NOMAD POET

Refusing to compromise
in the whole universe
you thrive as an exile
in every season
wrapped from your striving
in nature's reason
to make us alive
swaying by a wounded oak
or elm of accumulated snow
amid a liquid silence
when only the birds spoke
on tree branches
of photographed shadows
as we survive in exile
from the storms
enduring by a winter sun
and January thaw
in a soon warm spring
from a hinterland memory
with our riffs of jazz
working with a saw
with wood in our carpentry
or race car driving
out of our neighborhood
facing every day at risk
yet writing fiction or poetry
as a nomad at our library desk
or painting a stone pillar
in memory of an obelisk
or make a recording
with some highlights
of your year before
from your a diary on a disc.