tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21675651184072287422024-03-05T11:03:34.853-05:00Salt and Stone PoetryPoems by Alan Brooks and Nancy Nielsensaltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.comBlogger215125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-49558312250599992602016-05-31T09:00:00.000-04:002018-08-28T08:52:02.495-04:00Oh, Who'd Leave This World<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal;">
<i style="background-color: white;">Nancy Nielsen died May 23, 2016 after a long period of declining health. I had the great privilege of caring for her – my life partner, colleague and dear, dear friend – through her final years, and of being with her when she passed. She wrote this poem on April 8, after one of many temporary recoveries from a succession of setbacks. Somehow, we both knew it would be her last.</i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i></i><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i>Nancy left behind a number of unpublished poems, some of which I will post to this blog from time to time, along with my own as they occur. For those interested, here is her </i><a href="http://obituaries.bangordailynews.com/obituary/nancy-nielsen-1930-2016-804458611"><span style="color: #021eaa;"><i>obituary</i></span></a><i> .</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i></i><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i>– Alan Broo</i><i>ks</i></span></div>
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<i></i><br /></div>
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<i></i><br /></div>
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<b><i>Oh, Who’d Leave This World</i></b></div>
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When the wind</div>
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that wind</div>
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wind from the sea</div>
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salt and wrack</div>
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lifting the meadow grass</div>
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ghosting with fog</div>
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or where</div>
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racket of crows</div>
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caw and caw</div>
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dipping</div>
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into the wind</div>
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Who’d set aside the book</div>
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this book any book</div>
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so filled with life</div>
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book on the table</div>
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Side by side</div>
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we talk of the stories</div>
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wind from the south</div>
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The wind outside</div>
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salt marsh wind</div>
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wind from the sea</div>
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who?</div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-44705287284657378242016-01-30T11:29:00.000-05:002016-01-30T11:42:41.409-05:005:30 a.m. \ On The Other Side<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal;">
<b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>A dream, and slow rising light, and past and present and unexpected future, and out of that this day, this reality.</i></div>
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<i></i><br /></div>
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<i></i><br /></div>
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<i></i><br /></div>
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<b>5:30 a.m.</b></div>
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bitter greens and fried pies</div>
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paw paws and fish sputtering</div>
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misty lake iron pan</div>
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Granny, Aunt Nannie, Papa</div>
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dawns noons twilight</div>
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and this is dawn</div>
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another dawn</div>
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I think of food</div>
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I think of being fed</div>
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how food is memory</div>
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how food is love</div>
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I'm still alive, I say</div>
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surprised</div>
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<br /></div>
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I'm still alive</div>
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shall we have tea?</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i>Alan:</i></b><i> When National Public Radio revived the old “This I Believe” program, among the short statements of faith was one that struck me as unarguably sensible: “I believe in biology.” </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i></i><br /></div>
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<i></i><br /></div>
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<b>On The Other Side</b></div>
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When it seemed clear you were dying</div>
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we could only live in the moment –</div>
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in and for it.</div>
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Death, which had always been invisibly with us,</div>
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became manifest now in the chairs,</div>
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the table, the rug: all the furnishings of our room.</div>
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We opened the door called “hope” and stepped through,</div>
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closing it gently behind us.</div>
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We saw we were in the same room as before.</div>
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The door had locked. We could not go back.</div>
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So we took up our lives again,</div>
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moment by moment, as many moments as there might be –</div>
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there, here, there –</div>
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hope a door we could no longer open,</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14px;">no longer had need for.</span>saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-34297160816454151822015-11-04T18:47:00.000-05:002015-12-22T11:29:38.998-05:00Exeunt Omnes \ Leaves<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>Yes, scene follows scene, the play begins again, but the audience? Coming and going, here only for a while.</i></div>
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<b></b><br /></div>
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<b></b><br /></div>
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<b></b><br /></div>
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<b>Exeunt Omnes</b></div>
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Down come the bean poles,</div>
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the temporary fences.</div>
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Down come the pea sticks.</div>
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Into the flower bed goes the spent soil</div>
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from pots and tubs –</div>
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fresh dirt over the dead and dying –</div>
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nothing will bloom again now.</div>
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To be a creature of a certain intelligence</div>
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aware mainly of uncertainty –</div>
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to do this knowing we may not see</div>
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another Spring.</div>
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Executioner, undertaker, gravedigger –</div>
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scarcely gardener.</div>
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<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
To do this without anger or regret,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
without fear or even hope –</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
to do all this one must love the soil</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
merely as soil, the earth as Earth.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Even stripped</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
of all this temporary living.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
One must love hopelessly</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
the pale blue signaling late autumn,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
the endless broken rows of white</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
from the west. The coming cold</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
after yesterday’s pulse of warm rain.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>Great aunts, grandparents, father and then mother, and yet that face caught in a sudden reflection comes as a surprise.</i></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<b>Leaves</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
The leaves are whispering together in fence corners,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
wondering where the birds have gone,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
pondering immortality.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Foolishly, they seek the fault within themselves</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
(not green enough)</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
(bent often in the wind)</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
(should have learned to fly)</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Dryly they warm themselves in the pale sun</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
(it seemed much warmer then, when I was young)</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
surprised that eternity is not green,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
wondering why they were never told.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Next spring’s green glory,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
folded,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
sleeping in the bud</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
never hears the whispers</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
will sing wind music in the trees</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
will not learn to fly</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
will ponder, too, the chilling why.</div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-12126261923831255662015-10-24T18:46:00.000-04:002015-10-26T11:58:49.008-04:00Beans \ Last Planting<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i> Fresh peas for the evening meal, dry beans for soup, or next year’s garden, child or woman, a part of life’s story</i></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<i></i><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<i></i><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<i></i><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<b>Beans</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
some things never change, bean pods</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
the brown stiff curl of them</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
the beans, shining, speckled or</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
red or black or sometimes porcelain white</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
the way the thumb runs down the pod</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
beans sliding free</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
year after year, dry pods</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
shining beans, the wealth of them</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
beans are eternal</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
only the thumbs change</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
the hands, white skin, five year old hands</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
turn brown, speckled, stiff as dry pods</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
curled, bent, eighty years of knowing</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
the shining beans, the thumbs</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
sliding beans falling</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
the pan on the lap</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
the beans</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
the years</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<b><i>Alan:</i></b><i> It is good to leave something in the ground for next year’s harvest. To close the garden gate promising to return.</i></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<i></i><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<i></i><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<i></i><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<b>Last Planting</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Still, I plant garlic, shallots,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
push the dibble into</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
October’s moist soil.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Press the cloves down,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
smooth-sided, pointy, root-end</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
first. Count out –</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
six across, seven,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
the steady rows.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Small offerings to the small</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
