A WEEK INTO A WONDERFUL SUMMER
To the northeast, Mt. Baker looms
The two-thirds full moon risen
At least an hour in the east
Warm sun on my back
Moths and bees dancing between
My eyes and view
Of the clear cuts
And the water ways
Fir and alder, ferns dancing
Clover and lupine
Eagle spirit!
Spirals
In front of the moon
Dancing high
On the free winds
Higher and higher
Wide wings
Motionless
In front of blue sky
Tufts of pale white cloud
To the west
The sun two palms from the horizon
The pale orange ring around it
Twice that wide
A week into a wonderful summer.
6/28/85
ANASTASI LADDER OF THE KIVA
Long pole
Short pole
Tied together by
Common rungs
Lead
From past
To present
To future—
From world
To world—
From creation
To creation—
End time
A dream
A dance
Of rungs—
Leading down
And up
And out
And in
For the people
Without a sea—
Only waves of rain
And drought—
Increasing
And decreasing
Cobs of belief.
Clan names pecked
By knuckles
On stones
By shamans—
Each dot a family
Each hand a clan
Each big horn sheep
A spiral map
Of the hunt.
From out of earth
We came
Counting cycles
That filled our future
With kin—
From out of the canyons
Our spirals—
Building rounder walls
With fewer stones.
8/1996
BETWEEN THE AYES OF TOMORROW
AND THE NAYS OF YESTERDAY
BECKON THE DECISIONS OF TODAY
1996
AMBER
For Amber
ESSENCE OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS
CLEAR
SOLID
LIQUID
TIMELESS JUICE
WITH HIGH POWERS
OF PRESERVATION
LOCKED IN THE DREAM
OF TIME.
9/27/1996
ACROSTIC FOR CHRISTIE, CHILD OF THE STARS
Child of the stars, your blond
Head dances to the beat of
Rhythms that pulse through
Interstellar space beyond your dreams.
Star child dancing in the sun
To you I extend greetings
In hopes of looking closer into your
Eyes, that like lightening, awaken.
1985
BOOK PLATE
LIFE IS MYSTERY
THESE FEW CLUES I HAVE DISCOVERED
I LEAVE BEHIND FOR FUTURE
DETECTIVES OF MEANING
AND ESSENCE
EX LIBERIUS
DWIGHT RUSSEL MICNHIMER
1948–
BUDDHIST WRITER DEATH POEM
Down below zero
Cold wolves
Howl
For cold bones
Separated from hot flesh
Baking in the
Vultures jaw.
Relax old meat
Old dust
Old water spray
Only words
Written down
Remain
Rejoice!
Cheer!
Liberation is near!
Literation is near!
5/2000
CHECKS
Hat check rat check
Rubber check
Check
Check?
I remember the week
They painted the checks
On the big barn roof
That’s been torn down
Now for years
That checkerboard roof
Painted to advertise
Animal food
On the big barn
That stood locked
And enigmatic
Around the days
Of childhood when
Checks
Were something wrong
At school
Or cereal
One ate for breakfast
Before I knew
Of pay checks
And travelers checks
And cashiers checks
And unbalanced accounts
Years wrapped in the warm embrace
Of provincialism—
The limits of the world
From where the farthest
Log trucks came.
1981
COMPOUND I HALLOWEEN 1996
How many chickens?
How many eggs?
Cows?
Spuds?
Pots?
Pans?
Weeds?
Hams?
Ditches?
Carrots?
Holes?
Wholes?
Tolls?
Scrolls?
Looks?
Books?
Nooks?
Hearts?
Seeds?
Bowls?
Beads?
Casts?
Trolls?
Foals?
Breaks?
Brakes?
Clutches?
Crutches?
Kisses?
Misses?
Mrs.?
Msss?
Knowings?
Growings?
Harvests?
Needs?
Rights?
Wrongs?
Warnings?
Heeds?
Sowings?
Sewings?
Stitches?
Reapings?
Pitches?
Songs?
How many rights
Are out of our control?
How many parts
Keep us from our wholes?
How many holes
Do we fall through
To reap the harvest
Of our name?
CONGRATULATIONS
For Dustan Hinkle on graduation from high school
Do in this life all your heart, body and mind bid you.
Understand permanence, cycles, change and your way.
Sow each action carefully and embrace what you reap.
Test each truth offered with the truth you know.
Answer the challenge of following your own truths.
Now is the forever that we are becoming.
Here with these simple congratulatory lines
I offer you access to my books, knowledge, experience and wisdom
No matter when you feel the urge.
Know friendship, brotherhood and family
Love are the greatest gifts I have to offer
Eternally—all ways and always.
