HAWAIAN SHIRTS
They can hide
sizeable investments
in self-indulgences—
over years—over
a lifetime.
Silk floral prints
at any price
men can wear anywhere—
but only fit
as not obvious
on the Islands
separated
from the rest of the world.
What matters afloat
swirls in the air
around them—sustenance
from the elements—
all the ghosts and gods
forever trapped,
leak-out of the greenery
begging to dance
again with fire.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2012
At two a.m., all the undone bubbles to the surface
from heavy sleep, from unfinished fiction folded
and put away on the closet’s top shelf for future
polishing—at two a.m. my perfect world rubs-up
against all the sharp-edged details of nonfiction.
I’ll be fixing fence by mid-morning, huff up the hill
with posts and barbwire, twice for tools and driver,
hoping a third for more will be unnecessary—but
it’s not the work that wakes us from our dreams,
that nags like a fly for the warmth of our noses
before winter, before gathering, branding
and all the old neighbors bringing what’s left
in their boxes of energy, grinning once again.
We’ll miss a few, we always do, and get them later—
we’re used to that. It’s the real stuff that gets away
that makes good stories. But what bubbles up
to interrupt dreams are the natures you can’t
change, and haven’t learned to live with—yet
must—no matter how many working dreams
you manage to put to paper before dawn.
Posted in Poems 2012
Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis)
Kilauea Point
Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis)
Kilauea Point
We were lucky enough, while on Kauai, to see some albatross nesting. Fairly tame and docile birds, the females mate for life, some attaining 60 years. Subject to widespread hunting in the early 1900s for their feathers, the population of the Layson Albatross is rebounding. The juvenile albatross does not return to the colony for three years, spending that time at sea or in the air, and does not mate until six or seven years old.
Posted in Photographs
What a difference a week plus an inch and a half rain make, low temperatures in the mid-forties, high 70° yesterday—truly a miracle: rain, seed and green.
1st-calf heifers and Wagyu X calves
Posted in Photographs
Sunup at SFO
Among the cobbles of a novel
waiting for the plane sent-on
without us, last night, vouchers
dangling at the end of a chain
reaction of late take-offs—midnight
dinner delivered to a Comfort Inn
for roaches, instead of falling
dead into our own beds
after the quarter-mile jog
to a shuttle and another terminal—
bushy-tailed guard at the gate,
arms folded like a Samoan
before our parked aircraft.
A novel about efficiency
and how we got here—
how we’ve become helpless
as cattle in a corral to make
work-enough for everyone.
Jessica & Jaro
Robbin & I have been in Kauai, a tropical paradise, this past week for my daughter Jessica’s wedding. I’ll attempt to post some more photos in the coming days. While we were gone, our country was blessed with an 1.5″ of rain. We were welcomed home to puddles and hillsides greening. A great start to another season.
Jess & Jaro – 11/29/12 – Taro Patch, Anatola, Kauai
Like old shoes, life seems
to fit my feet, make me
calloused, gradually.
Posted in Poems 2012
Dogs bark in the dark.
I scratch on white sheets
‘til the sun comes round again.
Posted in Poems 2012
Bulls out, bellows own
the canyon. Breathe and relax,
the cycle complete.
Posted in Poems 2012
Top bales of alfalfa,
a long way down the stack
dance with gravity.
Posted in Poems 2012
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