gods of the garden.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Northern, Siberian, Music, Santé,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Dutch Yellow, French.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Tamp the earth, still warm in the sun –</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
worms still rise at midday – with my palms.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
The papered hopes.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Blanket the beds, mulch</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
against freeze-up.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Swirl of leaves around me,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
each colored according to its kind,</div>
not quite ready to fall.saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-23298708136658185572015-07-14T13:00:00.000-04:002015-07-14T13:00:56.844-04:00Forget-Me-Nots \ Night, The Old She-Bear<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>In a small town, small incidents – small kindnesses, slights, gestures or failures of reciprocity – linger, becoming the stories we tell about ourselves and our neighbors. Scraps of experience woven into the fabric of the place.</i></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<i></i><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<i></i><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<i></i><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<b>Forget-Me-Nots</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
You owe me two dollars, lady.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Not me. Those nice folks</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
who do the plant sale each June.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Remember them? It’s for a good cause –</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
charity. Remember, ten, twelve years ago</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
you came by looking for forget-me-nots?</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Not the blue kind – everyone has those –</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
the white ones. Sold out. I was helping, so</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
I said I’d dig you some from my garden.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Two dollars. For charity. And I did.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
I brought a pot-full by the next day,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
left it (you were out) with a note</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
on your front steps. You never paid.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
Ever since, whenever I drive by</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
your piece of suburbia</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
carved from spruce woods and puckerbrush –</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
filled and level lawn, gum-drop shrubs,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
gazing globes on white pedestals, twee figurines,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
that symbolic bit of half-sized picket fence –</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
I think, you owe me two lousy bucks, lady,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
for charity! That’s the kind of thing,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
around here, we never forget.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
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<b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>Bent fences, trampled gardens, nights filled with caterwauling, banshee squalls, hoots and howls – the wonderful wild roil of life at night – dawn and a sense of something missing...</i></div>
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<b>Night, The Old She-Bear</b></div>
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<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
A crazy old woman living on a hill.</div>
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She saw the night coming,</div>
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saw the heart shining where it hung in the ribs,</div>
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beating, saw the bones shining,</div>
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red, the old she-bear’s bones were red.</div>
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She saw the belly, welcoming;</div>
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she wanted to cry out, “yes, Old Mother,”</div>
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but she was afraid.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The Wise Dogs were licking one another’s lips,</div>
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and fawning, and singing love songs.</div>
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The woman noticed that all of the animals</div>
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were taking off their skins; she saw</div>
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that they moved easily, unencumbered.</div>
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They were going to dance in the night air.</div>
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She wanted to dance, but her skin was too tight.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Lululu, they were all singing, drumming.</div>
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The woman counted them, two, two, two,</div>
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singing hungry songs and waiting for the moon;</div>
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she saw them drinking the moon and thought</div>
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how much she wanted to drink and sing,</div>
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but they were twos, twos, and she was alone.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The moon went west and the sun came east</div>
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and the woman felt the light. She felt it</div>
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on her skin, her hair, in the clock of her belly,</div>
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felt it through her closed eyes. The women felt</div>
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the light, felt the light ! oh, I, I feel</div>
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the light, feel it in my mouth, taste it,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
the light, and feel how wide the bed is</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
as I spread my legs in the cool sheets. Light</div>
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cool wide empty bed, the woman, I.</div>
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<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10px;">
<i>“Night, The Old She-Bear” first appeared in </i><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><i>East Of The Light</i></span><i> (Stone Man Press & Slow Dancer Press, 1984).</i></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-30088280062352132862015-06-28T14:00:00.000-04:002015-06-28T14:03:48.039-04:0016 And Never Bn Kssd \ Hoo-hoo<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>In my world of the ‘30s and ‘40s, I heard “girls don’t,” “girls can’t,” and “we don’t take girls.” Over and over I turned to Madame Curie, a girl who could and did.</i></div>
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<b>16 And Never Bn Kssd</b></div>
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Thank God for Madame Curie,</div>
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my best friend in the years</div>
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when I could neither Talk To Boys</div>
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nor continue as Mowgli to their wolf pack.</div>
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Neither of us went to pajama parties,</div>
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or mastered pin curls, or eye shadow,</div>
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and although we never spoke</div>
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across the mounds of books,</div>
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she smiled and shook my hand</div>
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when I stood up and opened the door</div>
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and set out alone,</div>
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determined to discover new lands.</div>
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Sometimes it was a vaccine,</div>
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a city unearthed,</div>
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inscriptions read –</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
I smiled back at Madame Curie</div>
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and walked out of the library</div>
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into the sun.</div>
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<b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>A recent </i><a href="http://agallopingcat.blogspot.ca/2015/06/stupid-men-saying-stupid-things.html"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(1, 26, 153); color: #011a99;"><b><i>blog post </i></b></span></a><i>by Christine Nielsen got me thinking, why is it that (some) men still just don’t get it? Then I remembered a story a friend of ours told us about her young grandkids, and this poem tumbled out.</i></div>
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<i></i><br /></div>
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<b>Hoo-hoo</b></div>
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<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
“I have a hoo-hoo and you don’t!” she teases</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
her little brother, pointing to the folds</div>
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between her legs. Ah Freud,</div>
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where is that envy now? Her mysteries</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
so out-rank his all-too-obvious wee appliqué</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
he feels ashamed.</div>
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<br /></div>
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What is the use of writing in the snow,</div>
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watering the tree trunk,</div>
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when she can boast such clean superiority,</div>
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such a tidy origami of parts?</div>
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<br /></div>
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She laughs and points again,</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
and in that moment we know</div>
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the Big Bang was not a male experience</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
and at the center of every maelstrom galaxy</div>
lives a concupiscent hole.saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-51652374238285473672015-06-16T12:04:00.000-04:002015-06-16T12:04:06.629-04:00Phoebe \ Summergreen<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>Our phoebe’s a small but ebullient summer companion, whose explosive song Peterson calls “well-enunciated.” That’s like saying a drill sergeant’s voice is “well-modulated”: while not untrue, it fails to grok the fullness.</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Phoebe</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You have betrayed me, Phoebe,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">slipping from the pages of my books</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">like a whisper, a young girl</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">running barefoot in summer dew,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">beautiful and painful as first love.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For starters, you’re a guy.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You sneeze your name, over and over,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">from a nearby branch –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Look at me! Look at me!” – full of yourself.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Testosterone with feathers.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I know your type, June party-crasher,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">hopping about, drawing attention,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">snacking on the wing,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">stumbling against the furniture,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">wearing a silly grin and a lampshade.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But Phoebe! Phoebe! I forgive you.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You are otherwise sober, industrious, neighborly,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">always on hand to give advice,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">keep an eye on things, look me straight on,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">ward off time’s passing and despond.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>Before weather, time and insects, new leaves like green candles...</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Summergreen</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the water was green</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and the young corn</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and the light under the ferns</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">outside the window</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">June lights the birch</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a green flame</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the old woman watches</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">now the ash catches</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">green, green</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">child, child, look at you</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">green the old woman remembers</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the branch where she sat</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the summergreen trees</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">water, arrowhead leaves</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">dragonflies</span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-25797164161968831042015-05-24T13:41:00.000-04:002015-05-24T13:41:49.422-04:00Backroads \ What We Pass Along<br />
