V is for Vixen

V is for Vixen

 

A female fox, I think

Moving in from the country

To the London suburbs

 

Fox-hunting was outlawed,

You know, giving all the

Red-fur, sure-footed

Creatures and creations

 

A chance for a shopping

Life, residing maybe in

Duplexes

 

Red herring, reality before

Fallacy, was used to train

Hounds in fox-hunting:

 

What if it’s a delicacy for

Foxes now (red herring,

Not the hound)?

 

Fallacy become fact in

Reparation

 

With foxes in chaise

Lounges, leaning back

Into beneficent afternoon

Sunshine, snacking on

Salty fish

 

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Blogging from A to Z Challenge

U is for (Unseen)

U is for (Unseen)

 

What we are we cannot see

Values, mores, inclinations

Preference toward criminality

Or toward the light

 

Words make these real,

Sometimes more than actions

Actions become lessons in

Addition to what happened

And what was achieved

 

 

(môr′āz, thanks to freedictionary)

 

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Blogging from A to Z Challenge

Notebook Poems with Psalms 34 and 35

Notebook Poems (while downstairs)

with Psalms 34 and 35

 

Three O’Clock or Thereabout

 

train sounds out back

from the first floor

bells

deep, uneven thrumming

circles of wheels

train sirens cry and split the local sky

nostalgically, we might still call that

a whistle

 

after time, train finishes with us

our cars may go

ebb and flow returns to town

until Moses-like the tide of trains

halves us again

 

(haiku)

 

child at table works

lead pencil scratches paper

timely task now done

 

Psalm 34

a song of tears

 

Lord

hear my cry

and when I’m through

hear my chafed whispering

 

Psalm 35

song with a question

 

Lord, are you there

it’s not Margaret of the book

it’s simply unwritten me

 

Machine-Less Listening

 

I hear a trumpet call

shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits

(two bits a quarter from

pieces of eight)

Gabriel’s apprentice practices

for the final fanfare

at the end of school in June

 

Still-Listening

 

at table round I write

who knew Arthur should meet here

liege folk

talking of charity

T. H. White’s “Might for Right”

until Mordred and Lancelot

ruin everything

Appalachian Highway

Appalachian Highway

 

Moving life and death back

And forth: death dominated

On an earlier day

 

With eight persons shot in

Pike County homes, south

Of Columbus

 

Where the mountains rise

And God looks deep into

Vales

T is for Tarantella

T is for Tarantella

 

It’s been set to music,

And I like the story

That goes

 

That if one dances

Fast enough with zest

And spirit and need,

 

The poison will

Withdraw from out

The spider’s bite

 

Perspiration, perhaps

Perhaps reward of

Tribute to Arachne

 

Who knows, maybe

To the mischief of

Ananzi, too

 

Now let’s make our

Own tale of such

Movement and lost

Consciousness in

Dance to take us

 

To a place where

Divinity gives

Healing

 

 

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Blogging from A to Z Challenge

Bard’s Day

Bard’s Day

(23 April)

 

It’s a word that without

Context is simply one

Strange sound

 

Add a letter, the hair

On the bottom of his

Face has definition

 

Instead substitute

A letter, the word

And man (he was a

Man) take flight

 

Happy birthday, man

Of words that fly

S is for Science

S is for Science

 

Science is skill

Practice and progress

Discipline, consistent

Method and trial

 

So is poetry-making

Poeia in ancient Greek

(The process of

Making)

 

Both are spiritual acts

Dealing with creation

And miracle

 

Though scientists and

Poem-makers might

Not see the fabulous

Beyond amazing

Accomplishments of

People

 

In effect, the miracle

Being us

 

Well, so be it

 

I see the soul, and

That’s my science

 

Global, adhesive

Respect will keep our

World together

 

And so I will look

Forward to your way

 

And we may measure

And skillfully remake

The cosmos together

 

 

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Blogging from A to Z Challenge

First Day

First Day

 

The first thing I do

Is scope the day

Maybe I suss out

How I’m feeling

 

Unconsciously, I think

Of God

 

S: How can you do

With any awareness

An unconscious thing?

 

How can I not

Look out the window

See the wide dark

Bend of branches

Reaching up toward

Undefined scenery

Behind

 

And not think about

Even in my fuzzied

State of waking up

 

Who made it all, the

Unclear parts, too

 

S: Well

 

Well, nothing—I

Think of God

 

And when the light

Gets bigger with

Some yellow, I’ll

Think better

Lyric about Leaving

Lyric about Leaving

(on, frankly, overhearing the first line

in conversation)

 

Don’t ever go away

But we go away, when we must

I don’t like it, either

 

If I move, it doesn’t mean

I feel your leaving less, your

Presence in my life leaving

Now

 

The only joy in leaving is

Return

 

I go to strangers, so why would

I want to stay

 

I’ll come back, and maybe

You’ll return to me, too

I know it can happen if in

Uncertain ways

 

I hope my will and yours are

Of one mind in which calm

Love takes over when together

From the day

 

From the day