A winged seed just took to wind
and landed on my lap
like hope and babies--  
I imagine
I have never had

like memories
of walking home from school in May

Stunned by perfect curl of comma
by design
Veined paper
thin
with spine
of strength attached
to guide its flight
of swirling fertile
to the ground
of mind

To love--
the tan and winged snow
descending
to the heights of trees

on both sides of this moment

a child
in a future forest

The sturdy dandelion
rosette of the grass
Gold of the green
Of spring, the queen
Every part-- good for food
and roots, a coffee
Dandelion, good for food
and pleasure to nose and eye

Dandelion-- a provident of God.

Memorial day
playing "hide and seek"
among the graves

Geraniums
--lugging water to them
My mother forced--
our childish "signs of the cross"
By her parents' rest
we prayed

She-- still 13 there
rubs her tears away

Stealing flags
off other's memories
to keep them as my own

Once while hiding
a discovery
of rain-worn lamb
on mossy stone
I read--

"...Our darling girl,
1923-1925"
Never any flowers

in a garden, slender with summer rose,
where the silvering petals
gathered whisky clouds and love,

the shadows smouldered
while the breezes built bridges of
leaves, in a darkening, near nocturnal world;

and i sat, marvelling at the pretty sunset,
at the shady boughs, at the gorgeous
sky in the fading light with its golds and blues

and i felt calm and settled, while the
sun grew smokey, burnt to ruin,
(in the soon ruined sky) dulling, nearly black.

the hawthorn lays down its ghosts, thick
with dulling pink; the stream quivers,

its blue shadows sunken, gleaming,
at low ebb, breathing like a mirror

in the sun. beneath the trees it
is dream-like, cool, dark and

magical, the leaves little harbours
of breeze, voiceless, white as bone.

No one so shy
as moonlight on waterlilies
of a blue-black night



         Personne si timide
         au clair de lune sur les nénuphars
         Ce soir, bleu-noir

Reached over, grabbed my phone
to read
He had died
not having seen her--
His daughter
with her eyes black like his
Night in hair and features
He could never deny
Their voices
both carved
from ballad and timbre of oak

Ireland
hung
harps
in the beauty
between them

bluebells flower in the rain,
boy of love,

buttercups on long stems
full of summer’s gold,

the world opens its doors and windows
the air feels fresh and clear,

sadness weaves its way under the trees
prefers to wait in the shadows,

i dream about you a lot,
boy of love.

the star of the star of the morning
is restful and breathful and free

the star of the star of the evening
blossoms dark as a shadowy tree,


the waves drive out far in their rivers
as blue as a star in the sky,

and the darkness relents for her shivers
must finally die.


waves turning and burning and dancing
clouds wandering e'er ever on

and the darkness that finds the new morning,
as cold as stark night's bitter song,


oh, brother who wept for my sisters
no tears as alive as their breath

swept out where the wild sea blisters
and pain knows of death.


wild whispers, wild birds and the fury
of waves that sing out to the clouds

the death then of life that we bury
laid out in the whitest of shrouds


the sea, oh, the sea, how she sings me
a song of a dance never sung

and her rhythms soon calm and placate me
her bell solemn rung.


and sweet love is the journey i strive for
as blue as a mysterious sea

and the love is a fruit full of succor,
and the moment will live e'er free,


you stand tragic as a painting so mournful
alone as a poet who rests,

and the lull of the storms here at night fall
the sea's treasure chests.


the day wraps the night in her roses
and night wraps the day in her sight

and midnight's soft moonlight supposes
that day is a journey e'er bright,


and love was a love still forever
and love had no rose in her bower

for the floor of the sea like a feather
the delicatest flower.