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>The cabin’s weathered grey, there’s an irremediable leak in the roof, but my windowsills bloom and petunias brighten the doorstep.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Backroads</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We ask green things to stand for us</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">against reality.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Those plants, lined up along the sill,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">defy the snow,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and steal the meager winter light,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and grow.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And gardens live in tins</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and tires,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to bloom against unpainted walls,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to shut out heat,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and dust;</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to fight defeat.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And will they stand for us when we are gone –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a flower in the woods,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a tree,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a shadow on the wall –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">become reality?</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>I still wear my Sears overalls, knees worn, seams half-torn, with my name and “Stone Man Farm” stitched on it, from all those years ago.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>What We Pass Along</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We called it a farm but it was in our dreams only.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And what did we mean, anyway?</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A place to grow some vegetables,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">run a few chickens, sell the surplus –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">where? no farmers’ markets around here then.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The dream added a cart,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">whimsically painted, by the roadside.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That’s what we called it: farm.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The old folks who knew farming,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and even those middle-aged who remembered</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">grammy and grampy’s place outside town,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">from when they were kids,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">must have smiled secretly, too polite</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to swamp us in the cold squall of history.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Farm” meant a few cows anyway,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">maybe pigs, beef critters, a couple acres potatoes,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">or for the ambitious, hen pens full of layers,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and hayfields, hayfields for sure.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Dairy went bust in the ‘50s</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">when they went to all stainless and bulk tanks</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">– old Daisy couldn’t pay for that!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The hen pens went out with the railroad</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and the cost of trucked feed.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If you were a gambler, you could go broke</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">on bull semen and bank loans. No one</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">had those big flat fields like up in The County,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">it was all patchwork, you got by</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">with loggin’ or truckin’ or fishin’. Mix-and-match.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: right;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Still, we called it a farm,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">drove 60 miles each way to meetings</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">of the Ag Committee, sat around the table</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">with a few other confused homesteaders,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">picked up the buzz on “micro-business,” “entrepreneurship,”</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">learned how to wrap green foil around potted plants</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to make ‘em shiny so they’d sell,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">learned about gunk-holes (“everybody needs a gunk-hole out back –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">that’s where you dump stuff to rot”), learned the mantra</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“alders to goats to pigs to chickens to good, black soil.”</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Wondered what happened to 4-H,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">heard that parents hated the thought of their kids</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">in coveralls and muck, that’s what</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">they’d left behind twenty years before.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We were too late to farm, it seems, and the place was no good for it.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That’s why we found just a few half-swallowed fieldstones</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">where a barn was, bricks where a chimney fell,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a rusty stove door, axle, empty bottle of Antiphlogistine, good for man and beast,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">but no reliable water, no sign of a garden,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">nothing you could press your hand down into</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and say, “here’s where things will grow.”</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We were too late. We were too early.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We were too poor.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There are farms now, again.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mostly people from away, and a few locals</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">who never gave up or came back to it</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">after working somewhere else for awhile.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Eat at the New Friendly. We know who grows their spuds.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There’s great yogurt down the road toward the village –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">take the lane past the Jerseys (they’re gentle).</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If you’re feeling flush, order a whole</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">organic free-range chicken, all prepared,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">right from the back door, as good as anything</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">in Boston or New York. We hear wool is coming back,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and wheat: “artisanal,” small-scale. Fitting in.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Our farm was just a name and a dream.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We had to move, after more than 30 years. It got too hard.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But still we go back sometimes. To us it’s still home.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We see now that the place itself was the seed</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and we had all the soil we needed in our hearts,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and our crops were poems.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That’s what fed us. That’s what we pass along.</span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-69355916810899022402015-05-10T10:15:00.000-04:002015-05-10T10:15:03.699-04:00Red Flag Warnings \ Underway<br />
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>Some years, winter lingers and lingers and then... we’ve slid right past mud season and on into something not quite spring, not quite summer, not quite right. </i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Red Flag Warnings</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Saying: don’t burn.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Saying: snow-pack</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to drought. Bone-cold</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to hot. Mud-soft</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to dust. So fast.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">White throat calling</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Sam, Sam Peabody,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Old Sam Peabody.”</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Old, yes. Could be</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the last day. It could be.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Today I have heard</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a vireo, seen a first</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">orange butterfly, smelled</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">balsam stirred by</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a dry west wind.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>Off with the shrink wrap, down with the props, up with the hulls and away to the water!</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Underway</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">May is underway and</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">daffodils are blooming and</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">boats are on the roads,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the multi-thousand dollar ones</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">with their winter shrink wrap</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">riffling and</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the ones with their outboards</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">tilted up: those are the ones</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">hauled behind pickup trucks</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">like the one I saw this morning</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a white truck</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">with one red door</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">with a blue-green panel</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">with (probably) a rebuilt engine</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">flying down the road</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">proud to be underway</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to the waters</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to the fisheries.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Yes, hurrah, it's May</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and the daffodils are blooming</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and the boats are underway.</span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-38063712851097396532015-04-30T12:52:00.000-04:002015-05-10T10:19:31.987-04:00Kneeling By Stones \ Birds<br />
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>How many days – months – years – I knelt beside my grandmother: in cold and heat, early and late, from the digging of greens to the gathering of seeds. A weaver learns to weave, a blacksmith learns to forge – a gardner, I learned, learns to kneel.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Kneeling By Stones</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My knees ache already; think</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">of the knees of gardeners, gravediggers,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">penitents, petitioners,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">of cold stones, holy ground,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">of seasons trudging through death,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">of faith and readiness.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Our knees stiffen, they gnarl,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">they scar; the fat goes out of them.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We lean on our tools. We walk in pain.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But when the time comes – and we are</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">waiting for it to come – we kneel</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">in ice water, in mud, wherever</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">we are when the mystery catches us.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In this, I follow my grandmother,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">no saint, she, but – like me –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">ready to drop to her knees,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to let her bones cry out,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to reach out her hands</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">for the blessing of the first green shoot.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i> I think here of children who never experience the out-of-doors unattended, who grow up knowing nature only as something beyond the window or mediated by screens.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Birds</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Yes, there were the birds.