Poetry

When nothing becomes me And the mystery is done, Hummingbirds will continue To feed on the endless florets Dangling in that wistful tree Where I would sit for hours Alone, in my garden. Kirk Gothier

Autumn is flying in On the wings of banded pigeons Gathering as they do As the days grow shorter. It’s ripening With apples, pears, and blackberries Fragrant in the late summer heat. It sings out With insects in the warmth Of night chasing the Golden glow of a Harvest sunset Below the horizon. Autumn is […]

summer excuses itself & steps out onto the porch for one last look at the falling sun before taking up with the fog muttering something indecipherable about the allure of mysterious women summer’s child begins to suspect this may have been her last season of running in shorts through tall grass wanting nothing more than […]

Yellow leaves litter our camp in under the pepperwoods. Dust rests atop the meadow’s tinder-dry grasses. Fine silt rises with each flip-flop-clad footstep down to the river. Dwindling flow lengthens cobblestone’s mossy beards. By late afternoon, sunlight is half-hearted. Wind moves upriver. Kids, playing in the deep pool, quiet. Preschoolers shiver, towels wrapped around shoulders. […]

There’s a big Black fly in my house. It passes behind me, In front of me, Beside me, careening wildly, Never seeming to settle Where I could get a good shot at it. It annoys me, Perplexes me, Would seem to be taunting me If there was room in that microscopic brain For such intent. […]

As the Sun rises Blindly touching what matters, My heart is soaring. Kirk Gothier

This life  This year    This month     This week      This day Someone has stirred up The rhythms of our worldy existence And left it swirling     Twirlin      Unfurling Into directions we couldn’t foresee Unpredictable little things Predictable big things Unschedule-able little parts of everyday    Each one tripping     Up the next […]

A salty mist falls upon my face As I walk beside the sea My mind set loose to wander While the waves churn endlessly. The dogs make circles in the sand Running to and fro, they find A feather, a stone, a crab’s empty shell Once part of the ocean, now lie. A fishing boat […]

The language I teach you won’t obliterate wordless thought but leave space for silence and sensation. It counts, categorizes, but also wonders at wild, uncountable, unnamable things. We’ll send each other messages ripe with meaning, gradually growing a shared comprehension, and all talk stops when we encounter the incomprehensible. Let’s not fill in the blanks; […]

The daily bread,  Given on this day, Cast in poppies And blooming blackberry corners, Everything sprawled and covered. Just over the hill,  Nights feed on themselves: Fickle contests of fading light And crickets. Here, the din of thrush, Trickles of water, And a last, hushing turn of leaves On a vanishing breeze, Where doors open […]

Where’ve ya been Frank? Your tales no longer seen. The loyal neighbor, the unknown friends, the laughter at the store. There’s none of that now. Noses, to phones. Blind, leading blind. There’s no talking in line. Missing you, Frank. I see with new eyes. To some it was exactly that, a paradise in disguise. Can […]