May 1998
WELL PLACED LAKE DRIFTWOOD
For Tim Quinn
The subtle signs you leave behind
Indelibly etched into handles of my
Mind are true logos of genius—
Quintessential elements that embrace
Understanding and
Impart it to all forevers, all
Nevers and all
Nows.
6/16/2000
DANCING WITH THE SHADOWS
I asked money to dance
She said ask my sister time;
I asked wisdom to dance
She said ask my aunts
Knowledge and experience first.
I asked fire to dance
She said ask my parents
Oxygen and fuel.
I asked time to dance
And she said
OK, but just this once.
Wings of the angel
Fire of the fool
We take different steps
But we burn the same fuel
We cross the desert once
To find the gold
We do it again
On a different mule.
Even if it’s the same cross
Each time it’s a different bear
One time it’s dancing
One time it’s mauling
One time it’s called teddy.
One time it’s the honey
One time it’s the chaff
The hops in the pilsner
The hope’s in the dare
The laughter of women
Gets me out of the chair
Dancing with the shadows
Who the hell cares?
Eye of the needle
Fruit of the loom
Tall in the saddle
Fruit of the womb
Call the shots
Interpret the blots
Those who have it
Those who have not
2
Wee Willie Winkie
Runs through the town
Half the time up
Half the time down
Arrows are fragile
So are the nouns.
DANDELION
Ad from a 1908 newspaper: “Dandelion seed—guaranteed to reproduce—a hearty serrate leafed
Perennial producing a brilliant yellow flower.”
The works of love are a numerous
As dandelion floss floating in the air
Each seed a migrator, a wanderer
An act perpetuating its genesis
By letting go it grows
By surrendering it own sense of importance
Humbles itself in the wind
To land and flourish
Or perish
At some new site.
1985
EASTER POEM FOR JOHN AND ETHEL
Here is the place to which return
All resurrections—here on this glorious
Planet—here in this grand glorious
Place we call the earth—
Your place and mine—
Each of us plants—
And according to the care we take to
Sow the seeds—to that extent returns
The abundance of harvest—
Each of us creates our own
Rock and roll!
1981
EPIPHALAMIUM
For Kim and Terry
As seconds turn to minutes and hours into
Days may joy and happiness fill
All your years and ways. As you
Tread together up the golden steps of
Always to forever, may the bliss of
Balance be the diamond banister
In grasp on every side.
Limitless is the path of love,
Indestructible its stones.
Through the moments, we see from
Yesterday into tomorrow. The world
Is filled with joy and
Sorrow, so sing the songs of
Smiles and clouds all go away.
Until the empyrean of love a constant
Ring of rainbows all around and
Voices from all the world echo
In harmony with the notes your
Voices and visions sing.
Always is but a second in
Love’s eternal song.
1981
EVOCATION TO PSYCHE
Call to my tongue the thunder
Of the wisdom of the ages;
Call to my tongue the lightening
That men call truth;
Call to my pen words from
The realm of immortal ideas–
May they grow like branches
Through the sky of innovation
Nourished by rains of excitement
From the thighs of my lover;
Call to my heart the torrents
Of blood that form the tides
Of generations.
1979
F
FIF
FFIFF
FFFIFFF
I
R
FOR DONNA
From your silver chalice
Diamond nectar flows in
A warm spiral of rainbows
Around my heart.
Thou art a jewel of always set
In a band of now; a galaxy
Of light, endlessly reflecting smiles
Through a mask of stars.
1979
FOR HER FROM HIM
I rejoice I hear
And comprehend you
I regret I could not compromise
I rejoice I was honest
I regret I hurt you
I regret our differences
Divide us
I rejoice our samenesses
Unite us
I regret not a moment
Of our love
I rejoice to know
It always is.
1996
FOR LEAH HINKLE UPON HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION
Leaving one level of learning and
Entering the next evokes my congratulations!
As you embark on life’s long journey
Have confidence you will meet each challenge,
Have faith that answers you need are
Inherent in the proper asking of the questions.
Now as you continue from known to unknown to
Knowing again, may the unending joy of discovery
Lead you always to realization of your dreams and
Each step be a treasure that fills your heart.
6/5/2000
FOR ROBIN WHO SELLS VEGETABLES
AT THE LINE SHACK BY THE SEA
She brings a song to the line
Between dawn and dusk;
She brings sweetness to the line
Between the shore and sea;
She brings freshness to the line
Between the calm and breeze;
She brings joy to the line
Between the ending and the start;
She brings smiles to the line
Between the body and the heart;
She brings ecstasy to the line
Between the nectar and the vine.
3/6/2000
FOR VICKY, A WARM WYOMING WOMAN
Vast wide open spaces
Insure survival of your
Caring heart. May love
Keep the sparkle in
Your brown eyes always.
