November

So cold
Mist freezes
On leafless trees,
Every stick and stem
White.

Orion rises late;
The dwindling days
Prey to his dogs
And weapons.

Lament

Oh, Sunrise,
You beaches,
It is no favour I ask.
Will you come again?
Oh, Beaches,
You sand-grains,
Speck of red, oh rising sun.

Waves Upon a Beach

Waves upon a beach
Rattle up boulders to build a shoreline.
In the calm shallows, shellfish
Lay down their bones for tomorrow’s stone.

An ocean floor rises over time
To the roof of the world.
While the waves of a primeval shore
Still crash in the chemistry of our cells.

Waves upon a beach
In time change everything.
Life, on the crest of change,
Goes on, leaving itself behind.

Tomorrow continues to be born.

Arc of the Lovers

In a back street,
Rain has fallen,
Lies in pools.
A man throws away
His cigarette. It hisses,
Dying, in the wet.

And she throws caution
To the wind that blows
Her hair in shadows
Round her face.

Slivers of Memory

Sky scudded its shapeless cloud; I stared up in wonder,
Alone on the cold granite stairway of my house;
The quaking earth shook in my trembling limbs.

In the night, half awake in my darkened room,
Lions roared around my bed, a raging menagerie
Beneath its narrow frame.

In a dream I saw my mother
Lean forward and, with her knees, gently close
The dresser drawer in which my clothes were folded;
She pulled the door to just a crack of light, enough
For sleep to come and hold me.