Sunday, July 22, 2018

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






Sunday, July 8, 2018

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