pt.2

Autumnal pre-winter resolutions
New ice congregates
Around the edges of the pond
Clinging to Goldsteam's riverbanks
Three swans swim the boggy pond
Preen, and tuck bill beneath wing
Hunkered down to cheat the wind
The first days of fall
And the prognosticators
Predict snow, this goes without saying
But each hour of clear sunlight
Breathes life into an Indian summer
I am in denial to the passage of time
I resist seasonal change,
Alas limbs are bare,
And the squirrel still scurries,
But me I’m just marking time
The sky grows grey and most of
The leaves are on the ground
Facing skyward,
Awaiting a possible frost
Mushrooms are rotting
And cranberries begin to ferment
On the limb, they are sweet and bitter
Much like my heart
Equinox passes and I subsist
On an appetite for books, making lists
And exercising the body and the imagination
If I were a more of a bear,
I would just hibernate
And awaken far beyond
The holidays

equinox

today I will not run
nor, race
through yellowed leaves
kissed with frost
looking
toward the ridge
dancing
body of trees
swaying
before the cool
blue sky,
feathered strata of clouds
today I will not run
the marathon
but turn inward
muddy imagination
of an over muddled mind
racing heartbeat
of adrenaline and the cool
lunar glow, quivering ribbon
of green/blue luminosity
out of body,
out of candlelight
waxy and numinous
my dreams have manifest
in the boreal forest
looking at autumns contours
curious striations, map of birch bark,
sipping a hot cup of labrador
tea, mint and blueberries,
reading the leaves of the past,
plotting a gentle trajectory
stepping faster, striding,
scanning the trail
for fluorescent orange
survey tape, measured steps
and sideway glances
my feet are fluid and strong
if this were competition
you would stand no chance
the mountain
the man
the marathon
ascending the dome
exploding into clear sky

Hibernia

Listening to silence
The rain drops penetrate my skull
From quietude grow great pains
Black lacquer of autumn
When words move faster
Than sound—all is emotion
And telepathy, the taste of blue spirits
Evaporate upon my tongue
Ethereal, bitter, and aflame
The thirst quenched by tears
Like yellow leaves
Shaken from the trees
Blueberry, cranberry, choke cherries
And plums, each bit
By the first frost
All longings forgotten
Memory is the first to go
Chromatic starlight,
Acoustic waves
Auroral projections
Instant death
Reunited in Hibernia