Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Telltale

Side-plastered tree trunks tell 
which way the wind blew the falling snow.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Laundry Lines

I give the green towel a 
whip S N A P!
to stand the pile up and 
shake out wrinkles 
before I hang it on the drying rack.
Whip S N A P!
I’m six years old watching my mother 
hang laundry on the outdoor line
handing her coil spring clothes pins --
was it just a 1960s housewife thing
or was she, too, coping with a broken dryer?

Monday, February 27, 2012

Sun After Snow

The eleven year old boy 
points across the pasture
“It looks like some girl 
came and poured glitter all over it!”

Friday, February 24, 2012

Greener Grass

I need nothing.
There sits my car, tank full
but I’ve no need to go out --
luxurious!
Understand;
this is a thing of choosing --
next moment I may be as discontented
as any fence-side cow.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Notice

Halfway home on the forest trail 
I notice that I’m walking blind,
everything I’m noticing is in my head.
He said..., She said..., They’ll think....
Breathe!  Be here!  Be now!
Notice the robins bursting aloft.
Notice the bare frozen slope.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Windy

Clots of cumulous bluster eastward 
pulling apart like unspun wool opening 
blue eyes, remass, close ranks, open over there
and there.  Pines twist and sway, think
about picking up their roots and waltzing
over the ridge after them.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Mumbling Kettle

The mumbling of the teakettle
keeping warm on the back burner,
ticking of the cast iron frying pan 
heating on the front burner.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Heaven Rushing In

Feet planted on duff and stone
arms raised, a great bowl, to the gray sky
I choose to receive truth
I choose to receive my lost energy
deer snort off to the left
snowflakes drift down.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Lacework

Dirt road strewn crisscross 
with slender ponderosa needles
this morning the upper layers
are snow pellet laden 
yet the dark ground is bare.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

A Decade in the Weather

On the cedar bird feeder’s gabled roof
deep green paint gives way to bare
gray patches and colonizing yellow lichen.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Wishing for Binoculars

Gray bird against gray sky
amongst gray twigs of hawthorn copse
warbling so softly with beak closed
I assume the call is a more distant bird 
‘til I see tail twitches marking time.
It flies cross the road to join another, 
together they fly back again uttering
single louder cries “whoot....whoot....”
At home with field guides and internet
photos, descriptions and recordings
I come up empty handed with no 
name for the bird in the bush.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Choice

Complicated, anxious day
press the silver start button
clothes dryer responds with silence.
Pause.
Breathe.
I could let this be the straw 
that broke the camel’s back --
but what would that attract?

Monday, February 13, 2012

Friday, February 10, 2012

After Chores

Sitting on the concrete step
purring the porch cats
getting muddy paw prints 
on old holey jeans.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Lichen on Hawthorn

Mustard yellow lichen trumpets
clump thick around thorn base and 
twig branching on these old low 
roadside hawthorn limbs,
each minuscule cone brimful in
morning’s saturated atmosphere.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Home From Walking

Entering kitchen, glasses fog up
cold nose and cheeks throb with heat
unwinding scarf, noticing
dishes, papers, laundry.
The last half hour I’ve been far away --
this room is a foreign land.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

River of Wind

River of wind
rushing through the pine tops,
in the garden the wind chime
swings like a fishing lure.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Sitting on a Hillside in February

At the house the thermometer reads 20ºF,
here hour-old sun reaches between pines
exorcising frost from fallen needles.
On flatish ground above a boulder
my daypack becomes a make-do zafu
I sit gloves off, jacket hanging open, 
morning’s radiance a roiling glory
soaking through closed eyelids. 

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Vacant Winter Greenhouse

On the corner of the cedar slat work bench
a cobalt bottle glints in the sun’s final rays,
a dusty spider web hammock
wafts sine waves in the window corner.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Cat Knitting

Long haired kitten cat
fine and soft in my lap 
like a purring skein of angora.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Liquid Drops

Liquid drops at needle ends
found to be ice on the tongue
melting into a trace of pine.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012