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Not as many now, true –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">but in those places that still</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">had seasons, in the time</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">formerly called Spring,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a thin trickle of freshening sound</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">flowed through the Scrablands.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Small bubbles rose up</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">from the blackness, each one</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">bursting with a long-forgotten name.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Sparrow. Warbler.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And once she noticed these, others.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Black-and-white. Black-throated green.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Yellowthroat.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Entranced, she made her way</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">farther from the thrum,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">stopping often, until it faded a little</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">in the still-bare thickets</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and under it she detected</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a faint music.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">She wanted suddenly to share this,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">return the names to all this “what,”</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">tell the others, teach them,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">though it was, she knew,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">strictly prohibited</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and would be severely punished.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 10.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“Birds” is from a work in progress, </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i>Annals Of The Nearer Soon</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> (preliminary title).</i></span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-14961325205449307222015-03-25T11:25:00.000-04:002015-03-25T11:25:08.723-04:00Almost Mid-March \ Now Rises April<br />
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>Winter, like all of us, can be vain, even as it starts to show its age.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Almost Mid-March</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Winter notices its fat thighs.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It thinks it’s a white beast</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">breathing down all our necks.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But it looks at itself now</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and sees: cellulite. Or at least</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the snow sagging and dimpling</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">under this outrage of sun.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This breeze from afar.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Just days ago winter, sorcerer,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">sorceress? – this ungendered maw,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">taut belly of need, held us,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">batted us around as it willed.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But today? Today winter</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">looks at the calendar.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Almost mid-March. Suddenly</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">it’s tired, tired of all its tricks</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and tired of itself. Time,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">thinks winter, for a vacation.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Time to attend to those thighs.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Time enough to go</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and come back ravenous</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and roaring one more time.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>Waiting for a day of mild air, a day when I might take a deep breath and hum an old tune from my childhood.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Now Rises April</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">as from a winter sleep</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> as from a dark constellation</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">April rises: birdsong, watersong</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> green shoots, promise of flowers</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">saltmarsh perfume, call of shorebirds</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> as from a dark sleep</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I rise, surprised, take a step</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> toward rising light</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">toward the promise of flowers</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> an old woman</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">singing</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">fair, fair is the morning</span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-74708453345216606272015-03-09T15:17:00.000-04:002015-03-09T15:17:17.737-04:00Snow On The Windows \ Climbing March Hill #4<br />
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>When the windows are obliterated with whirling blowing snow, only the mind can escape.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Snow On The Window</b>s</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a landscape</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a geology textbook</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a campsite at Jumbo Rocks</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a canyon, walking deep into history</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a rolling meadow</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a cave</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">icebergs</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mount Kailas, streaming cloud</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I might say</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> I am shut in</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> yes, I am shut in</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">traveling</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">traveling</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>Snowstorm after snowstorm, six feet, nine feet, eleven feet... And yet even in this hard winter, early March hints at another season coming.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Climbing March Hill #4</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You say, “Look at the sky!”</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I see “bruised.” I see “angry.”</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Livid.” I see welts,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">something stretched out wounded.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Your pain and mine, everyone’s.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Lifetimes of hurts.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I see a storm far to the south,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">heavy thumb on the mid-Atlantic states.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Stranded commuters. A jet</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">off the runway, almost</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">in the river. People running.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I see long tongues of flame.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I see this through another window</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">than last time. Another angle,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a little farther north.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I see a furnace banking itself behind spruces,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the sharp line of trees on the crest of the hill we live on.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A blindly biting mouth.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I see winter suddenly afraid of its own mortality.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I see a break in the storms, a chance for the snow to settle.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I see another cold night coming and a clear dawn,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the evening star setting west.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I see seeds waiting under the snow.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Beautiful,” I say to you. “Beautiful.”</span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-74299025292031591822015-01-31T11:28:00.000-05:002015-01-31T11:28:33.112-05:00Snow On The Windows \ Descent<br />
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>Blizzard, whirlwind, maelstrom of air, snow packed against, blocking, the windows – creating a world of memory and imagination.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Snow On The Window</b>s</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a landscape</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a geology textbook</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a campsite at Jumbo Rocks</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a canyon, walking deep into history</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a rolling meadow</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a cave</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">icebergs</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mount Kailas, streaming cloud</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I might say</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> I am shut in</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> yes, I am shut in</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">traveling</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">traveling</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>If I fly, it’s the landing that scares me. If I climb, it’s the wondering how to get down.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Descent</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It’s not the climb that’s so hard –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> even Jack knew that –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> strength, agility, courage</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">all that’s needed. Once there</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> the adventure, despite dangers,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> doable. No,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> with or without the stolen</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> or even offered boon,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> it’s the descent –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the stalk collapsing, the magic gone.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Shamans who beat their drums</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> then threw their rope-ends into the air</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> climbed</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> and vanished</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">knowing they might not return</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> might fall down dead or mad.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Those waiting also knew,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> making the wait a prayer.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My father told of climbing the knotted rope</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> to the gym’s very rafters;</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> then, thinking it smart,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> he slid down neat and quick,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">tearing the calluses off both hands.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> The coach mercurochromed the raw flesh.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> He almost hit the roof again.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A trivial example but worth recalling.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There were oracles of the state who, summoned,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> first went into trance.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Only then could they bear the headdress</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> hoisted by several men</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> that otherwise would snap their necks.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Each time the fierce deity</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> entered them and spoke,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">their lives shortened. Yet it had to be done.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: right;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So, as we climb now</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> with hands and feet, with our whole bodies</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> disappearing toward what we cannot know</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> may never reach or, reaching, find ungraspable</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">let us remember</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> when it comes time at last to descend</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> to do so gently, slowly –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> bearing at least ourselves as proof –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> and with infinite care</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> together.</span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-78204090616849383652015-01-12T10:23:00.000-05:002015-01-14T10:26:04.064-05:00Stolen \ Posting the DANGER Signs At Raven's Gulch<br />