6/1996
FRAGMENTS
A bowl teeters
On the edge
Of the concrete step
Beside the iron claw
In the wind.
. . . . .
years seem to pass
with no new visions
to report
and no one to
report them to
. . . .
small birds
on two wide apart wires—
gone!
1981
FULL MOON AT 1981 SPRING EQUINOX
AT A WOOD CUTTER’S HUT IN THE FOREST
NEAR PORTLAND WITH SMOKEY THE DOG
WRITING WARMED BY A COLEMAN LANTERN
The sky was orange in the west
As the sun set
And not yet dark
When the full moon
Of spring equinox
Peered over the alder quilled
Hillside into the still
Crisp clear night
Moving the bones
Makes the juices flow–
Hard work keeps us
Walking erect.
I search for the voice
Behind the flow
Of thoughts.
GLOSSINALIA
Ein toon ed bonny feisters
Aften tymin der riggin chorden
Heifl n’ln bin
Reble cardens jendy poppin
En die moufer lieden
Weester die flufengiggen
Du horpinnoonin
Eider briffle bracken henden
In der lazer corden
Proctor or gingin gimal
Pricce der dimll de doken
Bersheer-westl lencher dodenhoggen.
1996
GUN CONTROL
How finely needs edge
Be honed
To deftly cut
Flesh
To bone?
How finely needs caliber
Be defined
To separate those
In and out
Of line?
How finely needs size of stone
Be measured
Between those caught
And those
Thrown?
How finely needs fertility
Of seeds reaped
Be reflected
In those
Sown?
10/8/2000
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATRICIA SUE: AN ACROSTIC
Hours here in this life
Are like strings of a lyre
Plucked by our hearts’
Pace. The music of our
Years is the song of our
Becoming whole and
In tune with the wide
Range of our possibilities.
The choice is ours as to
How and who we are.
Destiny is the melody
Around our hearts desires.
Your birthday sweetest
Patricia Sue, is
A day of joy and
To you I wish only
Recurring happiness
In all the opuses you’re
Called to play.
Inside you is the music,
Around your heart it
Sings and its notes rise
Up and up and up to the
Eternally listening empyrean.
1985
HARVEST
Knowledge is the seed of wisdom,
Gather it, gather it, gather it;
Prepare soil in a proper place
Well for planting
And it will sprout as insight
Mature to understanding
And blossom with tradition
To yield the fruit of wisdom;
Plant it well and worry not
About the abundance of harvest.
1996
HIAKU FOR PLATO
Inside the cave shadows
Are bigger that we are—
Outside—they vanish!
9/9/2000
HYDRATION
There is something soothing
About the rain when
It begins to fall
After months and months
Of dry sunshine—a
Gentle, edge of the front, dry
California rain, while
Already in higher altitudes
Snow is falling
And winds of hurricanes
Threaten Florida
There is something soothing
When the tears of homecoming
Wash again the dry arroyos
Of the heart.
I ONCE BUILT A FIRE FOR THE DEAF
No one is watching
While you skillfully build the fire
But all are attracted
To the light and warmth.
If the blaze is kindled
If combustion is coaxed from damp tinder
And moister logs
Even the deaf
Respond to the language
Of the flame.
No one is watching
While your knife blade
Whittles twigs to slivers
No one is watching as
You seek the driest needles
No one is watching as essence
Is drilled for
Lost and found
Pumped and sprayed
On wet fuel
To hurry the process.
No one is watching as machete
Strokes split kindling
No one is watching as
Yesterday’s headlines are crumpled
Into the first phosphorescent sacrifice
Non one is watching
When the first spark
Drops into the dark
And misses the womb of its dream.
No one is watching as the spark
Catches the tinder and ignites
Into leaping orange
Connections with its source—
We built a fire beneath
The snow laden boughs of fir
Because the fuel was drier there—
A blaze we had before the others—
It melted the snow on boughs above
And it rained on us—
But we ate while other’s
Food was raw and cold.
2
Every one is watching as light breaks
The silence of twilight
And grows to orange heat
Everyone is watching
As light chases darkness
Into retreat
Every one is watching as warmth repels
The receding of the day
Every one is watching as meat
Sizzles over open flames
Everyone is watching as logs
Chopped by thoughtful ax
Are added to the blaze.
Every one is watching
As the fuel pile gathered in the light
Sustains shadows in the night
Every one is watching as crisp orange flames
Lick melody from the voice of day.
Every body is listening
To nobody
When the ashes cool
Nobody is listening
To every body
When they are the fuel.
Who is listening the next morning
When your breath rekindles the flame
Who is watching the next morning
When your breath reignites your name?
1996
NOTE: I-CHING POEMS ARE READ FROM LAST LINE TO FIRST
I-CHING MEDITATION 6/26/85
What am I to concentrate on this coming year?
