moonlight

our song continues.

First Snow

Snow stung my face

and i was pleased

outside in the elements

that carry on despite me

one first snow closer to my last.

Write it with your finger

on the glass

i love this life

i live this love.

Graupel gathered on nasturtium leaves, but no accumulation in the woods.

After the Rain

I stop to watch the mist

rise from the valley in plumes.

No other elsewhere.

Locus

Over my feet

under my skull

i float between heaven and earth.

— the pictures are worth a click.

October Woods

Expand by clicking, and especially by being there.

Why wait?

Go to the woods full hearts

stronger than you had imagined

weaker than you show

it doesn't last for long

nothing lasts for long

go to the woods

go in the morning when

color burns through mist

go in the evening when 

chipmunks cluck in the stonerow

and sunlight leans against the crowns

the leaves are falling

see how they spiral and sail

when the noise ends beyond the hill

under the cover of crows

go to the woods

watch the leaves letting go

how lovely the course of their fall

oh, to let go.

Embrace

Briar with the afternoon behind it

hooks my flesh and holds me here

bids me take a closer look

blood brilliant on my arm

praising shorter days and change

welcoming what comes.