Hush
SamplerDoes it make any sense to say I heard dead silence? No matter. I’ll simply declare that I’ve never known such quiet in the sixty years I’ve roamed these woods and hills. I was sitting on a stump beside a frozen bog, an old man who needed…
Old Beech, Old Friend
SamplerLate afternoon, the crows still at gossip
in the pock-trunked beech uphill.
The tree, having nurtured bears and birds
for decades, will have to go.
My oldest friend is also failing:
addledness and illness.
He was always tough as proverbial…
Summer Chill
SamplerThis old stone house feels chilly for July.
Even the moon above the ridge looks cold.
At her age, she can go warm up in bed.
Will power, strong as ever, snuffs the thought.
She hears bells sounding from the village church.
But is it…
To My New Synchronizing Pacemaker
SamplerMachine, the oddest things still appeal–
like the tick of my old truck’s engine
when I shut it off and pause at the wheel
to think what I’ll say inside– or do.
Then the chirp on snow of my boot soles,
lamplight indoors, the…
The Pontoon Problem
SamplerOne autumn night, I went to a 12-step meeting at the local prison. I hope my presence is of some use at a place like that. I’ve spent no real time in jail, not even a whole night, just some metaphorical spanking for civil rights or anti-war…
Slow Drive at Evening
SamplerThrough my car’s open window and their plate glass,
I see the elderly couple
who own the store. They’re in argument,
or at least in disagreement
about something... A little way north, Black Angus
lie down in the pasture beside
the…