is lifeless, yet restless.
Lifeless, yet nurtures life
mussels, barnacles, sand verbena.
Driftwood dots the beach
with fires that spark blue, green,
hotter than live wood.
Rootlessness is not poverty,
even dead wood has a purpose.
Cast up on your strand,
I will burn for you.
Books Available
Dervish Lions
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside
We're walking somewhere, a city street. in the dark. There's neon. The street is wet but it's not raining now. We pass a marquee that announces Zoe (I don't remember the last name).
The singer is Korean. She has blond/pink hair and is singing and dancing chest-deep in a swimming pool. The song is about healing. The refrain is:
Air comes in
And the poison fades away
And the poison fades away
Books Available
Dervish Lions
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside
Because it turns the grey concrete to silver
and the brown grass to green
Because it giveth the thirsty to drink
Because the music of it on the roof at night
is the sweetest lullaby
and because of petrichor
Because holding an umbrella over a stranger’s bag of groceries
can win you a fleeting smile
or a life-long friend
Because of salmon
Because the robins rejoice when the earthworms rise
Because we take for granted the turning of the taps, hot and cold
and the easy power of the showerhead
We take for granted the humming of the dynamos at Bonneville
and the flip of every light-switch
Because every kind of mushroom grows from the bark dust
around the trees in my neighborhood
Because when I am tired I wrap my eyes in green
Because of trilliums in the ravines of Marquam Hill
Because when I am tired of hot blue skies
there are thunderheads towering in the sunset
Because it reminds me to look up –
to look above myself
I praise rain.
Books Available
Dervish Lions
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside
smoke, bitter orange
sky banner, hot woolen wrap
tight around my throat
Books Available
Dervish Lions
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside
The Prose Poem has one of my poems up: "No-One in the World." This published version is considerably shorter than the one posted on this blog, as the journal had a word limit for submission. It's always fun whittling a piece down like this.
Books Available
Dervish Lions
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside
Listen—can you hear the drip of gutters?
It’s not really raining, just mist
condensing on the roof.
Listen, can you hear thunder?
No, it’s airplanes coming in, low-ceiling,
and humid air carries sound better.
And do you hear a rumble,
earth shaking underfoot, overpasses
tremble in a high wind—
no, it’s feet marching into downtown,
making the towers sway and scrape the clouds
wringing out water, rain, at last the end of drought.
Books Available
Dervish Lions
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside
