Categories
Writing

First Dinner Guests

Music was in the air
on Taylor Drive.

Songs of California in Iowa, 
west meeting center
on Taylor Drive,
a development
risen from corn fields.

We played music,
mixed wild and brown rice
with Esther's asparagus.

Talk about dawn and beginnings
hand-pushed versus power mowers
and wedding photographs
blending into the night.

First guests,
with wine from France
a rosé for our gustation.

~ Spring 1983
Categories
Writing

Moving Iris

Purple tips of Iris emerge
     from among green swords
     oscillating
               in wind too strong for blooms.

We'll move the root stock
     to a sheltering place
     past the Lilac hedge
               where grackles browse...

Mix soil with bone meal
     and decaying manure
     a bed for bulbs
               beneath mulch and wind.

We should get this done
     when the blossoms fade
     before distraction comes
               with summer's calm.

~ Spring 1996
               
     
Categories
Writing

Improvisation

We must be free
to follow our
search for knowledge
wherever it may lead us.

Without regard for
what people say,
without regard for
what already exists.

Though it be
a long, lonely road,
we must go
alone,
yet in
communion with
the many who have set out
like us.

Though we will be alone,
we will also be in
the best company.

~ Summer 1983
Categories
Writing

Poem from Dance Cards

The sound must have come
from the lake front pavilion
and the alumni dinner-dance.

To music by the
Play Boy orchestra
she danced with Rudy ten times.

Mrs. A.H. Jones sang the solo
after the toastmaster’s remarks.
Then the judge gave an address
after presentation of the class.

Present were officers, patrons,
sponsors and chaperones.

She danced with Alice,
Dorothy, Elaine and Eunice.

With dance cards spread
like an ornamental fan.

Black, red, green, yellow and purple
printed confetti specks
trace down to the image of balloons.