Unripe berriescluster on the vine.One is dark, but not dark enough,a pinot, not a cab.The others look creamywhite turning pale yellowa few tinged pink like a peace rose, my favorite:they used to bloomin my mother’s garden.As a child, I was amazedhow soft yellowwould yield to pink,not a transition a colorwheel might predict.Yet everything everywhere is … Continue reading Everything
Break My HeartWritten with the prompts: beware, you are bound for a heartache, break my heart buttercup, clutter, dancing fingers stole that away, extra spice, find one you do like, it takes money, leave home, not isolated, once you were only in my dreams, sweet, the trail wasn’t easy, wine dark sea, wind keeps blowing … Continue reading Break My Heart
Because April is National Poetry Month, I’ve decided to share with you some ekphrastic poems I’ve written this past year. Ekphrastic poems are written about works of art, most often visual art like paintings and sculpture, but they may be about a performance piece like dancing, acting, or film. This poem reflects on a lovely … Continue reading Rivers, inspired by Georgia O’Keefe’s Chama River, Ghost Ranch 1937
I wrote this poem nearly forty years ago, give or take a decade. But it’s April, National Poetry Month, and I thought I’d drag out a few old favorites of mine. My late cat Hibiscus makes a cameo appearance in this poem. He was a long-haired gray tabby, with caramel colored strips on his face, … Continue reading The Fairy Path
April is National Poetry Month, so I’ll be posting a few poems this season. Currently I spend more time writing prose stories instead of poems, so it’s been fun for me to look back at poems I wrote in past decades. This poem is from a period when I was experimenting with classic forms. … Continue reading The Bear, a sestina
Today's offering is the tiniest of flash fiction, written in poem form.The river is lapping on my porch. Red fish and blue fish leap toward the doorbellseeking sanctuary.My cat smacks her lips wishes for opposable thumbs.Meanwhile, I ama Russian nesting doll.I contain multitudes.The old woman on the outsideis undecided.The young woman within is watching the … Continue reading Matryoshka
Polar Bears, fragrant and prickly,crouch in the coldlistening for the echoof flute notes in crystal caves.Fiercely, fiercely bread bakesdefying the bitter stingof tule fog.Follow the riversfollow their floating trails of sycamore leaves and orange blossoms.One river flows west.One river flows south.Crashing together, a joyful tumble.Saint Francis is beckoning:he will take you all the way to … Continue reading Animals in Winter: as large as fog, as warm as bread
The new year feels like a mistake waiting to happen, a haircut with bangs that are too short, the wrong lipstick, a red that’s too blue, when it should be orange. And I wonder: is this the face I want to present to the world/in a new year? January yawns open, a classroom with dark and heavy … Continue reading New Year
A winter's poem I wrote a few decades ago. . . In Decemberthe sky darkened but a star cracked the blacknessto perch like a red bird on the waiting finger of an evergreen tree. Hiking through the field we knelt on damp leaves and knew: the Earth will heal herself. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Blessed … Continue reading Shepherd’s Story
This poem continues my theme of December oranges, but also serves as a holiday warning: don't let this season try your patience and drive you to exhaustion! Remember, the smartest thing to do on the longest night of the year is sleep. If I can pluck the moonfrom the sky I may find it’s no … Continue reading Don’t Eat the Moon
