Diurnal

Each day i walk the woods

Surprised anew

By all within my reach

*

What the poet wrote is true

Nature has the most to teach

—quoting Jane Kenyon.

Homeland

Please click to expand.

Sugars leaf

and the woods fills in,

oaks in the gray

as Maypoles bloom wax,

walking the path

through fading violets,

the dog full of rabbit

and the canopy closing,

beasts in the wild ungoverned

solitary, calm, and saved.

Agenda

Narcissus

Nowhere to go,

So much to see.

Pennsylvania Night

It was as though

you buried the sun

in the Pennsylvania night

in the velvet dark

wet with tears

never to see

the night's sun.

Sanctum

Please expand with a click.

At the back of the field

at the edge of the woods

where shadow begins

white violets bloom

facing each other

sky touches the ground

and nothing else matters.

Outside Season

An akene takes flight.

The day is slowing, the rain easing,

the wind becomes a breeze,

and when it clears

it will be outside season,

the population will appear

dressed in gear

delivered to their doors,

joining those of us whose clothes

were never washed with stones,

good canvas weathered naturally

on we who never went inside.

Lilac Sleigh

Coming down from the hill between rains,

the sky leaning out and over,

time slowing down as summer approaches

in a lilac sleigh drawn by swallows and bees

filling the yard with its scent, and you think

maybe that was the best you could do.

—with an image conflated from Mandelstam.

Ridgetop

Sensation of depth

A hollow in the chest

Like the send in the night,

The creek in the valley

Loud with rain

Like the text of her death.