poems
wildflower
on good days, i move fast. faster than some men are ready for. but you’re so delicate, they say, such a lovely wildflower. as wise in the ways of this world as any wildflower, more engaged with pollen than with politics. as hardy as delicate, rooted and propagating. my season’s not over so fast as…
Read MoreGrandfather’s Farm: A Eulogy
I should have asked you to teach me how to sharpen a shovel, change the oil in my car, milk a cow, grow buckwheat. Instead we fought, all down the years, till I moved far away and let distance do my talking. Only since I’ve proved myself, come into my own on our small farm,…
Read Morei put down roots
i put down roots as easy as breathing. fine filaments tangling, binding up the soil wherever i stop. i have roots left in houses, towns, ecologies i’ve left behind– and some in places i’ve never been, borne there like potted plants by the people i’m rooted to. wings are my challenge. always i’m reaching out…
Read Moreedges burn more readily
edges burn more readily than centers. setting an edge alight is a simple matter, though putting it out again may not be, if it is inclined towards fire, incendiary, interested in burning. the center doesn’t light so well unless you reach it through the edge, take the slow route in, open its defenses. only water…
Read Moresluice
when i ask to be taken you give me back to myself. what is this light, this river? i ask you to be the current running through me. instead, you open the sluice-gates and let go and the river washes both of us away.
Read Moretime is distance and distance is distance
1. time is distance and distance is distance and the heart aches to cross both, yearning across boundaries, loving across boundaries. i build a nest in my heart, furnish it lavishly, comfortably, keep it warm for when you return. you step inside, melting me with a smile and a simple, frank, “i love you,” and…
Read Morethe heart is a muscle as strong as the body
you’re running away to join the circus you’re running so hard toward your dreams you’re flying and i’m crouched here in the garden, both hands in the soil, growing roots i can only hope you’ll someday return to. i plant my heart in this warm and increasingly fertile earth while your heart grows wings to…
Read Moreheld askew by beans
you like to see a little dishabille in me and i can give you this — i know how it’s done. i like a little dishabille in the garden, myself. sunflowers blooming in twenty directions, giant stalks tipped sprawling and prickly across the path. tomatoes vining up all over, whether we planted them there or…
Read Morei believe
i believe in compassion whose wisdom rises like the swell of the ocean, cresting and filling all that it touches, till a body aches with salty fulfillment i believe that love and compassion are wise, and we need them every day. i believe that the more i move from compassion, from love, the closer i…
Read Moresapphire silk
i wanted to follow you up, not just for the sake of the silks, but for you — the powerful grace of your perfect body climbing the sapphire silks to the sky. i wanted to follow you up, climb out of the dirty necessities of my daily grind, haul myself, through strength and grace alone,…
Read More