Perfect Family

There is no perfect family only
laughter despite loss or gain
sometimes laughter hiding pain

Misbegivings misattachments
recall a nest of future-past
of people/thoughts always laughing

Snow Dreams/New York City

While raw here cold rain
reminding one of winter
north there's a sticking snow
first of the season

I wonder looking at bleakness
when droning rain will turn
streets & parks white
bare trees leaf'd with ice

Our Mother

Always adamant
passionate she made her rules
in the kitchen & elsewhere
& from her lips important words
would rise while stirring a brainchild

. . . we'd listened too
to pots & pans & free-form thoughts
simmering & What Mom would do

So Much To Tell You

So much to tell you my love
hoping my uttered words
through an open window
become wings or autumn leaves
planing down to earth at your feet

World Series Haiku

Balloons to explode!
No easy way to describe
Yankees well alive!

Happy Halloween!

A World Series Poem

Eight . . . four . . . two
now a World Series venue

bat and ball ball and bat
pitchers arms curved awkward

that

their pitches skew batters
drive them crazy inside out

then

the lazy curve a sudden hit
between two players

now

the breath exhales
the game is on

For Dino Valenti (of Quicksilver Messenger Service)

All the songs have been sung
all prayers have been prayed

Your falsetto voice now dead

When you sang "I love you"
from the far end of a hollow

& through a tube to explosion

outward upward singing
I love you I love you!

A crescendo I still hear

Now the fall-out the stars
hang & glitter-dust remains

To remind to remind

A Baseball Poem #5

Baseball’s October Play

Variable Fall
Now white-striped for bat for glove
For fields one last time

A Baseball Poem #4

Baseball Fundamental

A foul off the bat
is simply that recovered

then

handed off to younger hands
the exchange a part of history

The Passing Of Someone

To see to observe to feel
Others pass away

There is no poetry in this
But there are these ripples

the surf-song boats put out
& returning waves remind

House Rise

Closed the level bubble rising inside expands
Open the windows open the mind

What elevation required before birds swim
Through the porch door then out the back again

Unpressured renewal a rush of wings
What barometer with all windows

Open upstairs downstairs front door & back
Elevation a birdsong & no release from height

Marooned Pirate

Aye . . . a bad term already

something in-the-pocket
something me-related
now I has no need for it
baronet of an empty beach

perhaps something dark green
even a swamp would be the thing
more human & not
a sand trace where I doesn't matter

. . . but resourcefulness does begin

Generations

Generations generations
Ideas ideas from the sea

A need to understand the surf
Its lacy foam thrown out

A bed sheet laid down on sand
Then pulled back again

Family Trek, New York

Is time travel possible? Yes
The square root of life? Yes

It takes a calculator – the heart

The sunlight on Walker Drive
The house at the end on the right
A cul de sac a stronghold
Of heart dreams & such punched in

Day-to-day a sliding screen
To the deck to the grill
& later Sunday a morning paper unrolled
with coffee rolls & jam

And passing into afternoon quietly
Combing the green kissing the sky
While overhead raptors may gyre
Here a family on Walker Drive

The calculator the home

Is time travel possible? Yes
The square root of life? Yes

From The Hudson River, Looking Back To Manhattan - August 2009

40th Anniversary - The Astronauts

Leaning into a long tube & then out again
An imperturbable no-panic visage
Sunlight reflected on a gold-coated visor

The uncalculated responses heroes would say
Seeing an airless Moon covered in pumice
Seeing an Earth so fragile so naked

And then to come home

Kite/Figure In The Sky (Central Park, New York City)

Younger than green bamboo
I was taught at Sheep Meadow
How to fly

Shape spine
Taper & bend bow
Describe edges point-to-point
With good Indian thread
And assemble

Lay this all down on paper
Crease fold & glue
Test for balance test for tension
Rightness & good looks
Then attach a string

Younger then green bamboo
I was taut on a string
Taught at Sheep Meadow

Night Sky, New York City - July 2009

Star

Seeing you this night I don't know
your name you remain out of reach
your light a million years of memory

of what had been & what could be
and now this future-past your light
straight line traveling a void of black

entering a mind's eye
I wonder Are you there? Who am I?

