From a Dream

A few brief summers,

Then the damsel fly will dine

Watched through another's lens,

If the pond still fills with rain,

And if the other takes the time

To watch, knows what we think we know,

Sensation pouring through cupped hands.

-

Nightfall

Stand quietly

In the shadow of the earth.

Roll back

Into the infinite night.

Stand in the shadow,

Roll with the night.

The stars are meant

For sailing.

-

Architect

Sunset rainbow, Upper Turkeyfoot

PNC Park, Pittsburgh

Incapable of process

Untied to the earth,

The best we can hope for

Is imitation. 

Honor then,

Fellow latecomer,

What exists despite us,

And never forget

The marks we leave

Will all be scars.

-

Half Light

White petals incandescent

in the long blue dusk.

I would sleep in clover

were it not for the mosquito's

high performance whine.

-

Phototropic

Rudbeckia hirta

Life comes

into the world

covered in down,

too soon brittle

and falling.

Let us bask

while we can.





-

Humility

This realm

surprises

when we stoop

low enough

to be found.





-

Lost Language

Trifolium pratense, Chrysanthemum leveanthemum

Crowding,

crowded life,

long days

too short

for longing,

for sailing in

a spirit wind, 

contemplation

a language

we are losing.

-

Pulse of Night

Fireflies in the damp calm

rise and fall over the field,

and we think of the swells of the sea

effervescent in moonlight,

the wash of the surf replaced

by the notes of hylas, and we

are content to sit silently

in the dark, summering.

-

Rainstones

Barn stones, sea stones

painted by rain

stacked monument

 to muscle and bone

to line and form

to the human aesthetic

and to the permanence

we so desperately lack.





-

Pantheist

A deed in the courthouse

says this is my land,

but I feel no dominion,

only stewardship,

legal authority

to guard for a few years

these few acres of complexity

beyond our understanding,

preventing interference,

and to merely stand aside,

awestruck.





-

Balance

Petals fallen, the fruit

has little left to do

but grow and ripen,

a proper use of summer,

tempted in July

to pluck sweet syrup

gleaming to our mouths,

ravenous and thrilled

to understand the root

could kill us if we dared.

-

Accept

Accept what is given,

That which we only defile

By ripping it open

For something to sell.

What would you give

For my heart?

-