Poetry

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 […]

Were the endless reigns Of chainsaws lumbering, While bobbing along Crystal clear waters In the Trinity River, Away from home. I was warned of The pending rains And endless clouds, But could only smell Essence of conifers In the healing waters. The tastes of freedom Dwarfed my senses Need for pleasure, Where beauty determined What […]

No cat hair where you slept on the chair next to me. My milk glass – safe from your eager sips, or cereal stolen before I could sit down to eat. Or sitting on the window sill watching busy birds at the feeder, while you waited for me to scoop the last bite of breakfast […]

Were the endless reigns Of chainsaws lumbering, While bobbing along Crystal clear waters In the Trinity River, Away from home. I was warned of The pending rains And endless clouds, But could only smell Essence of conifers In the healing waters. The tastes of freedom Dwarfed my senses Need for pleasure, Where beauty determined What […]

No cat hair where you slept on the chair next to me. My milk glass – safe from your eager sips, or cereal stolen before I could sit down to eat. Or sitting on the window sill watching busy birds at the feeder, while you waited for me to scoop the last bite of breakfast […]

The place of my birth is reaching out to me like Janus, with its tentacles, sea-salty and inebriated. We remember the ocean as children: watching the water flow in and out, the glistening anemones and the sand dollars, the sea urchins, the fresh air and our mothers in their dresses. I gave the first boy […]