Saturday Afternoon, New York City- June 2009

Golf muted & baseball boomimg
hushed voices & "outta here!"
broadcast airways serrated by rain
& edged with yet more rain

Central Park green as ever seen
a verdant landscape a sheen
overhead a thick trunk & overhang
choked dark with creepers

beneath the quick & sudden lightning
I swear You are the one

Impressionistic June, New York City

A few moments outside then
dense skies open
sudden rain hail water
overwhelming curbs & drains

And I (as usual) caught
the intersection of no canopies
no overhangs no shelter
swollen rivers at the corners

Ninth Avenue rainbow-arched
black umbrellas black-covered legs
water moving
standstill traffic waiting

Finding a doorway
watching the unload I think of you

You Deserve

You deserve so deserve
more than poetry I can offer
today tomorrow further/farther

. . . and I wonder
about my own luck un-deserved
serving you dreams to come true

A Baseball Poem #3

Anticipation’s eyes locked
pitcher to batter/batter to pitcher
catcher & umpire close-ended
joint of a bright green fan laid down

warning track- & foul line-edged
spread open to an outfield
of groomed grass where
an oiled glove is thumped waiting

Skewed New York City Skyline - May 2009

An Angler Cook's Lament & Thanks

If only I'd released the perfume
aroma of sweet onions sooner
& not waited so long . . .

for an iron skillet's worth of heat
now burning onions & my fish into
something like blackened cat food

. . . but didn't the onions miraculous
caramelized fish flashed with lemon
& the glistening white shingles sizzled

A Thought /A Love Poem

My love you have no reason to reply
No need to & here's the Why

The Why your presence already
Here I lucky for knowing you

I do know this this I know
& you have no reason to reply

A Baseball Poem #2

Summer Days

All the marbles explosive
shuttled day-to-day each
& every swing a pitch

changing now the switch
to summer to a hard ball
arcing high a home run

A Baseball Poem #1

Looking To Summer

Slower than a slider
the sun the breeze today
a wild pitch of weather is

The sky settled in May's dugout
a month's sun-and-cloud teaming
. . . and what of defense?

We'll see large bulky clouds
crouch, the sun concuss
& diamond dreams evolve

Across The Hudson River/The Old Mountains West - Peekskill, NY, May 2009

Looking Southwest, The Hudson River - Peekskill, NY, May 2009

Looking East, Sunset #1 - New York City, May 2009

Looking East, Sunset #2 - New York City, May 2009

A Spring Thought

My heart beats right now

Slant-wise the sunset & everything
golden bagged trash ginko trees
granite curbs the stumps of buildings
their windows westward
like sudden bursts of amber

& I wonder about all things undone

The Patience Of Tigers

The patience of tigers
in tall grasses lying
ears swiveling tails curling
hairs prickling game
yet to come & now waiting

Moon Light/Skyline Swirl - New York City, September 2008

Waterfall Project - East River, New York City, September 2008

Anniversary

My love where's time gone?

Already this is afternoon
& our own time's still a'bloom

speaking volumes an explosion
of flowers in window boxes

here or isle'd Murano fired
loud with impatiens & effluence

with history our history

Traditional Flower Box - Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada, September 2007

Tidal Pool - Kejimkujik, Nova Scotia, Canada, September 2007

Far Off #1 - Kejimkujik, Nova Scotia, Canada, September 2007

Far Off #2 - Kejimkujik, Nova Scotia, Canada, September 2007

Bleak Road - Outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, January 2006

Overgrown Memories - Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Canada, September 2007

I Am Missing You #2 (From Older Words)

Already I am missing you

Planes trains & automobiles
speak of nothing but hardware
. . . But you speak to me

through thought through memory
your voice inflectioned in person
by telephone & in my dreams

. . . Already I am missing you

Coastline - Nova Scotia, Canada, September 2006

April/May 2009

With every April shower . . .

first the red of Columbine
then Virginia Tech's bloom
now comes Binghamton
bringing poisoned flowers

. . . & I'd like to see humanity
get some reason this season

Beach & Ocean #1 - Nova Scotia, Canada, September 2006

Beach & Ocean #2- Nova Scotia, Canada, September 2006

Beach & Ocean #3 - Nova Scotia, Canada, September 2006

What Time Is It? - Historic Peekskill, New York, December 25, 2008

Age Standing At The Curbside

Age standing at the curbside
looking both ways the indifferent
traffic continuously chewing

Coming from where/where to go?
What's approaching being better
than what has just passed?

Age crosses. . . .

The Weight - Historic Old Santa Fe, New Mexico, January 2008

Spring In The Apartment

Changeable weather I hear
with my skin thrum
the tamboor roof in between

& overhead pattering
now the clouds briefly open
sun's slant fingering through

Late Afternoon, Just Before Sunset #2 - Yorktown Heights, New York, November 2008

Late Afternoon, Just Before Sunset #1 -Yorktown Heights, New York, November 2008

My Love Today Is Spring

My love today is Spring
sunlight & sky & lightness of senses
an openness on the streets
like fields & farm stable doors open
the horses elsewhere

And you my sweet wandering through
tulip & crocus patches
seeing mares & stallions in the clouds

Late Afternoon South, The Atlantic Ocean - Fire Island, New York, August 2008

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