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>When something’s taken from us, how do we react? Maybe if we see the smaller thefts as a training...</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Stolen</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I came back to find the generator</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> stolen</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">or rather to see</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> the blue tarp</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> blown against bushes</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and the yellow cord</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> with its heavy plug</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">dangling</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> from the outside wall</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Easy to guess what happened.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Two men, young, strong, quick</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> could muscle it without trace</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">(except for the blotch</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> of spilled diesel, candy</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> wrapper tossed carelessly aside)</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">across frozen ground, dead grass, gravel</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> and lift it or slide it up planks</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> into their pickup</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> and be gone</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">They’ll sell it for scrap or pawn it</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> for drugs or maybe to pay off Christmas</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> or even (I can hope) keep it</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">if they get it running</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> after years of no use.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We live in a world of stolen. Long ago</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> when this was just a summer place</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> uninsulated frame camp</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> cobbled from reject lumber</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">you arrived in the dark</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> after the slow hard trip from Boston</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> to light the gas lamp</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> heard hissing</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> jerked the match away</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> from the cut line in time</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Hap McDaniel hired a crew once</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> to clear alders at the edge of the next-door field</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">went home for lunch</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> returned to find them driving away with his tools –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">guys he was paying. Hap’s long gone</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> but forty years on we remember</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We remember too the story</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> of the man who found his front door missing</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">was sure he knew who took it</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> went to get it back, was asked in, was talking</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">looked up, noticed a door-shaped bulge</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> in the just-papered-over ceiling </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When a thief took every bit </span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> of Ryokan’s so-very-little</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">he grieved he could not offer him the moon</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> shining through the hut’s open window.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For myself, I only wish </span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> along with the generator</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I could give to these</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> whose need can never be satisfied</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a share of the happiness I feel now</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> seeing it gone</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>When the icy sea is yet warmer than the frigid air and the air icier than the frozen ground and your own breath is the loudest sound, this is a lonely planet and a cold star.</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Posting The DANGER Signs At Raven’s Gulch</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Zero degrees.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Wind cuts across the cobble beach</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">but the trail goes up, into trees.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Not much talking,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">climbing; wondering what animal,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">or was it the earth itself,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">breathed out these white feathers beside the trail?</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Height of land. Now the trail</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">pitches down.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“STOP,” the signs say, “DANGER.”</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is what we came to do.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And in the cleft,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">only the sea, smoking,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">smoking. No ravens.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Except for the hammer, driving nails,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">no sound.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The sky,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">receiving sea smoke,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">makes clouds.</span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br />
<div style="font: 10.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Note: The poem refers to degrees Fahrenheit. 0º Fahrenheit is roughly -18º Celsius.</i></span></span></div>
</div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-18977821232032585332015-01-01T11:35:00.000-05:002015-05-01T11:41:58.051-04:00Salt And Stone Poetry At 200<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Two hundred weeks, that is. When we started Salt And Stone Poetry on March 9, 2011, we gave no thought to its possible lifetime, only that we wanted to post our poems – old and new, one each every week – for as long as we had suitable material. But having done so for the best part of four years, it’s time to make a change.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We will keep Salt And Stone Poetry going but from now on will post on an irregular rather than weekly basis. If you want to see material as it is posted, please sign up to follow the blog by email.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Thank you for your interest. We hope you will continue to read the blog and to share any poems that you particularly enjoy with others.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Alan Brooks & Nancy Nielsen</span></div>
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saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-69529611155440888152015-01-01T11:29:00.000-05:002015-01-01T11:29:59.313-05:00The Steps \ Wabi Sabi – The Green Door<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>Yes, the walk to the well, the weight of the bucket, the climb back up the hill, have compensations difficult to describe but very real.</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>The Steps</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Down the hill, at the well,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">four steps have been carved into the icy white stone</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">of winter. Four deep steps.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I take the buckets and go.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When I was a child, I was taken to</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a famous building. Later I felt foolish</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">when they asked me what I had liked best.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The steps. The white marble cupped and worn</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">by the passing feet. They laughed, and I never</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">mentioned it again, but I remembered the cool sound</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">in my mind, of stone wearing under the feet.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I think of those steps now, and of the deep wells</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">of the desert, where the steps are cut</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">into red or gold sandstone, and generations</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">of women have worn smooth patterns of descent and climb.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Four steps, the splash of the bucket, dip, lift.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Is it not more wonderful than monuments</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">that a child could see the feet of strangers in the stones,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and that I burnish, slowly, the heavy cover</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and tile of the well? Is it not beautiful,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to see the dark well water fill with sky?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>There is a comfort, a sadness and mystery in something as simple as an old door nearing the end of its service.</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Wabi Sabi – The Green Door</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">even more worn</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">more faded now</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">than in the photo –</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">flat December dawn</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">that yet proved luminous –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">boards softer</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">more gapped, warped,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">green almost gone</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">from the grain –</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">still opens out</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">into marvelous air</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">out from shadow</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">within</span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-51262632825230279552014-12-24T12:30:00.000-05:002014-12-24T12:30:00.027-05:00Restless Night, Cold Morning \ Three Nights Before Christmas<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>The sound of calling birds – willets in the spring, geese in the fall – exerts a pull even on my sleeping brain.</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Restless Night, Cold Morning</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The geese hit the bay in a spray</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">of sound and water, rippling</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the last shaft of rose madder light.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Then all subsides in dusk and murmur.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <i>the geese circle the bay and land,</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> calling impatiently while I hurry</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> to gather my feathers, I almost forgot</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> but now I remember, hurry, call and fly</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> but wait, the geese lift up against the moon,</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> dark paper cutouts in the sky</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> even in sleep I hear, my blood answers,</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> but late, too late to fly</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Days dawn so cold and clear now, listen,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">you can hear the crackle of rim ice</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">when the wind catches an edge.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Down the bay, nothing murmurs, nothing stirs.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <i>only dreaming the calling, the greeting,</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> the whirl and circle, the water, the sound,</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> the cries triumphant, one and another</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> and another and another</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">At dusk the bay is quiet, and again in the morning,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">except for the wind, nothing stirs,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">nothing calls to me across the water. No reason,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and yet, for a moment I linger, listening.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan</i></b><i>: Skeeter – 3 pounds of high-octane joy – ruled my life for all eight years of his. I offer the following in his memory and in blushing homage to Clement Moore, Dr. Seuss, and Mad Magazine, which introduced me as a child to the perverse pleasures of parody.