How lonely it will be When all the birds are gone. No more wings Leaning on the wind. Trees and ponds Riddled with silence. No sweet notes To lift our hearts. No honking Vs of geese. No darkening voice From forest deeps. How lonely it will be Beneath an empty sky.
Robin Hodson
Posted inArts + Scene
For Yupik Elders Irene and Vernon Evan
I love hands that are strong That grip the world With firm presence Hands That know the feel of tools With smooth strokes Do common work And make it come alive Blistered, coarse, rough hands Grimy, greasy, creased hands That wash up clean With soap and water And the knowledge Of something done well I […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Rain
Rain for a day and a half steady like the patter of tiny feet the river Trinity a muddy rush to the Klamath dreaming itself the Mississippi salmon cheer
Posted inArts + Scene
So Forgiveness can Kiss Nietzsche
He polishes his face of glass Gleaming bright In every false light Reflecting all he wants to see Except his mouth Is an open grave And eyes line his coat Like double-breasted buttons. A faithless kiss Damp and cold Lips apart For all to see Hanged itself From a straggled tree. Each of us Chooses […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Wicked Mirror!
Speaking truth to vanity We tuck gray hairs Beneath false colors And smooth the creases Of suffering and joy. Wicked mirror! We duck your steady eye Turn sideways This way and that Trinkets of disease We do so love to lie. The mirror of another’s eye Turns politely away Agreeing to pretend with us That […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Plainsong
Words that chant from the dust of the past tickle today’s heart like trout whispering to the water with veined and subtle fins. A single person, a single voice, gives a plaintive curl of smoke. Many voices run like fire through the soul. Words are clear and solitary in plainsong. There is no melody to […]