Tag: Poetry

I bud with the maple tree
     in Spring.

For as insignificant as we seem,
     come summer,
     we shall grow, and develop...
     make manifest our promise

Come first frost
     our colors will change
     and beauteous become our pigmentation,
     as experience will become this adult body
     into which I've settled.

So as our days are spent,
     whether as bud or as autumn leaf,
     we bring our ideas to fruition.

And despite the promise of this Spring,
     I regret
     that all I have now
     is this bud
     on a maple tree that needs pruning,
     in a yard someone else landscaped.

~ In the 1980s

Basement blues
Typewriter table
Steamer trunk
William Carlos Williams

From driftwood
and childhood

   I made a lamp

From German wood
and found wood

   I made a table

Basement blues
Typewriter table
Steamer trunk
William Carlos Williams

Pack up those basement blues
in the steamer trunk
and sit with
William Carlos Williams and me
at the typewriter table and we'll light

   Our whole world.

~ May 28, 1983

As a mouse chased its tail around in circles.

A game of Monopoly unfolds:
Mediterranean, Baltic, Ventner, Marvin Gardens.

A buffoon in scholarly robes
says
Life is one big Monopoly game.

Simon, 
in abstinence from intoxicants,
says
No, it's not.
Life is what you perceive it to be.

As a mouse chases its tail around in circles.

~ Walling Court, 1974

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

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
               
     

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

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.