Hexagram 18 Mountain over wind Work on what has been spoiled.
If you feel the point between the petal and the sun.
There is no answer you can’t find
To flow through your will.
Allow the higher power within
By exercising your abilities
Establish your own credibility
And the happiness it brings.
Your heart is made for sharing
Of warmth and caring
Cultivate new dreams
Nutrients there you will find
Search through the roots of mind.
I-CHING MEDITATION 2/19/1981
What changes further?
Hexagram 33 (Retreat) changing to 1 (The Creative)
Center of our awakening?
Raises us toward the sentient
Of this creative earthly empyrean that
What force is locked deep in the loins
Into the truest approaching empyrean?
And raises the mind to beyond its comprehension
By the vortices of our compliments
What deep force is unlocked in our loins
To the bright pinnacle of awakening?
And raises the juice of our spines through the marrow
Releases roots to rondevous with moon
What deep force in the center of receiving earth
I-CHING MEDITATION 5/5/1981 SEQUIM, WA
On what should I focus my attention?
Hexagram 33 (Retreat)
Unseen.
Fate waits,
From nurturing clouds.
Action precipitates
Which to starve, which to feed?
Branches, stems and seeds—
To move the mind toward the roots?
To move the legs and till the soil?
Which the weeds and which the fruit?
Sprouts of ideas break conscious earth—
Personal, collective, supraterrestial
Immersed in subterranean mind fields.
GARDENER
I-CHING MEDITATION SUMMER SOLSTICE 6/20/96
Hexagram 15 (Modesty) changing to 63 (After completion)
Dreaming the way.
Winds and clouds
Lead to the path that’s right.
Health and clear sight
Is dry and stable and deep.
The land on which my house sits
I-CHING MEDITATION 6/21/85
What state of change is predominant this summer?
Hexagram 49 (Revolution, Molting) changing to 17 (Following)
Read from the bottom line up.
To fill and heal the soul.
Will from above flows
Into actions that create.
Heart draws Divine Love
Upward into harvest fruit.
Roots draw nourishment
IT’S ABOUT
It’s about beating nails
Into two by fours
Or beating the bends
Out of four by fours
It’s about taking the kinks
Out of mistakes
Or the madness
Out of beef
Or the sting
From the bee
Or the prices
At the pump.
It’s about the wine
And the cheese and the olives
It’s about the squash and
The beans and the corn
It’s about the pull
Behind the bowstring
And the iron
Behind the furrow
And the crease.
It’s about the voice
Of the collective
Screaming its wants
And its needs
It’s about the voice
Of the individual
Screaming and sowing
The demands of its seed.
1996
KALI
I am the dust of mummies
I am the ash of avatars
The foam on the waves
Of the seas of the breaths
Of my fathers.
I am the silence between
The signs of the deaf
Carving the amulets
Of their subtle amnesia
On the heart
Of our forgetfulness.
I am the genie
Bottled in the flame
Of generation
Drinking the ambrosia
Of our forgotten beginnings—
Intoxicating myself with the agony
And orgasmry
Of the bellows
That incinerates generation—
It is silence and the sounds
That produce wisdom.
1996
LET US GO IN PEACE AND REST: AN INVOCATION
Let us go in peace and rest
Where our ears listen to silence
And speaking lips are stilled.
Let us go in peace and rest
Where our palms and soles
Cease to feel the earth’s embrace.
Let us go in peace and rest
Where our tongues no longer taste
The food of days and ways.
Let us go in peace and rest
As our minds still current
Becomes a mirror of the stars.
1979
LIONESS BESIDE THE SEA
For Gale Ambur
Gorgeous smiles purr quivers of joy
Around my savage heart as a
Lioness licks warm wet lips, listens with
Ears alert to jungle music,
Arouses growls from my roaming
Mane. Her frisky playfulness
Brings unexpected ecstasy
Under the stars, beside the waves,
Raging through my roar.
September 1996
LOVE POEM FROM A MOUNTAIN TOP
For Astrid
I look through the lens of my heart
And feel your embrace here
With me in the mountains
I see your eyes
In mountain lake blue snow melt summer
Water in which I see no bottom.
You next to me feel so warm
Like the sun now on my back;
Your touch, like the warm
Gentle wind coming and going
Around me from up the mountain
Slopes—ah, the slopes, the softened
Folds of earth, rounded gently—even now
My palms and fingers tingle with a
Anticipation at the thought of further exploring the curves
Of your heart.
The two lakes below me
In the valley are sparkling
Deep green emeralds
And since they are two
They remind me of you
Two eyes two ears
Two lips two breasts
Two cheeks two lips
Two thighs two arms
Two hands two lips
Two feet.
