In the beginning
crows were
as white as snow.
No.
Whiter than that.
Liquid silver.

But in these times
we see Crow as black,
though you will observe
Crow is silver in the sun
(which proves my point).

And there he is
at the very top of
that hemlock tree.

Surveys his rude world
and sees below
one whose ancestors
were here even before
tricks and tricksters.

Even before crows.

Coyote
Old Man
sly one
always ready with a joke
or a riddle

They say he spun the Milky Way
with his deceit
told the Earth's first lie

And as for riddles:
answer at your peril
or carry him
like a whispering sack
upon your back
until the end.

The man on the moon
Big and bright and full
Smiled at me
And said my dear

I'll keep tides at bay
Light up your way
Keep you safe at night
With my moonlight

I will bring you love
With heavens above
My light will glow
Whilst your love will grow

Make black waters dance
Whilst hand in hand you romance
Beautiful memories will be rife
As you walk through your life

But the penalty you must pay
From now to the end of your days
Is live life without sorrow
As we may never have tomorrow

On the idle hill of summer,
Sleepy with the flow of streams,
Far I hear the steady drummer
Drumming like a noise in dreams.

Far and near and low and louder
On the roads of earth go by,
Dear to friends and food for powder,
Soldiers marching, all to die.

East and west on fields forgotten
Bleach the bones of comrades slain,
Lovely lads and dead and rotten;
None that go return again.

Far the calling bugles hollo,
High the screaming fife replies,
Gay the files of scarlet follow:
Woman bore me, I will rise.

Attuned.

Those whose thoughts have not sprung
from the cadence of waves
will never know songs that were ancient
when all the now agéd were young.

Those whose respect the vast ocean
accepts speak its tongue, sense
vagaries known only to weathered
faces turned to catch tidal motion.

Those whose minds are ocean-attuned,
gather storm-ebb's precocious
mood as ****'s mineral wealth floats
in with extras like fresh crab food.

Those whose living has grown safer
with knowing sea-swell pictures
wave behaviour hear vague whispers
of sound-change in rising breakers.

Those who receive news of bad gales
before skies turn black have read
wisdom's past signs and hear sea-bed
rhythms not heard by strangers.

His Star.

I chased this evening
evening's fade in sunset clouds,
silver tin-foiled filigree
tied to grey-as-granite mountains.

Tinted skirts of hazy
daytime's late farewell lit night's
ballooning moon parade
displayed as fire on quiet shoreline.

Invasive scarlet-swathe
hued day's best forgotten noon
when darker stronghold's rain
rolled dust-cascades forming gloom.

Drifted with waning sky's
azure came memory's beams,
pain-shot their spotlighting
shadows still haunting my dreams.

Yet I chased tonight
night's demons away by love's
recall when I saw brighter
his star winking at me from above.

The Farside's Face.

The wish of a painter or poet is to transport
the spirit's deep emotion by pausing
in awe at day or night's high-vaulted scene,
transposing its  beauty to dreams,

then viewing grass as more than green.

An alchemist with no interest in gold
invests time between folds,
finds in the sky thermals on which

to soar on fancy or some surreal whim
to make jasper of sea,  jade of dawn


and perceive gems hidden in flora's form.

A seer catches the farside's face
and traces that world in sentence or paint,
chimeric in nature an artist
whose eye encounters rock gives it heart,
transforms by description  
accepted mundane into mystic meaning,
adds soft to feather, colour to blur


and improves the initial by seeing further.

It is said that fine art opens doors
to show the extraordinary as but normal,
for the good poet or painter
ranks as foremost importance a felt magic


when met with empty paper or canvas.

Here the pines blush
in the cloud's embrace
the sky comes low
falls for earth's face

the winds kiss
long lines of wood
fog weaves dense
peace of solitude

Here the curves
meanders blind
on magical turns
stumbles mind

all inner demons
the high lands slay
on angel's wings
you fall love's prey.

Come softly, stranger
Step inside the light
Here is home of a sort
Here is nowhere else to go

Such staggering ambiguity
Such all-consuming cruelty
I see it all so clearly now
Wide-eyed and unheeding
Unaware of double-dealing
I was an innocent
And then I was born
Wise to the lies of the womb
And with a grudge for being disturbed

                                           By Phil Roberts