</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Three Nights Before Christmas</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">'Twas three nights before Christmas, and up in my bed</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was sleeping the sleep of the not-yet-quite-dead,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Dreaming such dreams as I know are too common,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Of towns made of Swiss cheese and seas made of ramen,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Serial sagas both pointless and plotless,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Behaviors that dawn would reveal to be thoughtless,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Scenes by DiNiro, DeMille, Peter Jackson</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">(Silent, except for piano and claxon),</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Teaming with characters straight out of Dickens</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">With bit parts galore (there was one for Slim Pickens),</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Creatures who ranged from the pure to despicable</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">With motives transparent… obscure… inexplicable.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Let me tell you each detail (giant pink quinces!).</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Oh. Is that a yawn? And are those tics winces?</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well, these were </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">my</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> dreams, so I found them engaging,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And slept, though outside a light drizzle was raging;</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Slept in the bliss that tomorrow was Saturday</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A sleep saints would envy, both former- and Latter-day.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ah, joy! No shrilling alarm in the darkness!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">No jolt! No "Where am I? In Skegness? In Harkness?"</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And so, to sum up, I was napping the nap</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Of a middle-aged, twenty-first-century chap.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Fretful and over-worked Monday through Friday,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But Saturday, ah Saturday! It was </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">my</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> day!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When, what to my protesting ears should intrude</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But the voice of the Skeeter. So early! So rude!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He whimpered. He simpered. He barked. He insisted.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I covered my head with a pillow! Resisted!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Downstairs in his crate he was growlin' and squeakin'.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I: clam. He: the starfish. I felt myself weaken;</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Until, in despair, off the covers I threw</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And peered at the clock. It was five twenty-two!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The sky was pitch black! It would still be for hours!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But who in the world can resist Skeeter's powers?</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And so from the long winter's night I'm ejected.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I stagger downstairs, feeling beaten, dejected.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I light the gas lamps. I put on the kettle.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I haul on my coat. What a test of one's mettle!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I give good old Tycho a quick belly-rub.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Good boy! You've been quiet. Not so Beelzebub,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Who's watching, quite brisk, as I unlatch the gate;</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jeez, Skeeter, you devil! Step forth from your crate.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So I leash them, and walk them, and build up the fire;</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9-yjeUCHGawNeEg5tufN5epncBYJjRnp2but_RTh90q7fcp7aqNrmHqwWzpuQx8QFwaB38Zzk2PdvpQ9kb1Z3WpZUCwlNKHB8tSipEFSoFCcP1d89R94-942IamajvP4gCVrVgnVE_yE/s1600/Skeeter102106+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9-yjeUCHGawNeEg5tufN5epncBYJjRnp2but_RTh90q7fcp7aqNrmHqwWzpuQx8QFwaB38Zzk2PdvpQ9kb1Z3WpZUCwlNKHB8tSipEFSoFCcP1d89R94-942IamajvP4gCVrVgnVE_yE/s1600/Skeeter102106+copy.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It dances and flickers: my dreams' funeral pyre.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I give them their biscuits. Old Tycho's soon snoozing,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">While Skeeter considers a toy of his choosing.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">"Breakfast? You're kidding!" he seems to be saying.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">"It's time to be frapping! It's time to be playing!"</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So I toss him his ball, and I shake "Mr. Dino."</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He fetches and tugs, while I feel like a wino</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Who's just coming to from a capital binge</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To stare at the visions that cause him to cringe:</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A turtle, a ferret, and yet stranger creatures</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That squeak when you press their abnormal, plush features,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">'Til finally he flops on the cozy hearth rug,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Where he lolls and he sprawls, and he lounges, quite smug.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When at last the frail dawn creeps out, timid and gray,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The scenery's bleak, and it's sleeting. Oy vey!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The driveway looks gelid, the yard bleached and slick,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And I think about Christmas, and poor old Saint Nick,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">How he schleps all those toys. What a schlump! The schlemiel,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Why not just UPS them? What's the big deal?</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">All that squeezing down chimneys (the soot can't be healthy),</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">An entrance like that, why it's hardly stealthy!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The cookies, the milk — oh, give me a break!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He must have a bladder the size of Salt Lake.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And out on the lawn, don't those reindeer get tangled?</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">"Yo! Rudolph! Back off before Blitzen gets strangled!"</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And that laying of finger aside his red nose -</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Does he feel a sneeze coming? It's here! Thar she blows!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ah, Nicholas, laddie, are you just a carrier</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Spreading the flu? Hoo boy, what could be merrier?</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Then, labors done, whether dead drunk or sober,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You're gone from our thoughts until next mid-October.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But I glance at the pupsters — they're both deep in slumber —</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And think, "<i>C. familiaris</i> sure has our number.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We're trained; we supply them treats, comfort and hugs.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I'll bet, way down deep, that they take us for mugs.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To amuse them, it seems, we consider full recompense</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For all their bad breath and occasional flatulence."</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So, feeling these sentiments slowly imbue me,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I exclaim: "HAPPY CHRISTMAS! IT'S EARLY? SO SUE ME!"</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 10.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“Frapping,” from “frap,” frantic random activity period.</i></span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-23991506847083356442014-12-19T11:38:00.000-05:002014-12-19T11:38:45.618-05:00December Redrawn As A Landscape \ So We Shine<br />
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>Our landscape, in the snow, is black and white as if drawn with ink on rice paper.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>December Redrawn As A Landscape</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A low roof, a path,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">boulder slopes, a pine-dark mountain</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> empty until you see the tiny figure;</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">now you see that this is a journey,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> black and white, ink and dream,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a landscape waiting, a traveler, a goal.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That old lady has gone to get the sun.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Tomorrow she will draw this landscape</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> again, in color, in light.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>When I came across this old poem, I was struck by its non-gender-neutral language. Feel free to substitute “her” and “herself” for “his” and “himself” throughout.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>So We Shine</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 13.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> “ <i>Exposed on the mountains of the heart” – Rilke</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So we shine the brighter, each in his own way</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So the feathered tree clutches and is nourished by the snow</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So we shine like snowfields as each comes into light</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So we blink out blindly across the gulf</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So the tree breaks loose and soars alone</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So an eagle rides from each and tilts and claws the air</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So the air holds us all and nourishes our wings</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So we rise and circle, circle, rise again</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So we vanish together and altogether</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So the snows remain, so the mountains, so the gulf</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So light is equality as each shines in his own way</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So at night the seeds lie waiting in the snow</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So each wraps his wings in himself</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So each keeps himself until light has come from each</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So each unfolds and rises in his way</span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-15735983387977223412014-12-10T13:41:00.000-05:002014-12-10T13:41:35.760-05:00Weather Notebook, 12/97 \ Night Watch<br />
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>Variable weather, winds and tides, bottles and boats, flotsam and jetsam, mostly lost, sometimes found.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Weather Notebook, 12/97</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ice, fog, snow squalls, rough water.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Little enough sun, with the days pinched</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">short. No one was tending the dinghy;</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">it must have heaved in a gust and slipped</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">its mooring. One morning it was gone.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ice, fog, snow squalls, rough water.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As the days shorten, the cold sets in hard.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">First, ice covers the marsh, then it fills</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the small coves. Yesterday, just at sunset,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the air thinned enough to see a flock of</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">buffleheads, riding it out in the bay.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ice, fog, snow squalls. Wind.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Winter begins at 3:07 p.m. When the wind</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">lets up, trees, surprised, fall into the</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">pause. Out on the bay, the dinghy has been</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">blown back and fetched up on a ledge.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the coves, the ice thickens.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Winter begins.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>When nothing can be done, the heart opens. Call it prayer, or supplication, or just a crying out in darkness.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Night Watch</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You’re so sick</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and I’m helpless –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">all my ministering a fraud.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Through night to a cold dawn</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I listen to your shallow breaths</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and the unceasing whir-whoosh</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">of the oxygen concentrator:</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <i>whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-whoosh!</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <i>whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-whoosh!</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">driving thought out of mind</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">in fragments,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> atomized,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> gone.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Only</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the White Tara mantra remains</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">where I tenderly offer up your name:</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <i>om tare tuttare ture Nancy ayuh-punya-jnana-pushtim kuru svaha!</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">White Tara,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Green Tara,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Kuan Yin,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">female embodiments of active compassion –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">help us now!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Wrap her in your arms</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">for, though my heart yearns as a mother’s,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I am of male form and helpless.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I would hold her now as a mother</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">her suffering child –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">as Mother Ocean holds her continents,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">as Mother Galaxy holds her Earth,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">as Mother Emptiness holds us all –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">do this now</span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-67180886402407689522014-12-03T12:00:00.000-05:002014-12-03T12:00:02.557-05:00As For Him So For Me \ Teishen Tries To Write About Cherry Blossoms<br />
