Morning breaks easy
Not a sound to distract
Slip soft out of slumber
Shake thoughts from my mind
I look to blank ceiling
Off white blank pristine
Light and shadow convergence
I’m reaching through silent spaces
Expecting smooth sailing
Expecting to fly
He was dancing
I saw him
But when I turned
he was solid still like death
Tidy crimped in his place
On the front lawn
basking in the pale Saturday sun.
A face is pressed against a window watching
sun’s slow slumber falling behind low hills
A face is thin lines etched into vapour caught
between distance and moments of deep winter freeze
Your face invisible
recording passing scenes
You are a passenger
This is a speeding vessel
You are not aimless but
I am only part time a driver
My attention wavers from
this winding road our wheels move along
That lake looks lonesome
like a wanderer dreaming of home.
He is dancing to the river bed beats
beneath a canopy of Douglas fir and Cedar
Step into his rhythms as you skip stones
over low rippling waves near sundown
Deep in an echo valley of moss and lichen
forest creatures pause to sway
River man brings joy to their hearts
in a sweet sorrowful serenading kindly way
Rag horses shed leftover rain
dropped overnight from clouds passing
when we were deep sleep dreaming
All of our words lay down to rest
between folds of our clothes there
next to our beds
Sunlight spreads slow up between
quiet roofs down the street beneath where
people we’ve yet to meet imagine the same
You ask
where ‘will you be this time next year‘
While I
look past your shoulder at some shiny thing
Your smile
says ‘I must be patient with her mind‘
I see
hummingbird contemplate a sip of nectar
Your look
repeats the question with another tone
I say
Yes I shall look here deep into my bowl
We know
All that will be is there to know
Meet me there early
Drakes and hens in calm waters
Morning lights the bog
While you are sleep dreaming
a trio of shadows alights in your room
You might hear their faint chorus
a distant melody deep sweet and low
What message their voices whisper
a calm symphony or euphonious hum
Gifts they leave for discovery
light passages welcome a new day
Lift your eyes toward ceiling at dawn
imagine there cloudless quiet skies
Three shadows meet in your window
looking in looking out through you
Telephone
Out there in the woods
I see it through raindrops suspended
Armchair empty, waiting
Between wet fallen maple leaves
And sunlight
There beneath a canopy of cedar limb lace
I hear it ringing not without urgency
I pause and then I sprint
Who’s calling from where
And for whom
But I am slow motion
My breath a heavy sound
The ringer out of patience
How small are we how
quiet at the core in grief
when we have known love
Pencil Notes 