long limbs of light climb

where resurrection leads

white leaves appear on willow trees

 

new prints in the forest clay

cumulus building a new sky

whose shadow will be slipping away

 

the audience calls out a name

the name dies instantly, cries to god

is made flesh, bleeds, dies

joins the audience, calls out a name

 

water pulls my secret

deep into its pockets

loves the drowning i do not love

i will know it

    outside the dream

when it comes

    behind the calm

because it breathes

one can heal 

and another is healed by being wounded

the way death stands some people up on their feet

 

 

an old postcard from the rain kneels

in my hand—

this longing for home when there is no shore in sight

 

sunset

because i can die i am living

everyone i love but do not know opening in the wind

 

a monotonous ferry ride 

becomes soil beneath the feet of god 

where the eyes of the dead open and open

 

whose gospel has left my heart unread

whose sun

shall leave my eyes

 

corn and clover

where am i going

the secret never arrives

 

removed a crushed body from the asphalt lane

killing heat forecast

we teach death our ways

are you one to dissolve

in the salt of a soul

seeking moist and timid sin

 

untied from its willows

the river dies—

stars graze on time in the desert sky

 

gathered the freedom

to be an anchor

wandering among the waves

 

restoring the egg to its skimpy nest :: gently closing its eye

 

more shadows in my eye than a universe of eyes—old sky as barefoot as birds

 

can you sew me a pocket :: filled with answers and doves

 

always thought water would listen to anyone

mouth of sighs

breath of hearts

 

stepped into life's water

stone without skin

felt for the first time cold winds

 

shall my flame weep in the reign of ash

shall i claim the living pine where mountains die

whose voice has raised a shadowed word

against seas of shattered light

 

glimpsed outside

on a weathered sign—

blood that flows

between two hearts

will never answer to time

 

peace to the death

which becomes a rose

peace to the heart

which greens you

 

our music preserves the echo :: of stones washing the sea

 

inside the dying of my apple tree

the rose is old

the dreams are green

 

the sky you awakened in the eyes of the rain :: holds the moon the night and the reason to remain

 

let wild seed wake before the rains grow old :: before the moon is shut out of your heart

 

washing my poetry i sweeten the sea :: until the green of your island is saved

 

moon sheds moon

opens an infinite eye

the risk of being reborn throbs through the sky

 

to be water that has not found a well

            to die young

                        fallen from a cloud

 

if there is a gate it will be left open

if there is a border may the dead guide you over

but follows no road where it goes

 

birth was a drama that one member of the cast does not remember

 

soul

not substance but naked 

            —voice in a mirror with tiny cracks —

where the other face of night is looking

             —kissed by what the poet sees —

resisting all that falls from god

             —nothing else can be so still

 

just enough darkness to forest the world :: then light dawns in one leaf

 

last drops of rain in hands of a breeze    stirring what others need

 

in the throb beneath a drop of blood :: i feel my wounds at war

 

in the oar i've abandoned i long for the sea

 

when its suffering's washed away :: what remains of clay

 

let's awake in the garden others can't see

            naked as the moon turning dust to dream

 

a crystal drop tips each twig

            chickadee calls drift away

i enter a willow at dusk in the rain

 

does water remember the child in its arms bleeding his beautiful pearls of breath

 

i set out candles at daybreak to keep some darkness near

 

there is sky in my arrow :: there is no path to my sky

 

can you remember the touch of your hand as it gave you the power to heal

 

is memory the only place the dead are given light to see