MINDFULLNESS

My head hurts

full of a million

unruly words

all clamoring for attention

None will listen

or follow direction

Putting words in their place

is a task without end.

Be quiet children!

Let me sleep. 

 

 

 THEN CAME NOVEMBER

The wild month tinged with melancholy

and the promise of shortened days,

dull and dark.

Just barely a day old

it brought the long awaited rattle of rain on my roof

and then later that week, a hard frost

which finally decimated by summer begonias.

A mad rush of snowbirds head south

in their heavy-weight RV's.

And none to soon 

as one day later winter made an early debut

with a premature snowfall, delicate as lace

but rapidly melting.

My stripped and beautiful birches

grieving the loss of their dearly departed leaves

creak and moan in the wind.

A sobering reminder 

that we will soon be plunged 

into the cold shadows of winter

where the bone structure of the landscape

can be felt from every angle,

where bitter blasts bite at exposed hands and faces

and hard frosts extinguish what's left of the year.

We will return, once again,

to a plain sense of things.

(November 2013)

 

 Dead of Winter

 

Where do the birds go at night

in the thick of winter when the wind could smite

a soul to death with its wicked bite.

 

When the frost lies thick upon the field

those tiny creatures where is their bield

against the moon and the stars' cruel shield. 

(March 2021) 

 

WINTER'S GREY

Winter's grey

cannot dampen a warm heart

cannot steal a sunny perspective

Nor taint a grateful mind.

For in that soul

lies eternal summer.

(December 2019)

 

 There Is A Story To Tell

Inside every tree

inside each flower

even the tiniest smidgens of being

have a story to tell.

Stop! Hear!

Take the time to listen

lest the flower's withering petal

should blow from reach

on the departing wind

keeping its secrets within.

(March 2019)

Shooting Star - Dodecatheon pulchellum

Bud of twelve gods,

leafless scapes rising up

from a rosette of lance-like leaves

bearing umbers of dark-throated 

magenta flowers with swept back petals

adorned with white collars

and a downward pointing beak

under a yellow crown.

Oh lovely one, 

you are a sight to behold! 

(March 2021)

 

 

 

 

In the autumn 

of my life

winter 

is far too long

The sun 

filled with ice

gives no warmth 

and the sky is never blue.

February 2021