fisherman

            gather me in

fall back

            to your place

in the sea

 

winter sharpened

            mortal sky

blood-tipped locust

            thorn, at

the point of joy

 

i hear sighs and silence

            dormant forest

 

dark in the east, my city

                                    laid to rest

 

stone saint

            an engine

     idles

            the sky

        longs to be known

 

there’s never enough earth

            to drink our tears

                                                                        love

 

it takes years

 

white bone

            on the beach

                        where i wanted to walk alone

 

life death

put flame

in an iron box

who feeds

that flame

can never stop

 

music of the lake when it is ice

            rapturous crackings

before and after

 

            the first and last of life

 

some forget to breathe and dream :: ways of seeing fall like leaves

 

the crack 

in the tea cup

       could be a star's 

            track, could be 

the crease 

        in a face

 

breath and dream set off on a journey

long ago—

there has been no word of their death

 

journey begins :: 

                               bell to wind

 

storm clouds but no storm

three journeys

in last night's dreams

 

rain brings back

the mist, the bridge

the desire to remain in my body

 

the wound is littler

the moon is warmer

since you share salt with me

 

heart

 

white blossom

in continuous rain

eternal dying flame

 

when sparrow knelt inside your heart :: how many were the shadows

 

artist's mark

small and red

i bled

 

whose face on the card you feared to turn over

whose hands are named calm and grief

for whom does the appetite of an empty bowl 

fill the soul with belief

 

wings

to carry this mountain

away from my grave

 

a presence affirmed

but whose—

the empty church follows me home

 

music stands still :: black icicle

 

old man sleeps not knowing his ocean has been swept away

 

it's fall and drunk :: i lean on the praise of a shadow

 

drowning by river

leaping from bridge

shall i visit the same dead

 

yellow moon

3am

hollowness growing, heart of our tree

 

in which of my many lives did i have the strength to die

 

snow falling climb it

 

encased in ice one might glimmer

 

seeds hidden 

in my snow boots

                    —a friend

 

the window of the sky shatters

            with a whisper

                        the boy will never forget

this be symmetry—

arthritic man

ice-bent tree

 

where rocks break

stream's flow

a station of my soul

 

ice:

rooted fire

 

pearls once

were water

 

home of shadow,

bone

 

don't all suns hold inside :: a dawn that was never alive

 

blue lake sleeps

dreams of falling

when i wake up    the desert is real

 

(types of creatures)

the living clay i use for face

the lost son whose shadow we know as man

the dream i ate and died from

 

            pace

of   the   moon

            pulse

of eternity      soft

            wrist of the sky

on which    side of death

            is rest

 

to hear again one's given voice

the great oak of infinite possibilities

breathes

 

wisdom when a yellowing leaf

fear of the apple set free

stones thrown or left in sleep

the tongue to my words unperceived

 

hear an owl kill

in the clear mind of night

sleep and silence return

two dancers in moonlight

 

whose gospel have i been carrying in my unread heart

shall the ending be bound

to infinite light

 

read me as a poem in blood

swollen with new light

silence with little to say

 

fences failing

posts gone rotten

pasture teeming with moons

 

beneath my hands the axe splits open

from a taut branch hangs

our tattered sky

 

unburdened of rose :: thorns bleed

 

howling with kindness :: i awakened the tea

 

every night of our vow i shall love you for rain

love's silence :: we undress in the air

who else set fire to the sun today

 

aren't the two halves of my life wind, wind :: and a needle going through

 

what if my father dies

on the day of my child's death

or before i'm conceived

what if he dies

with his back turned to me

 

black truck arrives

as a silence

from a whisper

a story

night

death

its driver

death

its wings

silence

whisper

story

truck

night

 

wind unweaves

soul shapes speech

a new moon's seed

wherever i sleep

awake alone unguarded

 

snow immeasurable

forest kneels

man searches for his heart

 

petal

unburdened

of flower

of yellow

of mother

of sorrow

bless

your 

rain

 

i wake

finished

it was a long and lovely read

 

as i behold a bell breaking into light    what shall the sleeper hear

 

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

 

found a coin

in night's loam

smaller than silver

larger than gold

like you

i am lost

to you

i owe my life

 

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

 

sightless flesh

gathering strength to see

haunted by the moon

am i

 

dawn

the sacred eye closing

dreams journey back to the country of the dead

birds changing place with stars

 

coals burn in cold black sky

cold sky burns within woodstove coals

January

wind

god 

giving birth

to the birth of god

 

reaching the high meadow

clouds making empty music

an eagle 

emerges

 

new snow in winter darkness

death dream comes from nowhere

                    i am a white stone who can climb the sky

 

i remove tarp from woodpile

snow scuds

blue smoke from chimney lofting

into bluer panes of catholic sky

 

deep woods thawing

woods of new england

mistakes of the lord everywhere

 

my boat the moon :: i leave night unlit

 

sun dying

i become

part of the darkness

 

something like a naked limb to count the falling snow

who spreads their wings where grass is deep

who stares from air that cannot breathe

 for how many lifetimes shall the green heart beat

 

empty hands

hold me above

a wind of unknown depth

 

there is evidence of sky in us

knowing the road has injured my soul

peace where waves gathering dissolve

 

the mirrors of her life grow stiff

wooden chairs from barefoot children

a dark mouth on either side of the wound

 

mourners have lost their way to the grave

and the dead waiting

for his death to be put underground

 

how grave is the feast of the diminished garden

how many lives know the solstice of ruin

when soldiers toy with saviors, who dies

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

use a sweet knife, love, where i am lost

 

stranger things come to pass than standing in line for time

 

full of the useless

yet i pull a few weeds

study knots on the faces of trees

 

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

 

wash peace from your words

launch a maelstrom

walk through the split in your soul

 

like something yellow you would do :: daffodil

 

blood in the river

blood in the breeze

the safest place to be is lost

 

a man leans toward earth

she listens begins

dropping blossoms

 

apple blossoms weighted

with snow

they ask me where we are going

 

thinned by mist

the mountain grows tired

grass quietly eating rain

snowflakes :: staying in touch after death

 

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

 

 

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