sparasso

rain-slick leaves plastered over pathways. step carefully

I watched maple seeds swell from tangy blooms into hairy green clusters that dried and dropped, thin brown wings soaking into mud — year-long companions

dead-headed flowers cut short my enjoyment of long winter decay

sudden early chill in our valley as the sun drops behind the ridge

thin brown wings soaking into the mud — maple seeds

red-black ripened haws slung over thorns pass me by unpicked all winter

winter rains combine heavy hooves, pennyroyal, slick clay, and spent hay. This misty alchemy makes slick-sucking horse-churned hillsides.

winter rains, hard clay slick-sucking horse-churned hillsides misty alchemy

green fern springs from brown — “all these deaths contain the seeds of resurrection.”

acorn cache gathered carefully with food in mind But wait — a weevil

to make an acorn hunter stop fast in their tracks: a cache full of frass

white mushroom spread wide two days — beheaded, deer-yanked from humus and leaves

stumbling down a path dampened by pre-dawn dark, my passage smoothed by dribbling rain — fallen clumps of lichen my only beacons.

silence broken by people who cannot whisper is loudest to me

white passes mouth to mouth in a gobbling mass of turkeys: a paper towel.

my reddest depths lie in a pool beneath an old fallen oak's rough clay root ball

rain-swollen lichens drip heavy down their trees, which almost groan like buildings overstressed and barely held upright

my mind wanders to the vertex of fog and hills blurring the distance

madrone berries are snatched away by eager birds before I can plan what to make with the orange drops: wine, strands of beads, or seedlings.

5/1/2010

Bitter horizon Changes shape with each sharp gust Of the new May wind

5/2/2010

Fingernails tap On the thick taut top of a Bright red umbrella; Raindrops on fingers Clutch the handle from inside.

5/5/2010

I lie Insensate On grass

5/7/2010

dandelion, you feed yourself on my fallen bits and pieces, my stray hairs my skin my soft sighs, you most beautiful of weeds.

5/15/2010

Her eyes were like dimes Dropped in a parking lot in An oily puddle

5/16/2010

Soft serpentine curls Absorb and scatter light From her sparkling eyes

7/26/2010

A slip of the hand Moves the pen in fantastic Paisley arrangements

8/7/2010

eamus thalami nostri amore

-

eamus thalami nostri, Oenone

10/24/2010

lazy heat radiates from red-hot petals; with soft strum of doing nothing, I drum on soil full of life's hum.

10/24/2010

piñon mountain caresses gray skies

11/1/2010

on rooftop rusty apple - soon rotten

11/2/2010

cloudless sky brings chill once green leaves, turning

11/6/2010

soft gusts of pine, cinnamon, clove, swim in my hair

11/7/2010

hot skin cemented cuddle away winter chill

11/11/2010

gar metron prattei areten en bio, kai psükhen agathen

11/12/2010

sunlight melts snowcrust on apples

11/14/2010

snow drips away, green leaves still hide

11/15/2010

black tea swims in rabbit mug

11/17/2010

cloves, your sharp tingle clutches at my every pore, pierces my mind's nose, reminds me of every last memory stuck fast inside

11/19/2010

the apples still cling to their tree-

11/21/2010

taps on window are too soft to be rain, they sound like petals with a purpose with their insistent pelting, driven by the wind

11/23/2010

rosemary, peppermint, spearmint, basil - busy windowsill

11/28/2010

the stars slip fingers between half-closed blinds twinkling me to sleep

12/3/2010

bare branches cannot block the blinding sun

1/2/2011 (with F)

imagining the perfect place to be with you, nonsense comes to mind

splenetic, sweet, and subtle Xanadu a melancholic filigree bijou

6/1/2011

unpicked strawberries dripping red sunlight

6/2/2011

cabbage into blue feathers – alchemy

6/3/2011

the satisfaction of a spoon in cantaloupe, that sunpatch after shadow, the 'thunk' of a dropped cardboard box – my love for you