Saturday, December 31, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Even
in high wind
you cannot

outrun
the sound of
your own

whining."

*

"We would.
We could.

We will
We shall.

Words make
promises

we can-
not keep."

*

"Like birds, our words,
dropping from the sky,

pecking at gravel."


Friday, December 30, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 30

An evening
chill

nibbles
the edge

of things
as death

comes
with cold

hands.


Thursday, December 29, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 29

A rich palette,
the winter grasses,

this sun.


Wednesday, December 28, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 28

Woods
huddled there

against winter -
the sun un-

remembered,
the dull day

turning dark,
the fiber of

everything
going cold,

the air
between here

and there
already gone

silent.


Tuesday, December 27, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 27

The white plane
of the snowy plain -

blue dome above,
line of horizon,

geometry for
a new day.


Monday, December 26, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 26

The roll of snow.
Wind

chasing it home.


Sunday, December 25, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Sing too well,
they'll think it
easy. Not

too much - they'll
want more.
More of yours

does no good.
They must learn
to sing themselves."

*

"An empty room -
ah, the perfect poem."

*

"They are there.
They are out

there, waiting
for us to

say them - words."


Saturday, December 24, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Does word
know what

word is?
I don't

think so."

*

How much
is little

enough?"

*

"Sometimes, something
is caught in
this net of words.

Sometimes, not.


Friday, December 23, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 23

Snow
and tree

where the wind
stops

for coffee.


Thursday, December 22, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 22

Ditch full of snow.
Crow.

Anything goes.


Wednesday, December 21, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 21

I want to think
the white ridge is

a break in dark clouds,
but - no - it's snow.


Tuesday, December 20, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 20

Snowy field,
pigeons, and

sun on them.


Monday, December 19, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 19

Winter wind
coming around the corner

of the house, and stars
coming into view,

cold-lit.


Sunday, December 18, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Poem,
like a ticket stub

after the show."

*

"Hard work is hope
with its pants on."

*

"Language is
an attitude,"
he said.


Saturday, December 17, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Poetry,

like riding
a motorcycle

naked."

*

"What would you
whisper into God's

good ear, if God
had an ear and it

was any good?"

*

"What
the eye notices,

what
the mind finds."


Friday, December 16, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 16

Bird

against the winter
sky -

its small dark heart -
flies.


Thursday, December 15, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 15

Morning. Wood
smoke hangs like

sadness in the
winter trees.


Wednesday, December 14, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 14

The cold evening,

the cow steaming
as she breathed,

my rough hands
on her full udder,

the sound the milk
made,

hitting the pail.


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 13

Old crow.
Dirty snow.

Death at
the wayside -

deer's frozen
carcass,

eyes glazed
hard as

the winter.


Monday, December 12, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 12

Nothing to say,
and a whole winter day

in which to say it.


Sunday, December 11, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"If it didn't
make you tired
you weren't

talking to God."

*

"If you
understand

why you
believe,

you cannot
still call it

belief."

*

"Let it be
what it is

and something
more."


Saturday, December 10, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"If one
word,

which?"

*

"Loss like fire
consumes us."

*

Sadness a weary-
wear where life

meets the dream."


Friday, December 09, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 9

This
study in black and white -

crow on snow.


Thursday, December 08, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 8

The morning buckled
with cold and snow,

light laid low,
lost to sorrow.


Wednesday, December 07, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 7

Sun,
a cock of the head

south, the solstice
not far off.


Tuesday, December 06, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 6

Winter chill -
leaf mousing its way
across the road,

wind on its tail.


Monday, December 05, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 5

Winter, they say,
and I see it

coming. Yet how
can this be? I'm

still caught in summer.

Sunday, December 04, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Do not be eager
for that which is gift."

*

"Grace
is mercy
and it is

the loveliness
of the gesture."

*

"Make
elaborate preparations

and wait.
You must ready yourself

but what matters
is patience."


Saturday, December 03, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Getting ready to write
is not writing.

Yet how can you
call in words without

a ritual that works?"

*

"That
which breaks

us breaks
itself."

*

"Sometimes I think I know
what I'm doing and

sometimes the poem
shows me I don't."


Friday, December 02, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 2

Oh, yes, the sky -
the clotted clouds,
slash of blue,

thoughts of
coming home

to you.


Thursday, December 01, 2011

LINES FOR DECEMBER 1

In-
sistent shadows

and the clean
sweep of sky.


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