Lost Way to the Sky

1/20/25

there is always a voice drinking and dying

there is always a noisy fountain dying of thirst

there is the naked silence

of the friend who loves you

a woman releases the raven's feather

that whispers her name

this Ohio grows old within me

my body no longer dreams it is a river

1/17/25

found a coin

in night's loam

smaller than silver

larger than gold

like you

i am lost

to you

i owe my life

1/15/25

in my country there is no longer a straight path

foundations of home study the way of the waters

i share a blanket with the man who has no legs

1/12/25

sightless flesh

gathering strength to see

haunted by the moon

am i

1/11/25

dawn

the sacred eye closing

dreams journey back to the country of the dead

birds changing place with stars

1/9/25

coals burn in cold black sky

cold sky burns within woodstove coals

January

wind

god

giving birth

to the birth of god

1/7/25

reaching the high meadow

clouds making empty music

an eagle

emerges

1/6/25

new snow in winter darkness

death dream comes from nowhere

i am a white stone who can climb the sky

1/3/25

i remove tarp from woodpile

snow scuds

blue smoke from chimney lofting

into bluer panes of catholic sky

12/31/24

deep woods thawing

woods of new england

mistakes of the lord everywhere

my boat the moon :: i leave night unlit

12/29/24

sun dying

i become

part of the darkness

12/23/24

something like a naked limb to count the falling snow

12/11/24

who spreads their wings where grass is deep

who stares from air that cannot breathe

for how many lifetimes shall the green heart beat

5/28/24

empty hands

hold me above

a wind of unknown depth

5/26/24

there is evidence of sky in us

knowing the road has injured my soul

peace where waves gathering dissolve

5/22/24

the mirrors of her life grow stiff

wooden chairs from barefoot children

a dark mouth on either side of the wound

put the car in a pit, it

is time to go—

a crust of bread

works slowly to blind

5/21/24

mourners have lost their way to the grave

and the dead waiting

for his death to be put underground

5/20/24

how grave is the feast of the diminished garden

how many lives know the solstice of ruin

when soldiers toy with saviors, who dies

5/19/24

sunset, i drink the windows just :: like a Hopper she said

5/18/24

whatever you carry the sky is huge

as each stone leaves my hand, it :: balances on the one below

why are we so rarely flower :: to face with joy

5/17/24

from the moth a feathering :: of nakedness

listen to the islands, we :: become ocean by degrees

there are planets in her :: steps, oiled and pearly

5/16/24

the garden exactly our :: bed's shadow

the pearl that draws you :: unclasped

stop because a :: dead branch goes through it

completing a weed :: forests urge silence

bird without a sky :: she cannot arrive

death of the prairies is also :: a man

5/15/24

who wrote this :: her mind must be all around

here is my father :: hiding the universe

life, leave me untitled :: encourage my sound

walnut, put :: our leaves out first

soul's small lion :: sparrow

crickets, it :: should be obvious

5/6/24

is there a thread on the water where we can meet

is there blood where hopelessness ends

how many shall the doves strip of their skin

4/27/24

use a sweet knife, love, where i am lost

4/26/24

stranger things come to pass than standing in line for time

4/25/24

full of the useless

yet i pull a few weeds

study knots on the faces of trees

4/24/24

warm sun on an april stone no heavier than a spiral

witnessed by watery light that is never not here

you shall appear and reappear

and i shall awaken

4/23/24

wash peace from your words

launch a maelstrom

walk through the split in your soul

4/22/24

like something yellow you would do :: daffodil

blood in the river

blood in the breeze

the safest place to be is lost

4/21/24

a man leans toward earth

she listens begins

dropping blossoms

4/20/24

apple blossoms weighted

with snow

they ask me where we are going

thinned by mist

the mountain grows tired

grass quietly eating rain

4/19/24

snowflakes :: staying in touch after death

the long sentence of the voice at three in the morning, blameless

4/18/24

o keeper of darkness, don't we walk into life through parallel doors

a man breaks down, but i don't speak about the weight of the stone

the cherry blossom

you held out

was you

4/16/24

poems just published in tiny wren lit (issue 6) and chrysanthemum (issue 32)!

4/15/24

wind blows my fingers off

small fossils

free of mind

emerging

from a random sky

a withered tree

a child and his face

have all the light

the sea lies flat

4/14/24

five monostich:

the long limbs of human light ascending

a face without eyes the moon spills its sand

an audience reading around the desk of solitude

empty chairs in a cornfield a birthing begins

coming home to the guardian stone

4/13/24

an old rain is staring out the window

high in the winter trees

my garden has built a nest

4/12/24

spring rain :: fat stones

4/11/24

within an earlier melody

unknown outside the dream

are the lands i am and will learn to perceive

whose expanse of lake is sane enough

to receive the grace

of winter geese

being asleep while two calling owls speak the language of night

4/10/24

rain's rhythm

dawn chorus

the river begins

4/9/24

afraid of the eclipse :: i was right to be

droning engines die

wind sound

vast

4/7/24

death of the sun

tomorrow, eclipse

shadow of man, of moon

blue-green lichen

on rain-darkened trees

journal of dreams

4/6/24

in the last car of the train

nodding asleep, holding the way home

open

4/5/24

a rainbow

to end the day—

three journeys in last night's sleep

three monostich:

dreaming snow last night in different lives

the same bed years apart restored from ashes

small beginning dropped in the night in the soil

4/4/24

doves are nesting in a yard i've stopped speaking to

opened the window

dropped an ant

into spring

4/3/24

no mountains here

—what is higher

than thunder

geese flying

a pair—

no gazing at the sky

4/2/24

in a sweet scented breeze

i don't know

whose petals

3/31/24

using a mourning dove's coo

to quiet

my ears

lost the moon

behind a pine

so the day begins

3/30/24

long wings

climbing a thermal

virgin sky

3/29/24

rainy skies

flowers sleep

hazy moon

flowers dream

3/28/24

kneeling

hands in mud

restoring water to flow

3/27/24

eaves drip

dripping

the swollen heavens dry

mixing vinegar and water

before easter

snow squalls

3/26/24

with stems that stood

through winter—

here i'll plant my life

the wind

the house

i listen to them moan

3/25/24

the sun is warm

the windflowers will

lift their heads

3/24/24

under heaven's freedom

to be stormy or clear

wearing my black beret

3/23/24

equinox

the widower has grown

a new beard

dead branches

my living hands

breaking

3/22/24

picking up the dollar

someone dropped

a buddhist nun walks by

morning with

a killing frost

she prefers my naked face

3/21/24

pine forests i cannot see from

ohio

the sky reaches there

3/20/24

limbs that walk

limbs that grow

three old oaks and i

sky and winds loud and restless all day about money

3/19/24

releasing water from a stagnant pool i look within

a moonless night

my neighbor's light

all this hurry to die

3/17/24

a pregnant moon

climb into bed together

killed

on the road

i have no heart for travel

morning sky

evening of my life—

receive the waxing moon

3/16/24

a quick thunderstorm has left me rushing

shuffles away in his body

the wind

bends

a tree

3/15/24

white orchids

yellowing—

i have an appointment to be cured

3/14/24

away, alone

a gravel road

blackbirds chattering

3/13/24

an early windflower

white

where snow never fell

sharing last night's

dreams

dawn bleeds

3/11/24

to avoid my hands

an injured finch

flutters from death on the road

3/10/24

for pine cones swept to an asphalt fate i grieve