High above
In the valley of a cirque
Another smaller single lake
Is a shimmering silver button
Surface stroked by warming
Morning breeze;
I sit naked and erect
Wishing you were here
So we could love
All day long.
I dream still in ecstasy
Of our union.
2
You awaken me like the sounds
Of stones tumbling off the shear north face
Of the mountain beside me into lengthening
Shadows and valleys of snow,
Your voice is like the dance of wind
Through valleys of harp string straight firs—
Quiet and affirming, I hear your voices’ music
Here among the silences of these stones
And in the silences between the mountains—
Your silences are there and here too—
Those times of listening to the spirit within
That guides the path
Of our warrior ships.
. . .
The sun has set, Mt. Olympus my bedroom
Window to the south, and you are on my mind
And it feels so fine to find you there
As silent still night wraps his arms
Around these mountains
And bids their creatures rest.
Though some, like me, are yet wide-awake
And with you on my mind wishing
You were here beside me—
It seems like in so many ways
You have lived for so long
In my idealistic fantasies
Of what a woman I can love
Would be like, that now that
I find you in my life
More real than I ever imagined
You might possibly be
I am in a state of shock
From ecstasy.
Above the crimson slit of sunset
Floats the tiny thin crescent
Of the new moon
And Venus rising over my shoulder–
First stars flash on
I am lying directly under
One of the first
Thinking about you
Feeling longer than the distance
To those stars.
3
On the sudden flash of a shooting star
I make a wish to share this
And many many more
Beautiful places with you.
Wish you were on my shoulder
As well as on my mind—
The curve of that tiny thin
Orange crescent moon
Feels to my eyes
Like your curves in my hands—
Perfect.
. . .
Here you are on my mind again
With the fresh dawn wind
And the rising sun
And silence.
Thoughts of you awaken my manhood
And I wonder what I’m doing
Laying here alone on top
Of this mountain
Harder than the stones.
And this silence, so delicious
Like the dances of your lips
And tongue awakening, exciting
The extensions of my heart.
The stones here, layered ancient sea beds
Uplifted now into crumbling multiple
Tablets like the ruins of ancient
Cuneiform library –words written in
Hieroglyphs of moss and lichen—a few
Dwarf firs standing like perplexed librarians
Amid the growing hum of bees
As morning brings a marmot
From his den—like an ancient scholar
He peers curiously at me
Over the shale stacks
Before scampering
Off up the hill.
4
I look through volumes of the library
Of the heart
And find the most exciting
Is the one that is blank
Awaiting our writing
Of it together.
May we fill libraries with our songs
Until they rise around us
Like all these mountains
To peaks above the lakes.
LOVE SEASONS: AN EPIPHALAMIUM
Acrostic for Amanda Marjorie Essner and David Stanley Merritt Andrew Legore
SPRING
During the fifty-two weeks that make each year
Rest totally for one; during the seven days
That make each week, rejuvenate for two.
Two becoming one becoming one with the
Glory that unifies all becomings and goings
Master the relentless beat that beats all hearts.
Each season joins its song with the next—
An unbroken chord plucked from many strings,
Reverberating in endless cycles around one star.
Spring raises all to new heights–green shoots,
Rivers, hopes and dreams and joy embraces
Joy as awakening forces combine—all rise,
Arousing all others to wake and dance and be.
SUMMER
As towers of hours rise to zenith and
Northern apex lets stair stepped fingers twine and
Mix each wave of heat into a litany of
Enfolding arms that vanquishes all cold,
Ice is ruled by fire; cleared stone allows
Steps to climb higher, each a ruling of judgment
Miraculously modified toward one goal.
Let the clear heat of passion burn the haze
Eternally from stormy crags of doubt
And accumulate a fiery trove of wisdom that
Vanquishes all fear of difference and
Integrates acceptance into each and
Every beat of the heart.
FALL
Rest and rejuvenation are harvest fruit
Renewing and refreshing their essence
Eternally renewing new sown seed,
Renewing fertile receptive soil.
All things rise and fall
Each by its own cyclic nature.
Songs in praise of harvest loudly sung
Deliver inspiration to plow and plant,
Water and weed, harvest and preserve
New varieties as well as old
After frost comes no more. Spice is
Luxury enjoyed long into the future
After need and necessity fade.
WINTER
Now the fire’s kindled on one hearth
Now no ice will ever extinguish heat.
Your two hearts dance as one like
Two tongues of flame licking one log.
Outside, snow piles deeper,
Inside fires are banked higher.
No season will mute the music
Delivered from the whispering spheres,
Intertwining notes woven by fingers of the heart
Reverberating through every canyon of the mind
Delivered from springs, falls and summers
Eternally listening to the Great Silence and
All the great noisy silence that it contains.
