butterfly

those most eager to crush the wings
the color
the beauty
the fragility
the soul
are most bound to feel nothing at all in its passing
yet remain most affected of all by its absence

Hope

Regrets that run so deeply
Our vanity of fears
Lie jumbled in reflections
As in a house of mirrors

Where hope is not a lightning bolt
That lights up all the night
But plays amongst the shadows
Til held captive in the light
seconds to minutes
minutes to hours
hands ever reaching
from clocks in their towers

strike on the hour
again on the half
can you hear what they say
so intent on your path?

half past eleven
a quarter ‘til one
time flows as a river
until day is don
e


Passage

Walking over bright green knoll knotted yellow with dandelions
Then down the other side,
There lies a dark and narrow passage through a stand of weeping oaks,
One I have seen but never tried

A light breeze blows, graceful boughs bow
Beckoning me to go where I have never been,
Shadows darken, move beyond line of sight
As I breach the brink of light and dark and go within;

Cool leafy whisperings enfold and embolden me to go on
Down primordial path carpeted, spongy moss upon rich loam;
Fragile ferns rise unfurling, fronds uncurling,
Crystal breeze sends white-plumed seedlings swirling up, up, into an emerald dome

And down through mottled shards of light in turn
Echoes call of a mockingbird, unseen yet easily heard;
Singing sonnets from another time, an age of grace,
Things no one here can ever replace in thought or word

A bend in path, another still, I come upon a lovely rill
Water cold and clear spills over rounded stones
The blood and bones of Mother Earth—her worth, her dearth,
Amid effervescence, a sobering quiescence—both plaintive intones
To those who will hear her

From somewhere below a semi growls low, grinding, climbing, winding its way up
From the city not so far away;
Stirs a dragonfly (symbol of long life, I muse—but exactly whose?) from its post
Upon a reed and it hovers nearby as if to say,
“I’ll lead if only you will follow,”
Then quick as a flash vanishes away deep into the hollow

Overhead, a rumble—soon winds come making dry leaves tumble,
And then a light, warm rain;
It is only here I find release from pain, soul-healing peace,
And yet I’m aimless like a lost lamb:
Shall I go, shall I remain? My heart is torn—I’m city born, I don’t belong,  
I'm not from here.
But everything tells me I am.

“I love you,” he said,
“But maybe just not enough.”
I frowned, then smiled,
My face hidden in the clouds
and as they parted
Thankful for the sudden illumination,
I whispered back,
“But how perfectly splendid,"
and then my heart
lost in the night
Wept  with the gibbous moon.
Day finds me—
Reeling giddily ‘round me
All done up in golden dress
And azure scarves
Urging me to join the dance
But I, lost in my trance
Choose not to see

Eve arrives—
Dressed in hooded satin cloak
With longbow drawn
Shoots silver arrows
Up through velvet black
To pierce the dark
And make the stars

But even that, I must confess,
Does not impress—
With dogged resolve I sit
Through wretched call of Whippoorwill
And count the hours—
For only Dawn
Brings roses.


Look through the long window
How lightning rips through darkness in
Bright jagged lines
How Life casts its essence upon the
Dark face of the Void
Searing the heart of it
Branding memories into a smooth and
Vacant hide
Changing it Forever
Where there was Nothing at all before
I believe in things that never were
Garden of
Poetry         
   
Oh! nature's noblest gift--my grey
goose quill;
Slave of my thoughts, obedient to
my will,
Torn from thy parent bird to form a
pen,
That mighty instrument of little
men!

--Lord Byron

Please peruse my garden/nature gallery at
your leisure.

The works are copyrighted, and all I ask is
that you ask permission before using any
of my writing elsewhere.
Anger
Be gone
Lest you set aflame
The dry Tender of my spirit
Letting go
To rage inside
A white-hot inferno
Smothering
All that I am
Leaving nothing
But your foul smudge
Of empty satisfaction
My life
A brittle cinder
Grown cold
Little

Old woman

Gray as the day

Head bent, windblown

Her left hand guides a cane

To steady herself upon wet, uneven asphalt

And with her right holds high a leopard print umbrella

As one would  wield a flaming torch against the unknown