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>That first step away from his hut, that last quick look back – a start on the path toward an unexpected gift.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>As For Him So For Me</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Late fruit so sweet</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> old bones warm in the sun</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ryokan drowses</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Years in a mountain hut</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> giving what he had</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">poems, dharma stories</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Now, wrapped in a warm shawl</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> he sips tea</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">love, he ponders love</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So late, this teaching</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> she hands him an apple</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">so late, so sweet</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>Late in life, Ryokan fell in love with the beautiful nun Teishen, who was with him when he died.</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Teishen Tries To Write About Cherry Blossoms</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I found him</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">out in the rain</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">looking up</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">at still-bare branches.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">How withered he seemed!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">leaning on his gnarled stick –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">an old crow in his last molt,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">water dripping from his beak –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">so shabby his cloak!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I wanted to help him in</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to warmth, green tea</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">but didn’t know where</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">his mind was –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">left him, saying nothing,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">rain trickling down his cheeks,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">or tears.</span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-30967332242002188752014-11-26T12:00:00.000-05:002014-11-26T12:00:01.808-05:00The Picture Of The Moose From The Air Surrounded By Wolves \ Jay's Moose<br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Palatino; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<i></i></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-weight: bold;"><i>Alan: </i></b><i>The moose-wolf interactions on Isle Royale in Lake Superior have been studied for over 50 years, but what sticks in my mind is a black-and-white photo taken in the 1960s, all stark shadows and a story reaching its climax.</i></span></i></div>
<i>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>The Picture Of The Moose From The Air Surrounded By Wolves</b></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">bears no resemblance to the cage</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">where zoo-wolves pad down on us</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">or lie like movie stills slabbed on the gravel</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">or display wolfish affection or disgruntlement</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">for the student ethologists or disappear</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">into their concrete wolf den for pack meetings.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Nor does it much resemble</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Wilt Chamberlain’s 500-wolf-muzzle king-size bed cover</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">or the legends of wolves waylaying shepherd girls</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">or the whistles of dog-cock hardhats</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">from up in the air, the position of advantage.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Nor does it capture the fear of the moose</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">standing and bleeding numbly in the snow</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">turning this way and that, but always slower,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">always too late,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">or the movement of the wolves, which is ballet,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">themselves the audience.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It says: deficient moose.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Efficient wolves. Efficient camera.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Efficient camera man.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>So much is wrapped in the white butcher paper – for the giver and for the recipient.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Jay’s Moose</b></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">sooner or later</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">we must eat Jay’s moose</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the tang of the stalk</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">antlers blocking the sun</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">taste the anticipation</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">moose grows taller</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">richer</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">time slows</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">salt of sweat</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">jolt of sound</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">hot in the mouth</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and the blood, hot</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and here eat</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the flavor of dew</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">frost</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">can you taste dawn</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">smell steel</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">crushed branch of fir</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">here on your plate</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Palatino; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jay’s moose</span></div>
</i><br />
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-52503772300591375202014-11-19T12:00:00.000-05:002014-11-19T12:00:02.003-05:00Late November: Lamoine, Maine \ The Old Woman Draws A Map Of Her World<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>This one could be subtitled, “Monochrome with blue dot.”</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Late November: Lamoine, Maine</b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The yards of Lamoine</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">are no-yards:</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">planes of mown space</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">no longer quite grass.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">November’s no-flowers</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">smile no smile on these gardens –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">rectangles, squares tucked in,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">readied for winter.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Perhaps a boat</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">trailered and blocked, tight</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">in blue tarp. Otherwise</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">not even rows of split firewood</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to part the close gray;</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">homes set just so, wan,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">silent in half-light, prudent</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">beside modest drives.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">An almost no-sun tiptoes</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">meekly into this no-drama,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">pauses, whispering</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">snow... snow... </span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and makes its way into clouds.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>Difficult to explain why I’ve been writing on my shirt...</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>The Old Woman Draws A Map Of Her World</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Stone and green.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">All the shores, so different.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Canyon wren and hermit thrush.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">She ponders Palestrina and mariachi</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and decides on the octopus</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">flashing colors on a coral shore.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Rivers and fish, fossils in the cliffs</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">or weathered out on the beaches.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As she has always done, she labels</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the trees with their names, and the</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">flowers. Here and there she leaves empty</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">spaces; her world is still growing.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Growing, elephant tree, manzanita</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">hackmatack,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Amanita, growing old, growing tired</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">pipsissewa. Tired. Niagara Falls</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Bridal Veil falls, she shakes herself</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">awake.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Empty space, footprints, mink and bear</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">room to grow</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the pen</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the pen</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> a blue-black pool</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">where it rests</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> so tired</span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-64353306178113022302014-11-12T12:00:00.000-05:002014-11-12T12:00:03.485-05:00On Finishing "The 20th Century In Poetry" \ The Poetry Reading<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>I actually loved this anthology (Michael Hulse and Simon Rae, eds., Pegasus Books, 2011), which tells the story of the century through the works of its (English-language) poets. But by the end both I and the poems (the last section titled, tellingly, “Endgames”) felt exhausted, limited, even jaded, and I wondered, is it possible still for poets to speak the language of magic and transformation? To shake, if not shape, the culture?</i></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>On Finishing <i>The 20th Century In Poetry</i></b></span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">She is now, to be frank, a kept woman,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">subject to pouts, occasional rages,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">wheedling, whimsical, but on the whole</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">exquisite and, as we desire,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">refined. Visited by a few,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">we could call her “prostitute”</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">or, more charitably, mistress of several.