INDIAN RIVER, ONTARIO 2004
Above waterfall
In circle of highest pine
green showers down
By the waterfall
body rests in hammock
cells rush to the sea
Below waterfall
power beyond soap and rub
washes off city
Lying by the bank
trees holding blue hammock
lift it to the sky
Indian River
Great Blue Heron stands
wise Tibetan monk
TEMPLE MOUNT
Seven Christian sects
can fight for a hundred years
on who has the right to wash a window
Seeming so in love with the questions
that any answer is the death of the beloved
JERUSALEM STONE
Church, house, grave, wall
no give at all
JERUSALEM
Three days now on the Mount of Olives
watching the old city postcard change
from two to three dimensions
IN PREPARATION FOR ISRAEL
In preparation for Israel
I have the poems of Yehuda Amichai
If I read them I may need fewer maps
If I read them well I may need no maps
If I read them very well I may not need to go
THE MOST LOVELY HELEN
Poets are not saints
but by the grace of God and nature
and the law of magnets that attract them
If you believe in heaven she will go
If you believe that we come back
next time she may be the poet
blessed with one like her
Beloved wife of master poet Herman Nelson who in his words “took one last gulp of time and sank into eternity” in 2003
LANTANA MANNA
(for Patricia Fiske at 77)
Trees and poets
grow from the inside out
The latest lines and rings
always
the greenest and most beautiful
THE QUILT
(for Meri Walker)
You make it using
materials from all your old garments
Clothes that you have worn
for weddings, vacations, births and deaths
all the best days of your life and all the worst
When you give the gift, your friend says
“Thank you, this is perfect
it is sometimes very cold
where I am living at present
and this will get me through the winter”
[/audio04
THAT SAME OLD GARDEN
A lover sheds the skin of loving her
Bullsnake of fear blunt at both ends
poisoning without venom
as it crawls away
The snake of herself biting herself
as she watches
BUDS
At the age of three or four
her bike hit a sharp ditch
pitched her into a fence
and broke her jaw
The tooth buds were damaged
and never grew in right
At about the same age
something else happened
She can’t remember just what
the family wouldn’t listen then
and the family won’t talk now
But the trust buds were damaged
and never grew in right