Sassapaw

redundancy

2012-01-20T18:50:00.001-08:00

In all,
the days have gone so fast
that I did not
could not
get past the pile of duties
that I say
kept me from here
until this day.

winter

2011-01-21T16:47:00.000-08:00

keeps a steady pace
of snow and ice and
wind burned face.

I swear they said
the other day that
cold this year
would stay away.

birds

2011-01-21T16:45:00.000-08:00

at the feeder
flap about
and flip the seed parts
into snow.

heat

2010-07-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

welds the air in solid steam
while leaves are drained
to lop and lilt.

dead bees

2010-03-09T17:42:00.000-08:00

pile up in the bottom of the hive
and I wonder if I could have really kept them alive
with my pesty no pest strips and sugar water blood.

I brush them onto soft cold mud.

rattlesnake

2009-07-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

curly coiled on twisted stump
he buzzes with his rattle rump
too close to home to leave alone
and with a squeeze behind his head
i carry him with speedy tread
up and over through the wood
and drop him in a new place good
to live away from human fears
he rattles, smiles, and disappears.

bush hog

2009-07-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

so tall and thick
the grass and trees
and weeds and vines
and flies and bees
evaporate into the dust
of spinning blades and
windy gust
of air so hot
it cooks the day
and spinning round
a turn
I splay
into the nest
of fluffy fresh
new chicks at rest
and killing two
and watching three
escape with mother
to the tree
I sift the rubble
of their place
and find one
under just a trace
of eggshell
and I
take it
home.

surface

2009-06-23T06:29:00.000-07:00

i finally seal soft surfaces with shiny stinky stuff. the wooden trim is soaked with smells and dust and stained enough that i should finally brush the varnish into the neglected rough.

father solstice

2009-06-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

father's day shines long this year in sinc with solstice sun.

Morels

2009-03-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

Poked their wadded heads from under leaves.

Winter Solstice

2008-12-21T07:17:00.000-08:00

came into my window wild with robin songs
and turkeys trots.

I step upon persimmons on a cold and cold ground
and place the seeds and lift them to the sky for future feed.

Today dear friends will Marry, and tomorrow's daylight grows.

leaving

2008-11-17T16:43:00.000-08:00

Leaves golden and crumble twist through air and to the ground
while windy gusts blow through the woods and pile them in a mound
to mold and darken with decay into the winter's womb
returning Life into the Earth, delivered from the Tomb
in Spring.

Walnuts

2008-10-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

have been plopping to the ground for weeks, but I just started picking them and popping them in buckets to just empty on the road for tires to roll upon a while to take their hides away.

The inner hulls are washed and dried and waited on to crack one day.

Ladybugs

2008-10-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

are landing now and loading up the house
with orange and black.
They stink (as sharply as they bite)
and scurry into cracks.

The swarm and scurry of today
means winter is not far away.

return

2008-09-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

the man fell

the temple rose
in sweet ash

truth to
impose

desert

2008-08-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

nothing is there
and so
i will be

blueberries

2008-07-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

slip into my fingers from the sweetened tips of twigs

berries

2008-06-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

dogs plop in the pond
having come full circle
sniffing, smelling, scouting, searching
for the furries of the farm

i slowly stroll behind them
with my little bag of berries
and my itchy scratchy arms.

pollen

2008-05-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

flows into my crevices and flowers into phlegm.

honey

2008-05-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

i'm in the bees. they smell my breath. they do not fear the sting of death, and only let me take as much as they decree.

it's good when such sweet sticky stuff can glue true friends both old and new.

i look at them, and know they're True.

seed

2008-05-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

dropped pink plopping corn seed to the ground in the center of the hallowed spot, then turned and turned a twisting swirl outward from the center, stopped, and softly shuffled dirt with naked feet from side to side until the meat from last year's tender ears now dried and dyed for planting here is covered with a softened dust.

earlier I scraped the stones from ground to smooth the dirt into nice beds of flattened soil. my skin exposed, no tanning oil to come between the Sun and me, and wind sweet wind.
I smell.
I see.

burning man tree

2008-04-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

my friend and son and i went to a hill to burn a standing tree in full moonlight. we tumbled sticks into the night and burned them with a brilliant light that slowly swirled around the trunk and wayne plucked banjo strings while drunk with parker telling tales of times behind us.
as we watched the flame fly up the limbs and spend its embers as saffron sands i stand and smell the sweet and good and listen to the fingers fling against the banjo's singing string and watch the shadows from the moon withdraw to hide from heat released from sparkling wood.

this summer i will also stand and watch this heat consume the Man, and warm us all with random plan.

rain

2008-04-07T21:18:00.000-07:00

drops in and makes itself home in the grooves in the ground as it moves to deeper smoother streams of distance. warmer air makes time disappear in duties designed around the dirt, and all the things that flow up from it. bees need tending to. bees need tending too. i need more bees. and more time. or maybe just sleep.

spring day

2008-03-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

tonight's full moon lights poplar buds
and nubs of trillium heads.

genre

2008-03-21T21:16:00.000-07:00

earlier this week i met a truly human poet. we finally found a time to talk and she asked about my genre.

before i could reply we were interrupted by the simultaneous demands for attention by an elder and a child.

i could not have answered anyway, until today, when i heard Joanna Newsom refer to a poetaster.

i think that is quite an accurate description.

bees

2008-03-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

starting to feed, only 4 hives remain.
now we are begining to receive spring rain.

Integrity of Memory

2008-03-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Words start as I look at the dog in the sun on the rug by the windowed door. I look through the glass across dry boards of deck into a strip of porch snow protected by the shadow of the handrail which protects me from falling fifteen feet down the hillside below.

I look across the empty air into wooded hillsides shaped by snow and shadows of straight and twisted leafless trees.

I think of this good moment fading fast into the future, and these few and feeble syllables seem adequate for now.

-----

Clover seed is sown in patterns, and bloodroot spreads its flower head,
but Hamish hangs
in Holy Robes
of saffron, black and white
and turns his teeth in turmoil as he stares into the night.