Categories
Poetry

Villanelle: I Am Greater Than This Darkness

Categories
Poetry

A Poet’s Resolution

Of means, none silent as the candle

greetings, none soft as dawn

causes, none grand as the moth

to weave moonlight each night.

Of words, make mine such steel

that I too would render

wonder from darkness.

Categories
Poetry

Daydream: A Poem

I live in an era of stars
Long after their birth
Long before
The last dim red dwarf disappears

My home is a river of light
Bright pin-pricks
And pinwheels
Familiar figures of my night.

Even as I sleep I weave
Color-stained dreams
From threads of daylight.

But I am easily fooled.
The truth is I live in an era of darkness.

The truth is one moment
Of starlight in an infinite
And expanding black pool
And the blessing is this I forget
Categories
Poetry

The Pursuit of Happiness

Happiness is not yours.
A guest in our home,
It arrives warm, bright, generous,
Leaves quietly before its time.
Happiness is not mine.
It lives untamed
In wilderness between our hands
But not in our hands.
A tide between our shores,
Happiness is not yours
To keep, not mine to give.
But it may be shared
As you swim beside me,
The wake trailing your body
Gently joining mine.

Categories
Poetry

The Gift

What comes each dawn                                      
I do not know

Dawn knows no reason                              
Keeps its own season

Buds at budding time                                
Ripens at harvest time

Dies in its prime                                        
Leaves one fresh gift

To confound the clever painter            
Blending at their palette.

Categories
Poetry

Peace Keeping

Peace Keeping   

My garden has been my refuge,
but I’ve been away too long.

One evening I found my garden
shot through in crimson, gold, and wildfire.

As the sun pressed lower
I drew water for the birds.

Kneeling under red clumps of currants
I plucked greedy weeds and scattered

fists of mulch over sleeping roots.
Now in shadow I chopped tangled

thorns and nettle, avoiding their fire.
I took up my spade and opened a trench

to guard the perimeter from crabgrass.
Come nightfall I set down my tools,

and in the cool darkness
I lay silent and still
beneath the moon’s soft blanket.


Categories
Poetry

Categories
Poetry

Epistle: November Poem

Categories
Poetry

October: When to Worry

A poem for October, for always.

Categories
Poetry

The Old Man – a poem

The old man paused on the bridge
a favorite stop
upstream of the lazy oxbow

where a boy once watched
the milky gold
afternoon light

spill through the alders
into empty space
over still water

its silent weight
filled the air

suspending dragonflies
as they patrolled the cattails

urgently

as if they knew
the lateness of the hour.