REKINDLED
Babies
bright smiles
that warmed and seared your heart
Long banked
in photo album embers
One
grandchild’s grin
and you’re ablaze again
REKINDLED
Babies
bright smiles
that warmed and seared your heart
Long banked
in photo album embers
One
grandchild’s grin
and you’re ablaze again
MOTHER’S POEM
The kitchen has always been the center
of the universe of any farm or ranch
She feeds their sleepy forms in morning
clothes them for the cold or warm
and prays them safe from harm
Looks out her window to the East
where barn shadows and rolling hills
greet them as they start their day
Men in firm direction to their work
children scattering to play
Then South across the lake to catch
the water’s mood foretelling wind or calm
Sometimes
sees in morning
mirages of cutbanks rising
like mountains along the Eastern shore
Or more directly to the South
forms of her old neighbour’s homes
rising and shimmering
like memories of her youth
Seasons spiral out and in from this center
crocus and buttercups in the greening grass
cactus flowers and the joy of newborn calves
The growing season of the grain
and golden glory of a well stooked field
The shortening of days into winter
and the ever present stars
joined by the dance
of Northern
lights
Within each season she has watched
the play of seasons of each day
men return from roundup
children from their play
While she waits always at the center
to warm and love and feed
and safely tuck away
MOM – HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Oh we would circle
rattling tin wheeled trucks and trikes
and drive her crying to her bed
Gather soot enough from here and there
to keep her forever scrubbing
at our souls and skins
And worry her near to death
while she stayed up to worry us alive
from many a snow and beer filled drive
I know she does it to this day
and I’m afraid anything else I’d say
would all be mush and love
and angels watching from above
and yet still, I think I will
A DEBBIE MOMENT
I was noticing again the other day
watching a movie, strangely enough
called “Remains of the Day”
that even though you died
you haven’t gone away
In the movie
a bird gets trapped in the house
and tries to fly
through the high ceiling glass
Remember the time in the office in Austin
when the sparrow was trying in panic to
escape in this way
You spoke to it in your stardust voice
and it landed in trust in your hand
I remember the windows you flew against
and your trust so light in my hands
And it’s a comfort to see
you and the sparrow
both flying free
THOUGHTS
ON
A DEBBIE MOMENT
Debbie, a great friend of mine, died too young
and in too much pain in Houston about five
years ago now
This moment just sneaked up on me
earlier this year
Can’t help wondering how many people
are having Debbie moments now in New
York and around the world from what
happened just six weeks ago
How many people in the world in the last
five years having Debbie moments from
a hole blown in their sky
MAGDALENE
Mary Magdalene lay down
with the sons of men
And knew them as sons of God
There was no sin in Magdalene
for she saw no sin in them
Dearest of all to the carpenter’s son
was the one who could see him most clear
For there was no sin in Magdalene
and she saw no sin in him
0
HANGING TEN WITH DEBBIE
When she was alive
she was just so damn alive
It makes her being dead
just so damn much more dead
We were together
the day the Challenger exploded
and the day the Gulf War started
Violence all around but we never fought
We just laughed and played
and howled at the moon
And surfed ten years
on that sweet sexual edge of almost
then she died
If either of us
had leaned ten degrees closer
we might have caught the perfect curl
and saved the world
Three degrees and we might have been
two reef torn bodies on the sand
but I block out scenes like that
I just see her innocent wave goodbye
I just watch the uncaught waves roll by
FROST BITE
On the prairies they know
that you have to use snow
In January on the Wood River
the laces got wet and then stiff
and could not be untied
Walked the whimpering long mile home
in one frozen skate and one warm boot
part of my foot and all my toes
numb and milky white
On the prairies they know
that you have to use snow
Too much warmth all at once
can bring the feeling rushing back
with more pain than you can stand
I have since learned
and this is the sad part
It is the same way with the heart
A BOAT CALLED TRUTH
We have known and loved each other
deeply all these years
Each one or both always honouring some
relationship with someone else
So we never quite say it
and we never quite do it
One sunny day in Santa Barbara harbour
we see the name “TRUTH” on a pretty boat
We take each other’s pictures by the stern
but we never get on the boat
LULLABY TO POLARITY
The more the more you are woman
the more I am man
The more you rest soft in my arms
the stronger they become
The more the more I am man
the more you are woman
The more the strength
in the shape of the spoon
The more the more even in sleep
you curl up and melt
into sugar and good medicine