rusting
/do we spill
like water or are we
rust –
this port a heaven
of daylight at the door
do we spill
like water or are we
rust –
this port a heaven
of daylight at the door
old grooves
in the dirt road
are the new trails
for who we are –
come morning we walk
as saints
this weathered porch
and fire's tint
as paper falling
soundless –
November as a surgeon
of the scarlet way
rain constant
like Buddhist prayers
humming amongst lowered
leaves –
this recompense
a holiness falling
as Love
drawing myself
as water from a well
into a sovereign place
unafraid of rain falling
on this fire
branches of pine
this crown
smoke winding
like a river
combing my hair
like my mother working
out the knots
before school
here we drink waters
once snow
turtles, a title
in the cave
of my body
and in the river
your reflection
taken downstream
this drowning twin
we are forced
to let
go
night rain
rearranging leaves
and dreams –
crickets no longer
chatter in my hair
retracting for a time
October owls
flirting in moonlight
sleep laid aside
this empty bed
listening
mourning doves sip
from last night's rain –
shape of dawn
making something
out of nothing
entering the earth
always on my knees –
October breeze my hymn
woodsmoke rising
from my throat
what the lake makes
of the moon –
wounded turtles
slip into shimmers
and shooting stars
Orion
upside down –
even the past
has not past
first leaves
fall to mingle
with summer's end making
room for one more star
and then many
drifting boat
not coming not going
a solitary heron wading
skeins of morning
silk
red-bellied woodpecker
clinging above the dirt road
and I
deeply in love
with lonesome pathways
misted morn
fold on fold afloat
under white pine –
these crickets
my autumn tinnitus
bird and song
tuning into place
and season –
I am calm
where pine
takes root
sunlight
stirring the dirt floor
my mushroom heart
here and gone
in a day
red bird
on an old pine –
I'm a passing cloud
waterbugs
like fireworks
embellish creek water
and maple seeds
as twins spinning
this unlimited intimacy
this Eucharist of awareness
falling apart
in the mouth