With all love always and all ways for you both
D. Russel Micnhimer
July 4, 2000 Anno Domini
LUANN
We spread the sheets of our desires
Into a tapestry of perfection—
A thread thin as spider web
Unraveled
But kept us connected
By the perfection
Of our dreams.
1996
MOON KOEN
Rue the day
That lips
Turn to rock
And the furrows
In the forehead
Turn to stone
For stone is
A step from
Sand
And sand a step
From dust
And dust a breath
Away from rain
And waves
And tides
And floods
And drought—
Like on the moon.
4/6/2000
Morning
Buzzing red flowers
Humming birds sound like
Dry alder branches
Rubbing together in the wind
Hawks soar in the wind
Clutching small wiggling
Furry animals
In their talons
Two blue jays
Visit my hut
As frost turns to dew
On glistening leaves
Sun shines through
Droplets sparkling
Fern leaf tips
Into beacons of rainbows
1981
MY FRIEND HELEN
Perfect acceptance is the way she treads,
She thinks with her heart as well as her head.
For her, Love is heaven on earth
She sees in each soul the dream of their worth.
Her smiles and laughter quickly spread
With those whom she chooses to break bread.
With all she chooses to share her joy;
The world’s her playhouse, her life a toy.
Woman and love in her combine
Those are the qualities she refines;
She’s always nice and ever so sweet
That’s why union with her is complete.
1985
NEARLY FULL MOON
Early morning gray light
Waiting for the sun
To splash the silence
With bird songs
And insects hum.
3/18/1981
ST. PATRICKS DAY HIAKU
My hammock
Has green and orange
Strings!
Thunder booms
Across the sky
Or is it St. Helens?
1981
NEW FIRE
OR WHAT PEGGY TEACHS ABOUT LOVE
From the old dark forest of chaos and sorrow
Gather twigs of wounds and branches of scars,
Pile them around the tinder of hope
And build a new fire of love for today.
Strike a match of like on the heart
And touch it to differences, imperfections
And distance; fan new sparks
With kindness and patience.
Sticks of understanding ignite with new light.
Logs of meaning blaze with new heat.
Add new fuel with wisdom and with new
Words and actions dance upward with the flames.
2/2000
NEW YEAR KISS
For Eleanor
Fun is the scarlet
Of sunrise and sunset
Reflected on your lips.
Fun is the new horizon
Reflected in the eyes
Of your bliss.
1995
NEWLY EVOLVING INSPIRATION
For Eleanor
Every time I hear you soft voice, it
Leads me in the direction of caring about
Each step your heart-breath takes
Advancing toward the mysteries that
Now we embrace in searching out
Our opposites, harmonies and our
Reflection; reflecting eternal infinity.
PAINTED KACHINA
For Penelope
Pigment flows to canvas as vision
Evolves into scenes
Never seen before—
Each brush stroke a
Laugh of joy that
Opens new eyes of
Peace on the face of the
Eternal mask of the land.
7/1996
KNOCK AT THE GATEWAY
For Leana
Lightening flashes with
Each smile and thunder
Awakens all far and
Near. Heart beats
Answers to the call.
7/1996
PATHOS AND BATHOS
I cried
Looked at my finger tips
After wiping tears
And was surprised
Because I saw
No drops.
Where do they go
Once they are wept?
I laughed
Shed tears
Looked at my finger tips
And was surprised—
Drops were still there!
3/2000
RUBY
Ruby is the birthstone of July
It’s said to make your sorrows fly;
It’s said in Burma where most are found
They’re clear until they ripen in the ground.
Some say rubies, evil thought diverts.
The “Timur” ruby, largest known, is 352 carets.
The “Black Princess” ruby now in England’s crown
Deflected a sword blow from Henry V that would have cut him down.
Ruby entered into English around the year 1310 it is said
Through the Latin word “rubeus” which means red.
It’s believed by some that this red gem
Represses the effects of too much money in them.
1985
SESTINA AND ACROSTIC FOR ASTRID
As we explore the here and now
Smooth ripples echo in our hearts
Truth and trust balance our minds
Return us to a natural state
In which the joy of being grows
Directed by higher magic than we may know.
And we tell each other of truths we know
Speaking them as we understand them now
Teaching each other with acts of hearts
Rapport building with our minds
Intertwining we vibrate to an ecstatic state
Deepening our affection as it grows.
Around us brightening clear light grows
Shimmering the depths of all we know
Touching each and every eternal now
Raising joy beams from our hearts
Infusing clarity between our minds
Developing us to our truest state.
Absolute joy is our purest state
Surrounded by our heart it grows
Telling us what we need to know
Reaching us in our place of now
Inside the knowings of our hearts
Delighting the intertwining of our minds.
