Tag Archives: poetry

LONE PINE, CA

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This close to heaven,
just below the timberline
pine trees climb and wait.

 

 

WPC(1) — “Scale”

KESTRELS COURTING SPRING

 

Nothing sudden, poor dry hills
like thin cows show too much bone,
I look away for a spot of green

in shadows of trees, on north slopes
to weigh our hopes: how many days    left
before it rains? Bankrupt with years

of debt, of dirt exposed, of dust released,
the old oaks have given-up to start over—
to become earth again, and we

make plans to brand another bunch
like Kestrels courting spring, falling
in a flutter before me yesterday:

fourth of February, seventy-seven degrees.
Nothing sudden, we plod against the obvious
knowing nothing stays the same.

 

RAINDROPS

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Following fifty tons
through light showers
across Nevada,

big alfalfa bales
towards our dry
California home,

we focus on raindrops
streaking reality
after a week of poetry

and song, to feel
our poor possibilities
grow by the truckload—

heavy with an endless
emptiness in our bellies
beneath the straps

of seat belts
before another wreck.
We hang on.

 

LET THEM GO

 

What comes of words planted
from a poor harvest
but strong seed to root between

the cracks of rocks gathering
every bit of rain to fruit
again and again. Listen

to the defiant sound they make:
a crop of clashing cymbals
before they die and blow away

to a better place.
An iffy eternity at best,
but let them go, anyway.

 

ELKO 2015

Purple Penstemon - May 5, 2011

Purple Penstemon – May 5, 2011

 

After a week of celebrating,
song and poetry
sound the same.

 

 

LEAVING ELKO 2015

 

Like scattered birds, they circle back
hovering, fragments of faces, bits
of song fluttering and floating before me,

moments searching for a place to roost
within memory. Some high and bold
on bare branches singing yet, singing

always, while others light behind
a rustling wall of leaves to build nests,
mate and incubate quietly within me.

 

IN BLOOM

Bird's Eye Gilla - April 11, 2011

Bird’s Eye Gilla – April 11, 2011

 

Sometimes mindless creatures
of habit in bloom,
never sure who’s got whom.

 

 

BLOW WIVES

Blow Wives - April 6, 2013

Blow Wives – April 6, 2013

 

Spreading seed on wider wings,
Dandelion
by any other name.

 

 

IN THE CROWD

Johnny Tuck - March 31, 2013

Johnny Tuck – March 31, 2013

 

I can show up anywhere
yet never certain who
I want to be.

 

 

THROUGH STRINGS

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Not wind through willow limbs that sing of rooted past,
but our first tunes, drummed upon catgut strings, cast
beyond early stirrings searching words to fit a melody
of earthly work, we find a moment’s worth of immortality.