Saturday, August 13, 2022

The Moon

 

Did you hear the moon last night?

Hushed light on rising

Silver sibilance

Behind the clouds

In a first quarter

Pianissimo

 

Did you hear the moon last night?

Fulsome waterfall of light

Pouring down to light the streets

Casting faint shadows

But a great fortissimo of glow.

 

Did you hear the moon last night?

Silent as the breath

Of a sleeping babe

Gone dark with the turning away

In a shadow from our earth.

 

A STRANGE LAND

 

This is a strange land

And I am a stranger

To all that is here.

Shapes come and go,

Silent

With sibilant footsteps.

all is milky white,

No clues to where I am.

Sometimes a gentled thought

Comes to me

And I walk with it a while,

Slowly and slowly.

It gestures in deep silence.

I follow it up to

the low rising hills

of early autumnal grace

That lift me as I climb

 this part of the world.

I pass thru a gate

And lie down in a deep pasture

With golden wallflowers

Red clover and

Frothy white yarrow

Wild pink roses and

Blood red prairie lily

To sleep and sleep and sleep,

Forever grateful.

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Asleep (for my wife Merry, who has cancer)

 

asleep

in a room

without a ceiling

a waterfall of light

pours down from the moon

cascades coldly across my feet

 

asleep

in a room

without windows

stars peer in

where glass might have been

silver light caresses my eyes

 

asleep

in a room

without walls

fireflies wander in erratically

silent, lambent

drawing in the humid night

and settle on my open palms

 

asleep

in a room

without a floor

night creatures ascend

invade my bed

crickets and worms

tap on my forehead

 

asleep

in room

without you

and all that was before

is no more