Lawn Chairs at Twilight

The croaking frogs sing a lullaby at twilight, harmonizing the pop of sticks crumbling in the campfire. Lake Superior hums beneath it all, carrying the song in waves and dancing stones, in splashes and gentle crashes. prologue to moonlight summer’s lasting solstice glow stay with me awhile I wrote this poem for the Wea’ve WrittenContinue reading “Lawn Chairs at Twilight”

Rainbows in the Morning

I’ll paint the sky in technicolor ifyou dance in the rain. Youskip rocks under waterfalls and tellme songs about shadows. Theraindrops coated the truththat the sun was golden and youdidn’t need an umbrella. I don’thave the answers and they don’t havethe time, but you don’t have toremind me. We’ll rememberrainbows in the morning if anything.Continue reading “Rainbows in the Morning”

Night and Day

night day asleep then awake we give and we take smoothing out the imperfections placing new threads onto the loom and clutching the moon day night embrace deviate a cycle of fate weaving lush stories in our wake transferring tapestries to the places we create night day alive and awake fully captivate interlacing threads ofContinue reading “Night and Day”

Zigzag

We’re tracing our handprintsin sand, pulling feet from concrete footprints.We’re slipping through the silt, plunging headstrongthrough the river.We’re foraging through moss and leaves, forming futures in the foliage.We’re embers of yesterday’s memories, tracing our handprints in sand. I’ve written this poem for the Wea’ve Written Weekly prompt at the Skeptic’s Kaddish; this week’s prompt wasContinue reading “Zigzag”

Nature’s Folly

Sneak away behind the treesthey’ll never spot us among the evergreensand the gentle hushof the meadow breezewill surely mask our gobbling. We’ll freely gander, grazing for hours,spend our sunshine in folly, our wobbling superpowers.We don’t soar over seasor traverse mountain towersbut live our simple turkey dreams haunting your backyard flowers. I wrote this poem forContinue reading “Nature’s Folly”

April Buds

The morning chorus of birdsong greets me under a gray-cloaked sky.We sip coffee on the back porch in sweatshirts, hoods pulled tight around our faces as the first tentative raindrops scamper across the yard, blipping onto the peeling paint,spreading out into Rorschach blobs that test our springtime fortitude. I wrote this poem for this week’sContinue reading “April Buds”

Who am I and What is My Purpose?

the sunrise over a flooded riverbed–now mid-day, or maybe sunset instead,the soft-spoken advice that leads you homethe messy-haired head lost in a tomethe crinkled leaf upon that same riverthe freckled skin, the dry hands that sliverthe mothering arms for ready embracethe struggling teacher longing for gracethe light feet dancing from place to place This poemContinue reading “Who am I and What is My Purpose?”

Black spruce sentry

A century-old sentry, I’ve stood vigilantat the river’s edge.A surveyor of nature’s glory:the glisten of crisp iceand snowmelt that poolsat my roots,the flicker of the moon’swarm glow scamperingacross my branches,smoother than the boldstare of summer’s sunrays,or the wind that stirs needles and flowers culled from my shadows by deer and hare, or the eddies thatContinue reading “Black spruce sentry”

Taproots

Burrowed underthe surface,secreted shadowsthat swirl sandand flooded landwith God’s hand.I’ll masquerade as a poeta little longer,learning to findmyself beneath my words, expose my owntaproots. Shortly into remission from stage three cancer, I was joking with my primary care physician: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?” “Well,” she said, surprisingly hesitant. “It makes youContinue reading “Taproots”

Rain Dance

in one moment, the earth becomesbeauty in place of pain, levityin place of rain, heartbeat scatteredacross a blood-red sky. Life succumbsto the dance of earth’s frail gravity,the freedom of loose-limbed revelry,the earthquake’s reign that shatteredour peace, the touch of rain now free This poem was written for the Wea’ve Written Weekly prompt. This week’s promptContinue reading “Rain Dance”