Sly as a naked beggar beguiling,
The moon, spilling silver lies
Down chiffon skies,
Implies
That the slightest blinking
Of the eyes
Could strike the night into transparency
ABRACADABRA!
Lo! Infinity.
#PoetryandMoon #MoonPoem #MoonMagic
You were born for the river, boy,
and the spell of the rushing current’s call.
You were all our splashing days of summer sun
(but Winter rest and contentment, too.)
By our rule your long life’s end
came all too soon.
We buried you on the bank
by the river’s constant roll,
and through summer days
and long winter nights
the lonely bark of brother dog
echoed across the deep water,
and the ghost of your memory
nudged into our rooms
So that we each, alone, wept quietly.
#Airedale #KidsandDogs #AdoptaShelterDogMonth
Weep, willow, kai!
The sun of sorrow is crossing the sky
Weep, willow, kai!
The morning of sorrow lays dew on the eye.
O, Cholena!*
Though the grasses of Echo Place
No longer know thy lithesome steps;
And the waters of Beautiful Mountain
No longer know the grace
Thy body lent their crystal depths;
And the songbirds of the Forest of Fire
No longer are mute with their desire
To hear thy dreamy voice;
Though thou be forgotten
By countless other things,
Each white, new dawn
Shall remember
Finding thee living still
Within mine eyes;
And twilight mist
Remember
Hearing my cry
Beat its lonely, wild wings
Against the gray dust
On evening sky:
O, Cholena,
Thou are not forgotten,
My dear!
Weep, willow, kai!
Weep, willow, kai!
*Cholena means bird and is of Native American origin.
#NativeAmericanDay #Mourning #ElegyPoem #LovePoem
Half-dreaming on the cabin porch
We rocked and talked
While our eyes searched
For the vanished lake
Pine trees
Barely discernible
Tall feathers
Wind-brushed the black sky
An ocean of stars
Flooded the night
With foreverness
Postponing sleep
We talked and rocked
Through the midnight hour
Our voices low as muted music
Our occasional laughter
Candle flames
Phantom lanterns in the dark
#NaturePoetry
The summer lives, where have they fled?
Beneath what distant suns
and star-held moons
reverberate the ghostly calls: echoes
of childhood songs and laughter bred
Of valleys green and cool lagoons?
The young dreams gone—all scattered,
where, who knows?
Yet once they danced the day
flowered the hills
sweet music swept their dawns
their noons
The meadows wait, the long grass grows
where summer lives once played
the gold light spills
on memoried fields, the valley stream
runs deep
all are silent; none disclose
where summer lives have fled
O, distant suns
shine gentle glow
upon the vanished ones!
#SummerMemories #Youth
Firefly summer
Vanishes into autumn smoke
Long sun days
And green grasses….
Gone into blue autumn smoke
And all our falling-star wishes
Are now pixie-men
Whose sylvan homes
Ring with elfin cries
That escape us forever
Like ghostly butterflies.
#SummerPoetry
Building Blocks
Hot Peppers
Or Double-Dutch
How the rope turns matters much.
We jump, jump.
If we don’t trip or fall before,
Up to one hundred, maybe more.
How the rope turns matters much.
Building Blocks
Hot Peppers
Or Double-Dutch
#JumpropeGames #Games
In summer garden
Surprise—petals fall
A rain of roses
Petal soft shower
Surprise in summer garden
A rain of roses
#AutumnPoetry
Brightly colored spinning tops
Daylong laughter and lollipops
Kite-high unanchored hopes
Scattered jacks and jumping ropes
Tangled town and touchstone
Bed and board and telephone
Battered heart and buttered bread
Folly, fear, and fountainhead
Tabletop tears or winner’s boast
Echoes drowning in tea and toast
Kaleidoscope and covenant
Mystic moment and monument
Run, fox, run geese! Run sheep, run!
Hear cry BARBAREE and the game is done.
#ChildhoodGames #Games #ChildhoodMemories
I know these massive cliffs
and sudden end of land
where water-green swells of ocean light
break roaring splendor
on the silent sands
I know the wonder
the awe
the wildness of the edge
and how the rocks strain forward
stare out like foxes toward the sea
their stone ferocity forever leashed
in immobility
#SeaCoastPoetry #NaturePoetry