The Poem

Each syllable of the poem
Was hiding in soft cocoons behind your eyes
Transforming me, transforming you
Into branch and water
Bamboo and cloud
Unspoken plaintive heartbeats
Were the cadence of these words
Each letter lying languid in a lonely silver lagoon
And the poem like a river was unleashed raging
Finding us flying
When we kissed

Scent

As a dog smells goodness
Draws near to honey
Sniffs and shuns all sorrow
So I move toward tomorrow
Thieves around me
Stay away

Barriers No More

Sun and moon
Went out to play
Found nine friends
Broke the color barrier
Now sandlot baseball is played
With planets of every race
Thank you Venus Mars
And Mercury for
Proving that
We are all
The same
Inside

Holes

Through a little hole

I climbed out

Saw the stars

Beautiful cataclysmic universe

Coming at me way too fast

I'd like to focus all my life

On one twinkling freckle

In the face of this great mother

But she died without warning, and I'll die too

Back into another hole I go

Narcissus

Through the labyrinth of laws Controlling the cosmos Celestial bodies Orbits of planets and moons Something started spinning With water, light, movement Time was envisioned and freed All I had was a moment In this miracle of lights Then amnesia set in Sent me back to the darkness Within these labyrinthine layers Of chaos and sound And profligate echoes I lost you

Hall of Trees

Driving across Mississippi
Is like driving through a hall of trees
Wonder what the natives
Made of these

Elegant, aristocratic,
Reaching for the sky
Rooted earthward yet giant
In my mind

I see longboats, spears,
Looms for something spinning,
Winning till the white man
Tore them down

And cutting through this sanctuary
We now have carved a road
Found a box to put the funny
Red men in

These ghosts with leaves and thistles
In the wind like arrows whistle
But there has been a crime
In their blue sky

These trees have seen it all
Know the Natchez, saw the fall
In this hall of trees I am small
But I drive in

Children

They are from another planet
Know nothing of our world
Questions so ridiculous
They make you laugh in joy
What is inside an apple?
“An apple.”
What is inside the sun?
“Fire. Hot, hot fire.”
Where does God sleep?
“He doesn’t. He’s God.”
Where is love, anyway?
“In your questions.
In my tired, bewildered eyes.”