Sunday, March 5, 2023

Sunday, Mar. 5

Signal quality
is something I still associate
with radio sets on island chains
trying to make contact with command.

My cell phone is block, a brick
a tool I use for basic functions
even as I think of grass huts and
hidden wires making antennas.

The console, the telegraph
all crowd my memory from times
I never knew, but vivid in mind
from coastwatchers, Resistance fighters, Quonsets.

Saturday, Mar. 4

For me a day of births & deaths
One nearer in family
Another close in spirit.

Born this day, a child of 1927
Died this day, in 1866
Either one I find near to what

Traces for me a path
Leading to the present
I am trying to myself to interpret.

Friday, Mar. 3

I want to die, the Sybil said

a dwindling, fading voice.

No hope for life

nor dream of death

within her fated choice.

Thursday, Mar. 2

Words do not sum up
the definitions we have
for the understanding we seek.

Another way to define
concepts and interpretations
is through art, which is weak

Not in too little meaning
shared and seen to the eye
but the chaos we wreak

Mixing images and reason
into a narrative
swerving from colorful to bleak

A structure which
cannot stand in even modest winds
without groans and an occasional creak

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Wednesday, March 1

Are you sure, he said? Wondering about her hoping she isn't as worried as she sounds. No, not really, she replied. Knowing he isn't as interested as he's trying to sound.

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Tuesday, Feb. 28

Evenings I sort through regrets

& toss them into my dreams

to see what images & outcomes they create.

Mornings I've doubts,

but ideas still hover

uncompleted, in a muddled sort of state.

The things I've done and what I've yet to do

they need to be divided

between early & late.

Monday, February 27, 2023

Monday, Feb. 27

Miz Gulch has ridden thru my life many times

keeping a close eye on me.

She knows better, you see

She always does

From the start

My joys are her discomfort

What delights me pains her spirit

We shouldn’t live on the same road

Or same town

Or same state

Let alone in the same heart.



Sunday, February 26, 2023

Sunday, Feb. 26

Mom said 3,

raised it to 5,

finally said “all you can carry”

But by then they’d let me upstairs

into the adult library.

Every Saturday

without fail

we’d pile into the car

get our stacks of books

and cart them home to devour.

I had no doubt then

all knowledge

could be found there.

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Saturday, Feb. 25

Islands, archipelagos, peninsulas
shores of cement curb
channels of blacktop
wavecrests of parking lines rippling.
Navigate if you can around the currents
in convoy, cars tacking one way
then another, weaving
towards the torrent pouring nearby
ready to set sail.

Friday, February 24, 2023

Friday, Feb. 24

Isaac Stern plays music
sweet and strong and lifting 
even if in black & white 
with Jack Benny muddling 
the same tune in comic counterpoint. 
I pause, making coffee, wondering 
where those rich & full memories are 
when I’m not using them. 
Buck dozes, nodding, smiling.

Thursday, February 23, 2023

Thursday, Feb. 23

Easter still seems so distant
plenty of time to prepare
hours left to share
resistant to the idea of a conclusion
insistent that immediate needs be met.
There at the arrival of the ending
will I regret my readiness
less than it could have been
might have been
should have been.

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Ash Wednesday

Grey is the color of the sky, the street, the ashes

Earl Grey is the tea of spring, of Lent, of modest sacrifices

Grit melts and grinds along the sidewalks as winter ends, grey & gravelly

Imposing ashes leaves grey traces not easily scrubbed out of the ridges & whorls of my thumb

Shrove Tuesday

When the sun starts standing up straighter,

the heat passing deeper into the soil,

days are not just longer but brighter, warmer.

Before tree buds become leaves, they’re

tuning forks vibrating just below audible sound,

a tone making the soggy landscape quiver, shaking with light.