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">She longs to be freed from these</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">brocaded rooms, beyond comfortable,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">touched with opulence even –</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">longs not to be forever waiting</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">on those who provide this</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">almost luxury,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">remembers how, when young,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">she went howling through the winter woods</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and could bring hail to the crops</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and cause the rivers to flood,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and made all the people follow,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">hoping, hoping to be chosen...</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>Culture shock? The “American Savage” sits in on a poetry reading in London, 1978.</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>The Poetry Reading</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I sat </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">very</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> still.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I sat still as a comet’s tail, a conscious contagion.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I sat still as an axe seething to bite wood.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I sat still as a glacier giving birth.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was quiet.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was quiet as water at the lip of the stone.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was quiet as a stooping hawk.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was quiet as a tooth on flesh.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I said nothing, and for the first time</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I heard my own sounds,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">my voice, guttural as a bear, how it grew from roots</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">of stone and made its way through the night shadows.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I heard my words crashing against ledges,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">falling thunderstruck like pines,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">splintering the room and smoldering in the corners.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">One by one the poets read their own truths</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">into the dim room, while I sat very still.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">They unrolled their worn land in my mind,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">drifted with the ashes of dead fires. It was quiet.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Quiet.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Quiet. I wanted to seize their poems in my teeth</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and shake them alive;</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I wanted to open a window.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I wanted to go home with my wild words,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">home to my own wide wild land.</span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-28005670354964369062014-11-05T12:00:00.000-05:002014-11-05T12:00:02.457-05:00At The Center \ The Old Woman Says "Then!"<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>Sometimes, all one can do is witness...</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>At The Center</b></span></div>
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<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Night of no moon, thick clouds,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and so much rain!</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Dark as a bear’s den. Dawn</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">shambles out at last, pauses, and sits</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">heavily, as if to say, “no farther.”</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">November.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You move to the sofa, trying to find</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">sleep and the easing of pain.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Songs of Kuan Yin on the iPod,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">gentle breathing from a higher realm:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">in the kitchen, where I tidy the dishes,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">almost subliminal between sudden</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">paroxysms of rain hammering the roof,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">wind chimes all clanging at once,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">leaves smacking the windows:</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">so many musics vibrating together</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and at their center,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">surrounded by so much</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">caring surrounded by so much uncaring,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">so much pain.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>Have you ever preferred your Then to your Now?</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>The Old Woman Says "Then!"</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Last week the northeaster blew</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">color out of the saltmarsh and left</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">bladder wrack on the lane. Today</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the snow whitens the garden and</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">leaves the late flowers drained.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The old woman says "no, not yet,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">too soon." She will not say "Now."</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">She growls. Bearlike, the old woman</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">snuffles her way. She sweeps away snow</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">with her paws. She rolls away stones.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">She feels criss cross with the world.</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">"No, not yet, too soon. No, not yet,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">too soon."</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The poor old woman goes this way</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and that, this way and that . . .</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">growling,</span></div>
<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">searching for the path to Then.</span></div>
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167565118407228742.post-23425215446973320762014-10-29T12:00:00.000-04:002014-10-29T12:00:13.044-04:00Morning Song \ In The Late Garden<br />
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<i></i></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-weight: bold;"><i>Nancy: </i></b><i>What a sound of contentment and peace – the thump of the dog’s tail on the kitchen floor.</i></span></i></div>
<i>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Morning Song</b></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A soundless high scud shreds the milky sky</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">just before dawn, southwest to northeast,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">raggedy precursor of rain, or the ground so cold,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">ice. My dog has led me around the dry cornstalks,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">past the heavy knots of calendulas in seed,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">past the deer-bitten apple tree and turned –</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">all is well, says his tail, all is safe.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Now the day is mine, to feed the coals in the stove,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to break the silence grinding coffee beans,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to watch the sky bury the dawn in clouds.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The dog opens one eye and says with his tail,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">again, all is well, all is safe, and I say yes yes,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">as I stack wood on the fire and go about my chores</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">humming.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Alan: </i></b><i>Once my garden was an assertion of order as I measured out the space between seeds, between rows. The years taught me that nothing comes up or comes out quite as we expect. And perhaps that’s better.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>In The Late Garden</b></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the clearing</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">surrounded by spruce trees –</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">woods that were field and pasture</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">within our memories –</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">in the clearing growing back</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to goldenrod, aster, hardhack,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">field roses, and the shrubs we planted –</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">hydrangeas, ninebarks, azaleas, overgrown</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">or choked –</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">in the wildering space</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I still dig over</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a few square feet</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">within this leaning fence.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Within this fenced garden</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">ramshackle now and weedy</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">with witch grass, chickweed,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">mulleins, self-seeded hollyhocks,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">a few calendulas,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I still dig,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">turning over the soil for garlic,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">preparing the soil</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">for next year’s beans.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A few square feet</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">is all we need now</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">or can manage.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I am in this garden</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">with my whole body, digging</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and pulling weeds, and listening,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">seeing the soil come up in clots</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">at my feet, shaking it from the roots,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">my skin alert to the air,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">its motions of Fall mixing warm and chill.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Raven sits on the highest spruce</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">just out of sight behind the wood’s edge</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and comments.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: right;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Garock-garock. Garock-garock”</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">says Raven. “Raven,” I say,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“is this a greeting?” “Garock-garock.”</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Do you keep watch over this place</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">even when we’re gone?”</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I surmise this but can’t know.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I think of Raven as beneficent,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">never my father’s “dark, malevolent shapes”</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">(the ignorance of fear).</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As wise, even, and far-seeing.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But I can’t know, really.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Garock-garock.”</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Oh, Raven,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">today or some day years off,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">may I feel death come over me in this garden</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and, falling, turn to face Sky.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Fly down then from your hidden perch.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Walk around me three or four times, inspecting.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Cock your head, attending.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Pry out the blue grapes from my face</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">before Crow or Vulture, Coyote or Fox</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">can find me.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Carry them back and swallow,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">so that I may see, through you, in death</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">what in life I could not discern,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">even to the azure limits;</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">so you will know what love grew,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and what questions, what suppositions</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and what longing,</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">in this narrow, earth-bound skull.</span></div>
</i><br />
saltandstonepoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07011557035647325925noreply@blogger.com0