THE GREAT CIRCLE
The children are piling the leaves again
ready for the next bare-limb leap
life into death and back
Category: Uncategorized
THE ALBATROSS OF THE PLAINS
Beavers’ teeth never stop growing so they chew on wood to keep them at a manageable length. If they didn’t maintain them their teeth would eventually grow into their brains.
I shot a beaver in my youth
who cursed me with this curse
My teeth
will be your poems now
remembering our gift unused
grows fatal to the brain
PUPPY LOVE
Mary had a little lab
his coat was dirt and roll
and everywhere that Mary went
he wagged his smile behind her
Hot Off The Press
HOT OFF THE PRESS
Check out the latest book
Missing Leonard Cohen
“You have done it again–placing common words on the paper and mixing them up to produce works of art and emotion. Thank you.”
– Sheila W.
UNDER THE PORCH
UNDER THE PORCH
The thing about parents is they see you
as they’d like you to be, and you ain’t
The thing about teachers and coaches
is they see you getting all those A’s
and scoring on every play, and you cain’t
The thing about dogs is
Hey, quit lickin’ on my face you fool
A STONEBOAT STORY
A STONEBOAT STORY
Rough planks across two wood-beam runners
low and tough enough to tip a heavy rock on
or haul the cleanings of the stalls in winter
Learning to stand in loose-kneed balance
full speed behind fast homing horse
across the frozen tracks and turds
on the way back to the barn
Buff off of Oahu teaching me to surf
I think “Just like this”
until the big wave comes and says “Not quite”
LEONARD COHEN AT EIGHTY
LEONARD COHEN AT EIGHTY
There is a crack in everything
that’s how the light gets in
Anthem
Growing old does not dim
the magic that you hold
for you were always old
That women want
to sleep with their fathers
Freud would not consider odd
(though nuns may call it God)
but no matter how many cracks
you or the light might see
growing old is still
not all it’s cracked up to be
so you’ve fought
depression all your life
and perhaps you always will
but for mere boys who must compete
it’s more depressing still
QU’APPELLE AND ESL
QU’APPELLE AND ESL
(Cree – Kah-tep-was “The river that calls”)
They come today
from countries far away
to learn this country’s
names for river, lake, and tree
There was a time
the natives of this land
sat in these same desks
in de-braided fear
learning to forget them
QUANTUM LUNCH
QUANTUM LUNCH
There is nothing stable in this table
And yet
the ever so quickly spinning
nothingness
that is me
is happy this particle-wave
filled morning
to rest on it with non-existent elbows
and gaze and gaze
at the improbable you
DARK SKIES 17
DARK SKIES 17
He
turns off the TV
and goes outside to count
bullet holes in the sky
Rising moon
is a lime in a Corona
New-cut hay is youth
and him lying on his back
traveling the milk paved path
He lays back on the hay