Sometimes

Only the harmonies survive

Keen, together, and as complete

As the chord joined, resolving into 

Breath as one.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qm-NGwTRMlw

Moving through Trouble

Nothing makes this easier

Season balks at its rebirth

Everywhere the vapors,

Discontent and worry,

And I’m thinking the

Best way to deal with all

Of this is to take it

One day at a time

And in the carousal of 

This particular spring,

Her barely-greenings dressed in 

White pinwheels or soft

Large-dropped gentle

Rain, or whatever they 

Are as long as there’s

No hard frost, 

Are blessings,

Are dreams’ remnants, 

And they are promises, and 

They are whole  

In their own times.

Elegy

Now you come up for air. 

The wind

Blows hard outside,

Bangs the storm door when 

You try to keep it open.

But you smell spring,

Stubborn, damnit, and 

You should know better than 

To doubt it. 

Now, at least

In season’s stall, 

There’s time for learning

When to plant, and what

Soil in this rich land 

Will nurture 

Ponca sacred corn,

Here, amid Haudenosaunee.

As in all things, just only 

Tethers we can’t see

Stitch this life 

Together, and the rest goes

To stars, sand and dust and 

Nighttime glows to

Morning. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bQToGcTWSRQ

Blue Moon Reflecting

Close your eyes
I’ll be here in the morning,
Close your eyes 
I’ll be here for awhile.
             ~ Rosie and Richie

And then, the fleet aha

Of homeostasis,

Past reminding: this is

A gift, 

Homeostasis, 

Seconds to last 

This lifetime until

The maybe of

The next balance 

But that

Fall, diamonds on the

Wet red leaves, 

Sun cutting through the

Rain as we drove

Or was I alone,

Driving through tears

And forest light

Opening up into  

Understanding

And I was singing today

As I was driving home

And I came around this 

Wonderful curve, no, I more or less

Flew right there where I can see

The lake. Sun broke

Through socked-in gray, and

My harmonizing was

Keen and perfect, for 

A while. 

Cherry Carol

I watched out the window tonight as

The room went from black

To petal grey a hush of pink

In a blue night deep sky

I remember walking with the kids

At Cooper’s Cove and

Talking with them about 

Our night vision

It appears in wondrous bits

And brights, a palate that

Cannot be described arrives

I want a cherry tree out by the pond,
Probably at least a couple, 

And cedar back towards

Bobby’s road 

And I don’t want to block

The western winds

I cannot wait for this place

To wake up, all everywhere outside

Waiting again, and

Saying, come now and bring 

Your long winter back into spring. 

I figured some things out, figuring

More. Remembered some things, 

The rear view mirror sparkles,

Just alive, all there, and

Seen, night vision lit through
The bedroom window, my

Cherry trees.

Days before Snow

In the great early morning dark

Full moon suspends, wane

Portending gibbous.

Four elements scramble 

For the balance that once was

Just as sure as cranes landing

On the braided river.

Wisdom and continuity

Don't come cheap, and

What seem like just some

Small prices paid 

Might become unbearable.

All the night solitude hummed, 

You looked at the vast sky

Thinking of all the 

Crossers of the borderlands,

Their tears watering the ancient

Ground of being,

Now you wrest uncertain words 

As a new day arrives. 

There will be 

Fog floating across that

Ushering moon, and 

You promise to keep trying

Even though 

You will be gone before

You'll know.