poetry

migrating snow geese

migrating snow geese

some days joy hides
easy to forget the contours of its cheek
or the scent of its shirt in the closet

some days awe is a memory
stored under basement boxes
at risk of disappearing into a cobwebbed corner

but today
the snow geese stream by
loose white black-studded Vs against
clear blue sky

and we gasp over and over
at the spectacle of black/white/blue
at the never-endingness of the drifts of white
coming in on the wind

it’s an unfamiliar abundance
that we in this time of diminishment
imperilment risk extinction decline
fragmentation extirpation catastrophe
have little acquaintance with

and the rush of wings and bodies and joy
all these beings requiring essentially nothing of us
no intervention no advocacy no sacrifice
is so welcome we blink back tears

my son says if the sky had a necklace
it would be made of snow geese

we sit in wonder
not just listening to their cacophony
but feeling it inside our skins
the collective vibration of their thousands
of hearts and synapses
the air itself trembling
at holding such tenderness

poetry

Orionids: Lake Poso

Orionids: Lake Poso

on the dock
in the dark
I stretch out long
let the robe of stars
fall over me in folds

without seeking
I find him
the Hunter
a midnight visitor
from the familiar north

here out over the black lake
he’s different
not just a belt and shoulders
his features finally fully come into view
and for the first time
his bow is plain
clutched in his left hand
aimed over the water

before I can settle in
he fires a long streak across the sky
bright enough a trail of light lingers

I wait what feels like a long time
but the sky stays still

thankful for being at the right place
at the right time
for that one volley
I stand to leave
get my bearings on the railingless dock
then search the sky one last time
but fail to find his form

wondering was it dreamwork
a trick of the watery air
I turn back to shore
and he greets me again

of course:
prone, I realize,
I craned my neck
and found him there behind me

everything’s just as it should be –
pure magic