Poetry

On the plane,  Next to me; Her book is Arabic, while The big fellow in front; Tattoos all over, hugs his daughter, Whispering thoughts, To her demurred, shy smile lighting  The seats where we sit next To an old man from China going To see his son after some twenty years: Typing Chinese characters into […]

when you find yourself under a fleet of gulls your wonder is as far as your wonder can justly take you. you just can’t reach out and take this gull, winter plumed and tilted. you cannot know this gull by force. gedanken says the old teacher who suffered no god-shaped hole. if you can you […]

They wait silently in the trees and bushes For the seeds I throw Every morning on the wooden deck The juncos a variety of sparrows One with a missing tail who, when they all descend, makes his way among the others like a little roly poly A spotted towhee colorfully outfitted in flaming orange, black, […]

Dancing in puddles Digging in mud The things that all toddlers Do with great love. And we have a toddler All covered in fur Who dances And prances And burrows in mud. He runs for the house And sneaks in the door Tossing and smearing His mud on the floor. We give chase with a […]

Not bothering with resolutions, I celebrate the New Year by hiking. I start with the hills in the park nearby, legs burning from doing nothing all fall, all year. Days later I hike out to Headwaters, find myself soaked in sweat and struggling to catch my breath trudging up the two-mile hill above three-mile bridge. […]

Atlanta born there was a man who in his youth had known the wrongs of racial hate–and thus began the quest where living love belongs. Of brotherhood he dared to dream: so, peaceful action was the way. Amid sin’s torrent truth would stream: by words and courage, hearts he’d sway. With truth in triumph, Glory […]

Days grow shorter shadows lengthen naked branches of my favorite oak trees skeletons of former glory snake across the sky. last leaves hold on, holding out last rays of dying light paint the sky like the inside of a seashell         –coral, peach, magenta, violet sculptural beauty of distant trees silhouettes against […]

I thought October would take the edge off. After all, there’s no way this fickle light and a few chance rains Could turn my head any further. . Now the garden is all dead, The light, All left to morning now, Just like yesterday, And then again. Please give me this solace, Wanted and waited […]

For my father A scarlet oak blazing in autumn above the woolen hats we rebirthed from a box marked ‘winter’ Chlorophyll ceding to carotenoid ending, as if to begin. In summer’s innocence I swam under the oaks and madrones fingertips gently paddling downstream among compatriot green leaves set free upriver, broken off after July rain. […]

Driving home In the pouring rain From coastal flatlands Trees just now Turning color. Maples glowing An unexpected splash of color In the dark redwoods. Here the river shows little sign Of swelling, while up river It is full and muddy, Tumbling down, soon to swell The reaches below. Onward we go Up mountain The […]

I barely remember seeing the night, Like an old, dry Autumn Not going away. Help me turn this knob, Sliding back, To the waiting moon, Eating at sunset’s table. Let us turn this season, Facing the wind: Fading,  Faltering, Disappeared. Now come help us mend this place, Spilling our anxious tears as one, To gently […]