Category Archives: Poems 2017

PERPETUITY

Posted on November 11, 2017 by John | 1 comment

A few hang on, leather leaves on a single limb
reaching for rain, grasping sky for life
in this battlefield of arms and legs in piles
around upright trunks with loosened bark—
gray shields to relinquish at their feet.

A four-year war without water on uneven
slopes, ridges strewn with old timers down,
disheveled skeletons beginning to disintegrate,
assimilate deep into the space they leave
to time—a blank sheet, native stories gone.

What we understand of place is ‘nothing
stays the same’, no permanent circumstance
to protect and feed us except hard ground
cloaked by layers of law within the diaphanous
clouds of cyberspace it will endure forever more.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2017

Tagged photography, poetry

TRICK OR TREAT

Posted on October 28, 2017 by John | Leave a comment

Not quite cold enough for bright colors yet,
for frost and flies’ retreat, for the drift
of chimney smoke and horses’ breath

on the slow drawl of dawn. The grumbling
bulls begin to bellow, announce their prowess,
trumpet their intentions thirty days away

from being family men, their primal duties
rippling beneath their dusty hides. Not quite
old enough to forget, it’s almost Halloween.

NORM

Posted on October 25, 2017 by John | 1 comment

Not Norman Schaefer,
Washington poet
and high school roommate—

but the measure
of acceptable,
of the average

pebble worn
in the streambed
without a name,

ideals and dreams
tossed in the current
wash of friction.

To remember who I am,
I can go to the hard rock
of the high mountains

anytime I want
for clarity, to release
what’s become normal.

1 Comment

Posted in Poems 2017

Tagged poetry

THE INNOCENT

Posted on October 23, 2017 by John | 5 comments

Already drawn to the trough,
to the prospect of being cared for,
choosing peace and domesticity,

we are startled with the interruption
of the news—as it happens—
and we become the audience

on stage, interviewed and counted
for ‘something’ by invisible pollsters
just to keep the plot alive:

a chicken in every pot,
better jobs and lower taxes
as wealth wicks up

between catastrophes,
the graft and scandals
we’ve become addicted to.

5 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2017

Tagged Calves, photography, poetry

AUGUST COLOR

Posted on October 18, 2017 by John | 1 comment

Bumper crop of damn-near everything
thriving since last season’s rain
that bogged us to a standstill.

Red oak galls on the Valley Oak,
Tarweed yellow on open slopes.
Earth alive with frogs and rodents,

she moves with grace beneath
a new summer dress I haven’t seen
before—or perhaps I have forgotten

or ignored. A man must be careful
with hackneyed compliments
like ‘wild’ and ‘beautiful’.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2017

ALWAYS

Posted on October 15, 2017 by John | 3 comments

                              Perhaps it’s only those
                              who pay attention
                              that survive.
                                   – Linda M. Hasselstrom (“Coyote Song”)

“He looks, but just don’t see,”
Tom Homer’d tell of a part-time cowboy
when my father learned the mantra
of established cowmen after brandings,
when the work was done.
I heard it often.

Out here, one can lollygag himself
to death, early on—before he sees
the snake in the trail, before he sees
the coyote watching him.

Deaf to the gun but only once,
we improve the breed,
fine tune scent and sight
into long lives of good teachers—
always a coyote’s song.

for Linda

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2017

Tagged coyote, photography, poetry

ALL THE KING’S HORSES

Posted on October 12, 2017 by John | 1 comment

‘Through the Looking-Glass’. Illustration by John Tenniel.

How could we have known
when we were young
that verbs have a temper,

not like docile adjectives
hanging like ripe fruit
to be picked and used

in a line? Words come
easy these days,
some so overused

they sound suspicious,
like baiting horses
into the corral

with flakes of hay—
so often meaning more
than what they say.

1 Comment

Posted in Poems 2017

Tagged Humpty Dumpty, John Tenniel, Lewis Carroll, poetry

NORTH OF LAS VEGAS

Posted on October 4, 2017 by John | 4 comments

It feels like it should rain
upon dry feed, golden
this autumn evening,

long hair combed
on the gusty breath of breezes,
hillsides palomino.

All colors brighten
between dark shadows.
We have seen the worst

and endured it:
100 days of 100 degrees,
a four-year drought

and too much rain,
three hurricanes
and the deranged.

The sun retreats
as always, yet
nothing stays the same.

4 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2017

Tagged photography, poetry

SUNDAY GENUFLECTION

Posted on October 1, 2017 by John | 1 comment

I drop my sword and shield
and yield to time, genuflect
before mortal idolatry, take
a knee for all the fallen poor
from forgotten wars and submit
my helplessness, my sorrow
to endure imperfectly
while the band plays
and flags wave
before the battle
for ad space scores first—
for the freedom to consume
ourselves to death, I yield
with peace in my heart.