OUT OF THE NEST
(for Carolyn going away to college)
You have the soul of a bird
It’s so joyful, light and fair
and now it’s flying to a world
that the frightened people share
And I pray you safe
when they see you there
Drawing water from mirages
For the flowers
round your castles in the air
LUCK
There are days
when rabbits run
to rub their feet on me
And days
when the word goes out
among black cats
that it would not be wise
to cross my path
SACRIFICE
The Kubla Khan’s from minds
broken loose by
and all too soon broken by drugs.
The alcohol that so many have found as
the key to their heaven and their hell.
And all the wounds of daily battles with
truths wrestled to a fall
Makes me wonder if writers
like mothers
and forests
sometimes lay down their bodies
that their children
may grow
MOLTING
A
snake
is most
vulnerable
when it molts
and it molts when it grows
THE JESTER
(for Thom The World Poet)
Only the jester dares
to tell the truth to the king
to hold the blade as a mirror
and thrust to the heart of the thing
And yet he has learned to retreat
as fast as a smile might fade
sit with his back to the stone
and polish the blade
GARBO PASSES
She didn’t really want to be alone
she just didn’t want to be
with most of the people who wanted
to be with her
She
just didn’t have
anything more to give
to those who only wanted to take
She didn’t really want to be alone
The last thing she really wanted was
to be alone
OH TO NERUDA
Oh Pablo you rise up
from a land, long as a woman’s back
And you have loved your land
as you would love a woman
as you have loved women as you loved
your land
Every rock and shoal of their coastlines
every mood of their tides
You have caressed them
with your mind and your heart
and your hands
And have received the treasures
that must
always rise up
from their endless depths
to meet such a touch
CATCHING UP
Deep silences, deep forests,
and deep friends
help me to stop and to see
That while I sometimes pursue my bliss
it is always pursuing me
EAGLE ON THE MOON
When the Eagle lands on the moon
the Indian will come back
into his power
When the mother is in pain
the children who never forgot
will remind
They will have the medicine
to heal her wounds
They will sit with her while
strength returns
And the children who forgot
will remember
and bring flowers
SEEDS
(or Austin International Poetry Festival)
Birds seed lakes
flying with fish roe
between each muddy toe
Spiking
each pond with pike
and smaller fish that pike like
The poets from England were here last year
including Jay, and bearded imp John Row
carrying seeds between each muddy toe