Thursday, January 31, 2019
WINTER MORNING
Yes, morning
with its meager
winter light.
Snow across
the grass where
darkness lingers.
The numbing
cold a cold
reminder. And
again, this day
is the only
one that is.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (35)
A MOMENT
Surprised to see
juncos working
beneath the feeder,
scratching seeds
from snowy ground.
Perhaps a storm
is coming to
drive this frenzy.
Perhaps hunger
is always
its own warning.
The light fails my
astonishment.
The birds disappear.
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (34)
STILL POINTS
There are these still points
between afternoon
and evening, between
evening and night, when
we think we see it,
when we think we know
the secret of light.
Which shows what we know.
Monday, January 28, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (33)
THE WATCHERS
The watchers
watch. They are
watching now.
Morning and
night. This and
each moment
in every
universe,
the present
ones, those past,
those still to
come. They watch.
It's enough
they know what
is was, what
was is, what
will be will
be again.
Sunday, January 27, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (32)
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: The Final Poem
Death is
what is left
when you go.
You leave it
behind.
We have to
do something
with it, so
we grieve.
WE NAME THE STARS
We name the stars
as we name
ourselves, as if
the naming will
save us, as if
we will remember,
when the stars
go out, their names,
as if the stars
will remember us.
Saturday, January 26, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (31)
RANDOM JANUARY - (30)
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems" Words Is
DREAM
So there I am,
caught with it
in the corner
of the bar.
With what,
I'm not sure.
The bartender
says, "No, I won't
let them bust you
in here for that."
Friday, January 25, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (29)
RANDOM JANUARY - (28)
The trees
push back
the snow
around
their trunks.
Is it
the sun
heating
them, or
their heart-
wood which
does it?
I watch,
but am
too slow
to see
how
they work
this trick.
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: Sometimes
WINTER NIGHT
It is cold, but clear,
the stars as bright
as fire. My breath
rises, loses itself
to darkness. The stars
weigh upon the wind.
Winter waits
for no one. The sky
turns, as it must,
and I think how
far I am from
where I belong.
Thursday, January 24, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (27)
RANDOM JANUARY - (26)
When the dark one
says come, will you?
Will any of us
go when we're called?
I think of the last
light resisting.
RANDOM JANUARY - (25)
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: Crow Is Searching
THE OLDER
The older
I get
the less
I take in.
The less
I take in
the older
I get.
There is
no meta-
phor for
how it is
when you go
down hard.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (24)
RANDOM JANUARY - (23)
RANDOM JANUARY - (22)
If
you don't
see them,
I can't
help you,
and if
you do
you don't
need me
telling
you where
they are.
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: Stillness
GRAVEL AND SUN
Gravel and sun,
the rough nothing
of the desert.
The emptiness
of our wanting
anything more.
Such heat as
bakes desire
to stone. And
in darkness,
ah, yes, this
loneliness
which owns us.
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (21)
Yes, if
you stand
still long
enough
the most
amazing
stuff of
the world
will pass
before
your eyes.
Don't blink.
RANDOM JANUARY - (20)
RANDOM JANUARY - (19)
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: Like Coyote
INSTRUCTION TO THE POET
Monday, January 21, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (18)
January light.
Like Joni says,
You don't know
what you've got
til it's gone.
Yet the wheel
of stars turns
and keeps on.
RANDOM JANUARY - (17)
RANDOM JANUARY - (16)
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: Faith and Fact
WHEN FINALLY
Sunday, January 20, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (15)
RANDOM JANUARY - (14)
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: Lesson Along the Keya Paha
SPEAKING TO THE STARS
Saturday, January 19, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (13)
RANDOM JANUARY - (12)
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: Praying
RANDOM JANUARY - (11)
POET'S QUESTION
How to
leave
meaning
without
bald
statement?
You know
it's
never
easy,
not
as sweet
as some
will
promise,
this work
which
doesn't
always
work
out quite
right.
Friday, January 18, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (10)
Sheered light
across the field.
One crow
against the wind.
All the world
shows in this,
which is what
love is like.
RANDOM JANUARY - (9)
RANDOM JANUARY - (8)
THE GATHERING
And they came from
the mountains, the
mountain poets. They
came from the river,
from the plains. Old
men and old women,
younger ones, those
just learning their
gift. They came from
every age, singing.
