Speaking the Old Language

Out of the soft morning,

mourning dove calls

sounding lost.  6-17-18

Chipmunk with grass in his mouth 

stops at my foot.

Kitty watches from the window. 7-17-18

Summer flows over the sitting poet,

the creeper-caught sun

rests below.  7-1-18

All my forever poems

echo catbird, redbird

speaking the old language.  7-2-18

Below the river,

far beyond the Glade,

mourning dove touches

the morning softness

with her own softness.  7-2-18

Summer moves across

planes of columbine—

leaf miners tunneling.  7-4-18

The long winter wait is for this—

straight morning sun pausing,

coming through pinwheels,

pausing long enough to notice,

to receive.  7-4-18

The first moment outside—

redbird is chirping.

And from the west, a response.  7-6-18

In the gray light

waiting to be pink,

today’s rose-of-sharon.  7-6-18

The teenage raccoon on the patio

is bigger than Stella. Between growls,

Stella puffs herself up.  7-6-18

Preening in the old crab apple,

fledgling cat bird

in the sun.  7-8-18

Mourning dove,

morning sun,

honeysuckle’s curved leaves.  7-8-18

In another month

the ringing in my ears will be gone,

replaced with crickets.  7-8-18

Red Beacons at the Edge of Hearing

Two letters.

Two poems.

Eight pages of journal.

Sixty-one years of comfort—

Louella’s handwriting.  6-12-18

 

Here’s a morning that

holds true—creeper’s

pinwheels stirring the sun.  6-14-18

Under the river of thin clouds,

swift pivots left then right.  6-14-18

Longley said to write it

even if it was the only thing—

red birds talk to each other this soft morning,

red beacons at the edge of hearing.  6-15-18

The morning sweetness,

a round table,

the chair that fits my back.  6-15-18

The firefly lands on my hand,

a tiny weight to carry a big light.  6-15-18

Talking,

three crows overhead.

Two land on the white pine.  6-15-18

Chipmunk with grass in her mouth

stops at my foot.  Kitty watches

from the window.  6-17-18

Precious

the light that travels,

the light that rests within.  6-15-18