a monarch's flight
around the sugar maple - 
who is courting whom

the high made low 

prostrate
before October
again

a fleeting season
of prodigal
vows 

sable dissolving
into not-quite dawn –
I follow the wick
towards a peppery break
to face the hues of our stay 

stained glass morning
yielding shattered praises
before the storm - 

how light
will not be

kept

a thousand times a day
I rise and fall
in a few short notes - 
cardinals, crows, and chickadees 

Seen

white sheet slipping
and golden slanted light - 
an uncovered heart
cannot lie
for long

a train haunts
in the softer distance - 
the ache of here
and not here

missing words bent low - 
the daisies finish
too soon 

ginger needles
softening the trail - 
her lost and found

hummingbird heart - 
my mother's beauty
at rest 

chicory blue - 
the river and I
mouth the meadow

the seed
has not perished  

you called me beautiful
once

the birth
of belief

ladybug
in my hair and
sand in the sheets - 
summer love doesn't stay
alone

wind hurries the blossoms along - 
I remain to tend and
tend to remain

What I Heard

a thousand different leaves whispering this everyday way 

eddies of stars
and a rill of sighs - 
a thin offering of contrition

unmanaged elegance
grey-blue-grey -- 
the water and heron
reflecting desire
at bay

waking to June
and rain - 

a drizzled mortality asking
for whom I live

the river
refrains

the way dawn drips
from softening pine needles - 

at 5 a.m. 
blue-green joy
has a name

the om of bees -
springtime shakes the beauty
of resistance