Wandering round this liminal space Can heighten or frighten a curious one, Images smudged With star-luster slashes Sensations flicker through flesh Catching breath and holding it a moment. . . Until the release, And it is done.   © 2020…

Sunshine angles filtered by a leafy crown And hoofprints on the ground a dotted chart That graphs a friendship’s progress on its path, The rhythm of two bodies, yet one heart. Two on the shadowed trail or meadow bright Or…

Hair ends fall like fronds Around her face. To a child She’s as tall as a queen palm. Warm breeze strokes her arm As she turns the page And ivory smiles light java faces. They love her, these kids, And…

Shake the rattle of what makes you happy Wiggle your way through tedious chores Make room for things a little too sappy Take time to play in the great outdoors Be mindful of the words you speak Appreciate the view…

Stack the still photos of creation: The infant cooling earth, receding seas, Tectonic inches, eruptions, upward plateaus Pushing and sculpting canyons deep Then reduced to feldspar, shards and sand. Stack the still shots of evolution: The yearning mindless cell, The…

Daddy Dear, I remember you Your funny ways Made us laugh for days, Your private pain I never knew. To recall you now Through my heart-mind’s eye, I see more of the guy Than my youth would allow. A mystery…

Dragonfly dips, swallow soars, Centipede skims the Asian earth. Curiosity and smiles surprise us Like welcome mats. Between us, music is a wide jade river, A wide strong river. Our separate words, Swept on ancient currents, Drift like fallen leaves.…

Sit down at my table And know that you are welcome Let your skin and bones settle In a place of warmth and comfort Where nourishment abounds And medicine comes in many forms Sit down at my table And know…

(To Gail, whose laughter sets mine loose, with love) Look at you, Who entwines today’s happy vision With a myrrhic history of the wounded child. O seamless life! O clever evolution! This is no small migration That dwarfs the geese,…

A flight of prisms Tears unstuck Where youth is going Ends in gold Childhood was a landscape These are our best years Let us be mountains of rainbows and bliss Let our embraces be immortal From this day on