Category Archives: Verse
How to Look at God
Sol rules the sky, a celestial Medusa, flames swinging and waving out into space like so many yellow snakes, the failure of the metaphor being that we may look upon him, though only through his companion; a month being nothing more than the time we must wait to see the fire of heaven as he [...]
Pacific Sunset
You don’t want to lose sight of her yet. Follow her across the beach and feel it sinking with your feet. Get them wet; let her golden curls tumble over you, let her rip you out onto a sea dark and deep as the approaching night. Maybe you can keep up with her for a [...]
Kindling
Chainsaw gardeners everywhere believe gardening to be the practice of keeping the greenery away from the path, while deadwood accumulates within, where gardener and pedestrian dare not stray, the garden itself slowly aging into a woodpile, waiting not for spring but for fire.
Arm in Arm
Upon the aftermath of an inferno, Amid the ash, baked soil, and Blackened granite Of a fire-scalped ridge, I greeted the naked skeleton Of a lodgepole pine With a handshake, And forgetting my brutishness, Broke off a burned humerus, Heavy with marrow And unspent fire. Thus guilty of robbing the living dead, Avowed her disembodied limb [...]
Fruit Gushers?
I’ve been seeing things again you know. I’d heard somewhere that the Amtrak Route between Eugene and Klamath Falls Features some great scenery, So this time I went to Albany by train. Regrettably for the grand mountain vistas, The northbound leg was clouded over And the southbound leg, well, The conductor saw fit to assign [...]
Oscar Acceptance Speech
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy For granting me this opportunity to thank Everyone who made it all possible. To those who gave me a chance to play this part, In spite of an early critical consensus, With which I concurred, that I was miscast. But the auteur, perhaps seeking [...]
Andromeda
Princess of distant Ethiopia, Prisoner of the sky: What men say of your beauty Can only be blasphemy Now that I see you Bound to the heavens Right before my eyes With beauties and beauties Intimate as the stars, and equally untouchable. Men claim to have seen you, But speak only of your jewels Sparkling [...]
I’m blind now, obviously
Beautiful, I don’t know how Your smile became an ocean wave, Tumbling everything over And over with Crushing saltwater power, Your eyes, binary suns Burning through the world, and I’m blind now, obviously, But the heat remains, Washing through your hair A whispering Autumn breeze Through the shivering Aspen, somehow, Beautiful.
Plan B
Okay, I can see that it’s not going to happen. I have a backup plan. We need to find a way to pull it off without me. Here’s what you do. First, you must make certain that I’m not around. Others may be there Just make sure that I’m not one of them. An empty [...]
Swimming Lesson
Can’t leave this one alone … I never knew that I’d been blind; And then I met your eyes. There was nothing in the world, And then his hand Fell on her shoulder. The neighbors said He’d been a strong swimmer And he fell into your eyes.