They did not know
each other but were
sisters, brothers. They
spoke a thousand
languages, more, yet
as poets seem to,
they understood.
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: The Keya Paya
Thursday, January 17, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (7)
RANDOM JANUARY - (6)
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: All the Way
THE POET'S LONELINESS
The loneliness, one
poet wanting
to address all
the others, English-
speaking and every
language, on every
living planet
of every far
star, where they have
been pushed into
wonder and find
themselves alone,
alone and looking
this way for solace.
Monday, January 14, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (5)
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: What You Need
CUTTING POTATOES
Cutting potatoes
and not potatoes,
cutting thumb and
thumbnail deep
enough the blood
won't stop. Flesh gasps --
the insult, sharp
steel and motion.
Sunday, January 13, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (4)
RANDOM JANUARY - (3)
Finches
and sparrows
fluffed
against cold.
They feed
on the ground.
The wind.
The grey sky
offers
no solace.
EVENING COMES
The light fails.
Evening comes,
the quiet
darkness which
harbors us.
The sound of
wind, the sound
of the train
pulling hard
through town. All
of us do
what we must.
And the heart
wants to stay.
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: Leaving the Keya Paha
Friday, January 11, 2019
RANDOM JANUARY - (2)
THE SKY DOES NOT
I have a recent poem up at Independent Variable. Take a look:
https://independentvariable.co.uk/the-sky-does-not/
https://independentvariable.co.uk/the-sky-does-not/
RANDOM JANUARY - (1)
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: The Grass Is Frosted
The grass is frosted,
tall, dead stalks.
The sun waits.
The hawk waits.
Tonight the stars
will do it again.
AS IF
As if
God is electric
and touches you
and you are
surprised by
the sear of it.
As if
the silver of it
is fire released
in a rush and
you don't know what.
As if
a wire in wind
sings and sings,
then goes silent.
Thursday, January 10, 2019
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: Leaves Are Falling
THE POET
He puts himself out
there where all is edge
and margin and
nothing is center.
As if loss and
emptiness are
enough to make
a life and life is
enough to make
it mean something.
Wednesday, January 09, 2019
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: Leaving the Keya Paha
Leaving,
yet not saying
good-bye, saying
until we meet next time.
The wind eating
the miles behind us.
JUDGMENT
Her poems
are superior
to his:
they do more
than re-arrange
her wishes,
more than
annoy
the birches.
Tuesday, January 08, 2019
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: Dawn, the Last Day
WANT WANTS
Want wants
what want wants.
Urgent as mortal sin.
Slow in the offing perhaps,
frenzied at the end.
Blessed is the silence
of silence then.
Monday, January 07, 2019
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: I Don't Choose
I don't choose
what I do.
What I do
chooses me.
You may think
this backwards,
but it works.
See the sky.
Say sky. Say
hawk rides this
wind into
your shadow.
HOW FAR
How far
the north wind comes,
blown here across
muskeg,
forest, lake, mud.
We can't know what
that wind
has seen, and we
can't understand:
the more
it knows, the less
it needs to tell.
Sunday, January 06, 2019
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: Low Ground
SUCH EMPTINESS
Saturday, January 05, 2019
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: In One Moment
In one
moment
Coyote
is that
patch
of sun,
a stone,
a bunch
of red
grass
waving
in wind,
everything
but what
you want
him to be.
And then
he's gone.
OLD MAN'S WISDOM
Friday, January 04, 2019
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: Well-Shouldered Hills
These well-
shouldered
hills shelter
the coyotes
and the coyotes
shelter them.
Trust wanders
like water
in the creek
and keeps
coming back.
POET AND BIRDS
Thursday, January 03, 2019
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: The Land
The land is this
moment. This pair
of hawks above
the wind where
silence lives.
The river talking
to no one, everyone.
The lost poet
who is a cricket
forecasting
November,
who can't see
his end from here.
SOME DAYS
Wednesday, January 02, 2019
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: What the River
What the river
wants to say,
it does, whether
you care or not.
There is an
eternity
here you know
nothing about.
The river knows.
AH, THIS WORLD
Tuesday, January 01, 2019
from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems: More Coyotes
More coyotes
than God has
time for. One
turns and he
disappears.
I turn, and
another
one is gone.
Still the wind
and sun, the
grasses talking.
THE WIND