Actions proceed first in our minds
Suggest to us the desired state
Together exquisite pleasure grows
Reminding us that what we know
Is always here and only now
Dancing with beats of our hearts.
Always is where the touch of true hearts
Satisfies the touching of two minds
Toward that union and blissful state
Responds our spirit as it grows
Into the depths of what we know
Dreaming in this sea of now.
Union of hearts and sharing of minds
Keeps us in a state that always grows
Until the bliss of now is all we know.
1985
SHADES
Some where behind the shade
There is a window that opens
Into the leaves of trees
That whisper onto lawn
Their shade.
1978
SHADOW OF MORTALITY DESCENDING
Emotional quicksand!
Where is the branch
To save myself?
All the ropes thrown
Turn into nooses
Strangling inconsistencies
Writhe with fangs
Bared to bite
At the jugular
Of aspirations
Predators with habits
In their eyes
Burning resolution
Like a laser lobotomy
Injecting vicarious venom
Of delusions of happiness
Mock each grain
As it predictably
Engulfs the lungs
Of youthful ambition
Drowning in thirst quenching water
Ambition freezes as
One’s whole life flashes
On fast forward
Shoulds
Coulds
Woulds
Like tines on a pitchfork
Spear
Accomplishments
Fulfilled ambitions
Plans
And turn them to ashes
Growing cold on the grate of fear.
1996
SOLSTICE 1978
Winter has begun–
Daylight hours grow longer.
We, recorders of patterns of passing suns,
Scribe our lines through seasons of moonbeams
We balance the black with the white
As we draw lingual parallels that reflect
The visions of our passing through
Those worlds our dreams create.
Days grow longer now that wintertime is here
Peeking muddily
From beneath a collar of late fall snow.
SONG FROM A DREAM
Your blue eyes appeared
With your soft voice
In a dream of a song
Full of happiness
Your blond hair appeared
With your choices
In a dream of a song
Full of hope
Your music appeared
With your openness
In a dream of a song
Full of loveliness
Your dance appeared
With your agileness
In a dream of a song
Full of unions
Your smiles appeared
Across the miles
In a dream of a song
Full of whiles
Your heartbeats appeared
Quick and regular
In a dream of a song
About one drum.
September 1996
STONES AND BONES
STACKS OF STONES
GUARD THE BONES
SHAPE THE BONES
BREAK THE BONES
MARK THE BONES
GRIND THE BONES
8/1996
SUNSET THE DAY BEFORE I AM 37 (6/25/85)
Pollen in the sunspots
Germinating seeds
Heart guided by head
The warm rays lift
Above the horizon of gentle wind
As the last degree
Split second
Laser eye
Sinks
Below the dim powder blue
Island horizon.
Be it known that in the mid day sky
Appeared the colors of green
And orange in the high clouds
Like abalone shell
And I had the good
Fortune to share it
With the woman
With whom I’m
In love.
SUNSET
For Patricia Sue
Soft magenta fog fired hills
Beneath setting orange sun
Your lips
Softly rolling hills silver sheened
With dandelion seeds
Your hips
Strawberry blossoms hillside carpet
Filled with glowing orange crystals
As the cleft in the clouds
Grows pinker, hotter
And I imagine
That circle of the sun
I see in that cleft
In the clouds is the thrust of my manhood
And that pinkened cleft
Is your womanhood around me—
Together, us,
Among the stars.
THE LOVE OF THE WAY
The love of the way
Is my way of love
In the gateway
Between below and above.
1985
TWENTY WORDS AND TWENTY LINES TWENTY HOURS
BEFORE MEETING JILL KATHLEEN ANDERSON
JOKING
INTUITING
LOVING
LIKING
KISSING
AWARENESS
TANGY
HEARTENING
LEARNING
ENGAGING
EARTHLY
NEBULOUS
ASTOUNDING
NEAT
DELIBERATE
EXCITING
REGENERATIVE
SUCCULENT
ONTOLOGICAL
NEW
Jubilation greets me at every turn as
I meet a kindred spirit, ephemeral,
Like a zephyr ringing a lake with smiles,
Like comet tail glowing in black velvet space.
Keeping my attention focused, joy greets me
At every turn, a heart as real as
The rising sun, a mind as real as
Heart, beating a tempo of truth.
Learning more with each
Encounter about where our spirits touch,
Each new tangent we explore brings
Nearer, intersecting hearts.
Aphrodisiacally, the mesh of your charms
Nullifies emptiness inside me and
Delivers new awakenings, leading to visions
Of eternal awakenings in your arms.
Reverberating emanations from the glow that
Surrounds you awakens knowings
On this premier corporal occasion, at last
Now I know, at least, I love your smile.
