During Grief

The unknottable knot

is out of reach

yet, the lupine finds root 

in unrootable soil.

(2012)

Finding Poetry

Through tall dried

shrubs, alert ears

hop it’s way.

(2012)

This! Morning!

A banana tells me:

“you are mad.”

Still, I add it,

peel and all,

to my smoothie.

(2012)

The black & white photo

I’m seven. I’ve been rent in two;

a jagged left half, a haggard right

taped together and yellowing.

Now, forty years later, I know 

why I’ve never been able to tell 

hope from despair.

(2012)

The Offering

I’d hope to offer you 

redeye gravy & country ham,

biscuits, eggs & bacon.

Unfortunately, 

I’ve only got a dead mouse.

(2012)

Pause

The dove returned

empty handed

giving me time

to drink my coffee.

(2012)

Tucson Copper

Sad watching 

a mountain die

carted off 

for a few ounces

of copper.

However, 

I do love 

my electricity 

and hot water.


(2012)

Unfriending

You 

think yourself

so clever

responding

to posts 

with your 

ethereal

thunder claps, 

little woo-woo 

collision farces; 

clever cleavers 

separating you from 

me.

(2012)

Music

The constant stir

soothes 

the bubbling oatmeal.

(2011)

Sweetness

This is what 

I consider 

honey:

  your four lips

  caressing mine. 

(2012)

Synchronized Swimming

The dove 

shifts weight;

I stir 

in my chair.

B.F.M

Morning Watch

I borrow

each moment,

a dove pecking

for lice.

(2012)

My Ocean

I think I'm lost at sea.

How pleasant 

to roll on your waves.

(2012)

Post-it 34

Every morning Sid

wakes up. He counts

the number of yellow

single spaced blue lined

Post-its:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 

9, 10, 11, 12, 13...

34.

On the morning he doesn’t,

he doesn’t.

(2012)

The Quiet

Four chairs sit 
silently
listening

to falling dust.

(2012)

Gray Sky

A quilt

covers

the sky

while

old men

walk

the grass

beating

golfballs

down

the fairway.

Same World

Outside 

a lawnmower drones,

inside 

cream falls into my coffee.

(2012)

Concern

With gratitude

I hear your voice

trying to chain me

to your bench.

(2012)

Game Time

The anvil – Melancholia

fell from the fourth or fifth

heaven, missing my head by

an inch or two.

It’s a game I’ve been losing

for years. Today is the first

day I refused to play.

Drowning

Her delicate fingers

slip stone after stone

into our smoking jackets

tutoring us for deeper waters.

(2012)

Notice

I like the way that poet guy,

whose written a bazillion poems,

pulls a slice of life 

out of his pen 

making me take notice 

of the dead, the living,

angel thighs and grazing 

herons.

(2012)

I've been wrong before

I’ve decided to make
dark chocolate -– God.

Something I can handle,
sink my teeth into and digest.

(2012)

Fallen stars

Any 
old crack 
is a 
welcome mat

to 
fallen seedlings.

(2011)

Acknowledgement

You’re the warm Pacific 

surrounding Hawaii 

vast, expansive, schools of life

I want to drowned in.

(2011)

Dreaded Origami

Enjoying the morning landscape

   mountain, light rain, clouds and sunlight

until a familiar left hand reached out

folded it into a tight square

put it in his pocket and asked:

   “where is my breakfast?”

(2012)

4 inches

I sit & read becoming the incredible shrinking man

found at every carnival.

The one in black. The other hawkers face. The one with a collapsing chest.

I’m the Hawker. 

Then I’m Delilah being hawked.

“Gentlemen... come... gentlemen Delilah awaits..."

Then I’m Delilah shaking & twitching on stage.

But you came for the sucking off of your cock, 

not the miraculous – me – illuminated, floating 

4 inches above the stage.


(2011)

After Rain

From the rain gutter

a constant annoyed drip.

From the Lenten Rose 

a soft patient drop.

Deskless Lizard

I’m overwhelmed by the simple tasks, 

clearing my desk, washing a pan, sorting.

Here the wheel of days spins counterclockwise 

mocking me like the mocking bird mocks the desert wren, 

and the sun mocks the deserted calcium crusted soil

and the deskless lizard mocks mankind.

Ticket Please

You’re life is worth

ten thousand poems

mulled with cardamon,

cinnamon and clove

scenting this long

train ride from

Ottawa to Vancouver.

Foursome

The coyotes took 

the first round 

this morning.

Ignoring rules

they played tag

on the greens.