GRIEF POEM

My mother
is gone

like beautiful swan
she loved me

in her way
but the winds

sway in my belief
for her life.

YARN

Erasmus told a yarn
behind his barn

about his colt
in the mud

that the stud
was hurt

in the dirt
was taken to the hospice

during Christmas
but was rescued by Jesus.

WE SINK

We sink
into Sixties movies

from Italy
because we want to think

of something beyond
beach red

into phantasms sanguinity
of life's reality instead.

ESCORTING

Escorting the violets

to plant in the ground

no one but a bird

on an Elm branch

is heard with regrets

to make a sound

as a poet on the sunny wind

will reveal his secret word.

FROZEN IN TIME

Frozen in time
of resolution

percolating as green tea
you asked for a solution

in a steaming hour
of questioning

the power
of poetry's chimes.

UNDER A WINDOW

Under a window

of faltering spiders

wondering why you

yourself feel as an outsider

in a polarization

of shadows

of astonished wishes

of meditation.

WANTING

Wanting a safe space
in a field of butterflies

you asked for love
waking up to be wise

masked by secrets
of transparent regrets

hidden by a shield
of purple violets.

SHADOWS

Shadows in a plethora
of motioning sorrows

in a honeymoon
bounded by waves

of a subterranean
ocean floor

looking toward
snorkeling tomorrow.

SOMEONE IS LISTENING

Someone is listening
that the winds are crying

near the home harbor
in the lull of an echo

with a sadness
by the sands

of pure light
by wandering eyes

poised to swim
in the teary sea.

THE WIND

The wind
carries me off

as I warmed
on the lawn

by the trees
at the morning air

near the river
by the Evergreen.

PERHAPS

Perhaps beyond
the wall of lilies

around the river
clearing the Neva

our hearts would collapse
from the church times

in prayer
of chimes

as Pasternak
and his sister

spoke for the last
hour of Vespers

to remember
this Easter hour

THE JERUSALEM WIND

The Jerusalem wind
from the air of breath

when Jesus
as a rose of Sharon

in his depth
of death is alive

in memory
of his reality

will survive the garden
as the sinned seek pardon.

THE DAYS

The days
which pass over

and cover us
for Easter

under the canopy
of brutal intensity

the Resurrection
when every sound

is a poem
of immensity.

PABLO NERUDA

With his poems
of justice

in his valise
hiding from the authorities

and the military
police

who wish to take away
his contrary soul

he in his verse of wonder
are at peace who sings.

EVOCATION

Evocation
and equivocation

on this dawn
following a deer

in the forest
of the Northwest

watching for hunters
but hoping for rest.

AT THE WINDOW

At the window

close to the hills

hearing the bellicose

wind along the roof tops

the rain laughs

at the branches

the sun singes

the lightening of the Oaks

which shiver

in the breeze.

THE QUARTO

I walked into the light
of the church

in my most tender
flight and search

feeling I had been
forsaken in the lurch

it was so bright
in its revealing.

WHEN

When there are

war clouds in the air

pray for peace 

do not despair

be aware of life

not of strife

your mind's thoughts
are beyond compare.

PLYMOUTH

Amid the rocks
and sand on the beach

the trees reached out
after the storm hid me

in the Mayflower
breeze

glowing in the
sun shower.

ROCKPORT

This time against
the water and ibis

from Pigeon Cove
to the harbor of waters

flowing out of the mouth
of breezes blowing off the shore

paths of knowing the intense
love of nature.

HELEN FRANKENTHALER

At the paintings
Jacob's Ladder

the Mountains
and the Sea

the surging ocean
in the rudders tides

you navigate
your oils

in painted spirals
from whirlpools of motion.

NEWS

Access
to the process

of deciphering news
with banner headlines

behind unmasking
deadlines

asking for a manner
of what you choose

to believe the press
by asking questions

demanding answers
the public will still

in private lose in views
to testify with intelligence

as they spy to impress
and we the public

confess to a  chance crisis
of surveillance only to guess.

LOCKED IN CABIN FEVER
 (JOHN CLARE)

Locked in cabin fever
becoming a believer

first in sorrow and sadness
then in tomorrow's madness

then in despair
was I upon my bed

John Clare
lived in dread.

SIMONE WEIL

I feel your
long suffering

in a pure soul
that sought for justice

as a fearless cloud
being assured

another will take
your hand.

JACQUES REVIERE

A  prisoner
of war fare

on a fearless road
a scholar life cannot scold

only words of wisdom
in freedom's mold

in a careless
life cannot be controlled

only looking
to be consoled.

JEAN GIRARDOUX


Self doubt
leads to distraction

you take each day
in satisfaction

that your voice
is as the eternal green

abstracted in wisdom
by freedom's mean.

ALAIN- FOURNIER

Age like modernity hours
pass away in surprise

in April
the flowers retain

some luminosity
in the city

as the wings of birds
on the weather vane.

PEGUY IN PARIS

The yearly calendar

distills in April

Charles Peguy

has promised to be faithful

to words in the home light

of a pacifist and partisan

cannot efface or hide

his continuing wisdom's guide.

YEVTUSHENKO PASSES

Remembering you
in the snow of snows

free of the whip
of censorship and tyranny

Ghosts still haunt
the ship of stars, Yevgeny

thinking because of you
and the agony of Babi Yar.

ANDRE BRETON

If you must move
to the moon for light

watching vibrating
stars atop the weather vane

think of those
who spill our grain

who fill their baskets again
for your omelet without regret.

ANOTHER INTERVAL

Another interval
of music draws me out

another color by the river
informs the crocus flower

another eye shadow
hesitates each hour

to the  crow fields
on April Fool's day

yet delivers snow
yielding to us

 in this powerful
 display.

ESTUARY

Estuary for shore birds
as a spring sanctuary

like a cave from the wind
in a shadow of a sunlit nest

is the silence
of a resting place

to save the singing flights
from a journey

in a migratory
of sandpiper wings.