On Trump’s Election
If I encounter knife-edged voices
I will remember cool water running
in a strong stream
I will let the water be my voice.
If I encounter cold indifference
Continue reading… "On Trump’s Election"Category / Poetry
Instinct
Mounds of black scat on the trail.
Rotted hemlock clawed and scattered.
A branch snaps. Forest silence shattered
by rocks knocked loose cliff-side, hail
of scree. Even birds and blackflies freeze
What My Grandmother Said the Last Time I Saw Her
Come back
tomorrow
when the sun
comes back
around.
I’m tired
The Arena’s Lights Burn Brighter When You’re Down in the Pit
what happens these days is what happens
for the rest of your life
the present moment clanging like
a migraine, or an alarm
going off so long you can’t hear it anymore
Mother’s Last Hula
On her deathbed paralyzed by a stroke she broke everyone’s heart
By doing a hula with the right hand she could still move. Her eyes
Closed, her mouth locked in what might have been a smile, her hand
Held for a moment the clouds that gathered over the Ko’olaus,
Then flowed with the streams that tumbled down to the sea.
Everybody Got the Fever
You wowed us with the horse’s neigh you taught
yourself to imitate so well that neighbors
thought we kept one in our house.
On the wall, as I remember it, a painting of a charcoal
colored horse on a pink background, a treasure
Quiet
In half-shade that signifies the close
of night I see the faded quarter- moon
poised mute above the faint skyline.
A silence of birds sits in winter pine.
The stillness of the dawn is tangible.
I sense her at a distance with no color yet,
Endings and Beginnings
It feels like the world is coming to an end
you muse as we walk. Some twang guitar drifts
near the party we just left. You’re calm. A smile
tries itself on your lips almost convinced to land
despite such a mood. The sun is dropping its beautiful hammer
The Great Escape
Inky! You intrepid mischievous mollusk!
You slinky, slithering cephalopod!
How you must have missed the open waters,
dreaming of crayfish and crab on sandy sea floors,
of greeny gold waters, of freedom like flying
Lack of Understanding
I saunter down an unpaved road
among orchards,
just watching birds.
An elderly farmer rolls up,
Continue reading… "Lack of Understanding"