Tag Archives: poems

There’s a Crack in the Ice

There’s a crack where ice meets the sun

A star open to the temporary

A hole to a cool underworld

I pause in this moment to ponder

My invitation to the party below

And yes, am I tempted

But so do I remember

Qualifications lacking

I am only half blind

Unstable when disconnected from earth

And cannot swim

Opening the Cage

Someone stirs Poet

imagining her a steamy soup made from river water

He only need stir and wait stir and wait

Boiling sends germs skyward

or so Someone has come to believe

Chains without locks unsteady his focus

but the jingling is comforting, a burden endured willingly for the prize

Red-winged blackbird alights in the hemlock’s shade

his song urging shuffling, then a reluctant stumble of a dance step

Oh distraction! Someone sways in reverie

disturbing the balance of malcontent

Poet escapes while Someone shakes a wooden spoon

that is not a spoon but a rattle with a song

Someone lifts a heavy head of grey anger

resisting the fragility of whispering clouds

Not yet has awareness opened wide enough

to notice Poet has taken the chains

Not yet Someone notices new lightness

Possibility in steps

Sundown with Heron

Heron and me

Wind and sea

Space between us

Watcher and watcher watching

Am I alone here

Or part of a whole

Belonging is fleeting

Questions lift and fly

Melody of swash carries

Choirs from other shores

Night birds glide to clouds

I survey you surveying

Graceful hunter

Sky draws her shades

I choose a stone to throw