12/5/2000
UNTITLED
I speak into the silence
Of many listening minds
Edges and echoes
Hail from many
Distant shores
Some in time
Some in space
All
Magnifying and diminishing
The dimensions
Of our
Gaze.
5/2000
UNTITLED
We dance through the peaks
And valleys of love
By moonlight
The unbroken melody of the brook
The tempo of the wind
And rain on the roof
The waltz
That carries us in its arms
Across the dance floor of ecstasy
In the ballroom of the sun.
1981
UNTITLED
I assume under this
Thunder fuck bull shit
Canopy of never ending
Slime and dust
There is a pearl
Brighter than the sun.
Taken on faith
Perfection is
Possible
Probable
Essential!
Indispensable!
Diamond?
Or rabbit fart dust?
5/2000
VCR: VIOLENT CORRECT REDUNDENCY
AUGUST 15, 1945
They keep replaying
The faces of the dead
Their grief
And smiles
Atrocities and triumphs
Printing and scripts
That vanquish names
From history books
Every one leaves
Traces
Of the needles
In the veins
Nagasaki! Nagasaki! Nagasaki!
BE REMINDED! DO NOT DO IT AGAIN!
3/ 2000
VIEW AT DEER PARK
Hidden acrostic (first letter of second word in each line)
When in summer, snow has melted
From lower mountain peaks, we
Climb on top of Blue Mountain and have ourselves
A view. From the summit we see far
In every direction—the Straight of Juan de Fuca, Mt. Baker, the Cascades
Sequim, Port Angeles, Hurricane Ridge, San Juan Islands, Dungeness
Spit and Olympic Mountains—our eyes trace
Horizon three hundred and sixty degrees. We watch high
Clouds racing from the west turn to abalone shell swirls
Passing in front of the midday sun. Bright purple and yellow
Blossoms carpet the slopes, orchestra pits of humming bees. Deer,
Antlers in velvet, graze on tender green blades in gentle
Breeze. A Power higher than we are is working magically and
Playing songs here that echo between our ears and the empyrean;
We understand a few phrases of that symphony and
Listen eagerly at this apex to eternal encores of that Heart.
7/4/85
WE MAKE LOVE
We make love
And sing a paisley
Song into the laughter
Of the night
While our tongues
Pluck a fugue on the strings
Of Eros’ harp.
We make love
And climb a pyramid
Of light
To its apex in the sun
Where we crack like crystals
Frozen in space
Into cosmos
Where light and dark
Are one.
We make love
And dream of worlds
Beyond the realm
Of referenced mind
Where feelings rainbow
Through skies perfumed
With pomegranate serenades
Where our hearts
Beat a single breath
In rhythm with the stars.
1978
WELL PLACED LAKE DRIFTWOOD
For Tim Quinn
The subtle signs you leave behind
Indelibly etched into handles of my
Mind are true logos of genius—
Quintessential elements that embrace
Understanding and
Impart it to all forevers, all
Nevers and all
Nows.
6/16/2000
WINDOWS, SUMMER 1996
Shapes of windows
Shape our seeings
Looking out and
Looking in
The apertures
Of our knowings
Are shaped
By our comings
And our goings
Around windows
We build the walls
And doors.
. . . . .
Hearts shaped by generations
Beat ancient rhythms
Modulated and modified
By the heat of our days.
. . . .
We walk the deserts
To springs of our passing
Satiated and thirsty
For the awakening of our dreams.
. . .
We scratch and paint
The walls of our caves
Hoping to dispel
The shadows of our
Ceasings.
. . . .
The bread of our beliefs
Is our escape through
The windows of our years
Leavened by the cynicism
Our knowings adds to the dough.
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL TO ME
For Peggy
Because you always brighten my day
You are beautiful
Every time your smile brightens mine
You are beautiful
All your words are perfect notes so
You are beautiful
Understandings flow between us and
You are beautiful
Time passes and endears me to you because
You are beautiful
In each moment of joy you are there and
You are beautiful
Fully a man in your presence I feel
You are beautiful
Under the moon and sun and stars
You are beautiful
Lust and love and like with you merge because
You are beautiful.
6/21/1998
YOUR SMILE
For Peggy Jean
Your smile washes over me like
Sun’s returning rays at dawn
Lifting my sleeping spirit to
Embrace a new day’s wonders,
Brightening the glow of dreams
Into the actions of the day.
Your smile floods me like
Melting snows filling lakes and streams
Filling my heart to overflowing
With your kind, gentle understandings
Quenching the thirst, filling
Me with knowing.
Your smile fills my heart
With the joy of your heart
Your love cascades over me
In a rainbow of fulfillment
Teaching me that ecstasy lives
In each heart beat of living.
7/22/1998
Layover for Catching Meddlers 