Category Archives: Poems 2014

Echinopsis 2

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Bud and bloom, flower
for a day, then sigh—
a man needs many cacti.

 

 

RIDING FOR REMNANTS

Gods and goddesses tempt us,
pull mind and flesh to choose
between commercials

hawking sloth and greed,
or the new and improved
comforts that never last

as long as we do. Raining
cold in my face, she suggests
the woodstove waits

for coffee and company, that
old men can catch their deaths
looking up canyons for silhouettes

of cows and calves that grazed
early morning’s ridgeline.
Her running mate reminds

that I won’t rest easily by the fire
not knowing—and vows to come along
to make the wet ride fun.

Echinopsis

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Cactus night bloom braves
the sun, but only one day—
for mothers in May.

 

 

NIGHT RAIN

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Above the mountains, one
last brew rises to hold the day,
make night rain.

 

 

PHOTOGRAPH

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A pair in the shade
take a break—quail
on the rail of the gate—

we stop to inhale
with each prolonged
tick of time, knowing

it won’t last long enough
to photograph—to leave
for the house and good lens

to freeze gray detail
to store somewhere.
Instead, we stare

at a mirror
in our garden
we won’t forget.

WPC – Gerbera (Spring 2)

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Surprise me with color
that prolongs spring,
just add water to the wild.

 

 

Gerbera

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

 

WPC – Bees & Buckeye Blossoms (Spring 1)

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Measure the days of spring
in Buckeye blossoms
and the buzzing of bees.

 

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge

Glimpses

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On the dark side,
colorful glimpses of spring
that we just can’t believe.

 

 

LATE APRIL THUNDERSTORM

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The earth like a clean sheet waits
for dawn through cold, gray cumulous
stacked atop hillsides of bare, dark clay

after a thunderstorm’s harsh scouring—
each thin blade stimulated, invigorated
to meet tomorrow with alacrity,

reckless grins upon every face
and we, foolishly, have no choice
but to imitate the mob’s delight

and forget the dry for a moment
to consider the range of this miracle—
of our goddess-come-home-late

and gone-so-long we have forgotten
what she looks like—what we
have taken for granted, and why.

LET THEM TALK

 

                    How comes it that he wrote a book
                    of five thousand words?

                               translated by Arthur Waley (“Po Chü-I on Lao-tzü”)

“Let them talk,” old Tom Davis said,
“to see what they don’t know.”
has worked well-enough for me—

yet I write incessantly: lay bare
my innocence and ignorance
on recyclable paper no cowmen

dare read. Out here, the approach
to good or bad speaks for itself,
and is remembered—but in between,

the indomitable art on the wing
is humbling and leaves us speechless.
Already, I have said too much.

 

 

 

“Po Chü-I on Lao-tzü”