My Teacher

The sun, just above the  horizon,
Leaves only a pale yellow wash in the evening sky.

An airplane makes a sound that fades away.

I think it is a holy night, that if

I dared, I'd stay to see the darkened sky

Lit with stars, and constellations hidden by the sun in day,

And listen, look and seek the answer

to the sometimes silence of my planet earth.

The dog in the yard below speaks up.

The frogs stop.  A pause. A solitary bark.

The cat has gone to seek out the secrets of the shadows.

And I, lonely for my teacher who no longer shares with me each day,

Feel  his presence, his joy in living, and put my fears away.

GBP

2011

January!

Where had this warm day been wandering 

Under a sky of blue resembling May or June?

 

The sun moves past the chimney

 

And shines through the leafless trees.

 

The deck chair beckons, and a small bird

 

sings repeatedly in the Pine.

 

My busy cat returns, inquiringly seeming to say

 

"Are you just going to sit here?"

 

What to answer?

 

There is no other way except by pen and paper

 

To save this day.

 

GBP  20ll

 

Tis in the Blood

Tis  in the blood, you know,

Seamen they were, long ago,

And built the ships that bore the sails,

Sent them down the ways

And when they tied them by the rope,

Around the capstan  went they  many times,

To hold that hull……

Around I pull, with muscle fed by DNA

(Tis in the blood they say)

And  pulling, stretch the  hose,

The bloody  hose laid out in sun

And left  to catch  a heel among the leaves;

Oh, must reel it in, not mind the wind,

Heave ho, it comes around again,

And laugh I, thinking of those men

Who worked on ships, and I on land.

Tis in the blood you understand.

GBP  10/17/07     (inspiration in a garden hose)