SO WE GATHER

Leaving endless snow
in the backyard
to play in chamber musicals
a bard will recite ballads
and play guitar
for all invited to my recital
and to toast a new year
nearby at the harbor bar
along the white flaked Bay
now scenting the sea air
from vaporous windows
with waves rippling
over silken breaking waves
until we awaken the shadows
at the first light of day
as sunshine opens our eyes
quickly covering over
a sands rocky coast
to share an evening's hypnosis
mesmerized as water slips in
to feed our porch plants
revealing a winter's irony
that we ourselves are by nature
praising a visionary solo
raising my musical fingers
over the piano
we mistaking quiet breaths
to sway the assembled guests
or those who wish to stay alone
amid silent verses
or wish to hear an alto sax
as we view parking signs
the windmill shatters
our matter of fact ways
at my flaming Blakean lips
with a human map to mirror
our swaying dance of notes
from nameless thresholds
in clarity of shadowy words
putting our hands out
and within to reach the length
of Martha Vineyard's beach
as drifting sky flakes
fall on the evening darkness
a poet watches the branches lift
at the last small white bird
heading South while hearing
an A.M radio stormy forecast
of a gusty Canadian avalanche
on a fleeting  mid -January day
welcoming you to waken
on fields of endless praise,
as an infinite warmth
wakes us out of any day dream
in my mouth's praise is sung
as a poem and melody emerge
joined as one lyrical phrase
from a universal tongue.