PALE MOON HAS BRIGHTENED.

I work by it, can hardly see

what's gone before - 

as it should be.

What river looks back,

- nasa -

what wind stays

to listen to its moan?

I AM THE WATER,

harbor water.

When night needs rhythm

He comes to me.

-public domain-

CLOUDS CROUCH,

muscle and bone.

-public domain-

Hard and dark

is onyx stone.

Down my neck,

electric thing:

Cougar's thought caught

within her spring.

EMPTY WIRES,

August wind.

Until May then
swallows.

-public domain-

DEW WEB.

Sunlight.

- public domain -

Thirsty spider.

BIG SUN SKY.
Pleasing.
On turtles back.

- public domain -

SLEEPYTIME

between the neurons

and quasars,

quarks and anti-quarks,

and sleepytime for you especially,
my pillow-headed

pumpkin guy.

-public domain-

SPIDER

on a plaid skirt

is hard to see.

- public domain -

SO HARD SHE TRIES.

Beyond sighs tears well,
rise. Even so
she cannot tell
cannot remember

her mother's eyes.

-public domain-

OUR JOY WAS FULL
when death dropped
like a spike in the basin.

- public domain -

EITHER SEEN OR BEEN OR BOTH -

Now that’s an easy string of words to say.

They say that Charley Schultz he died today.

So long LucySnoop and LinusCharlie.

Either seen or been or both -

Well, that’s an epitaph, what say?
They say that Charlie Schultz he died today.

-public domain-

FOR ME,

snap a dry stick.

Flick it upwater
like you might flick a fly.

Drop it down ripple
where the bulltrout lie.

And honor me
as it eddies by.

-quarterman-

REEDS
are round me, mate.

Perhaps I feel you,
feel your soft breast feathers
rising. Perhaps.

At any rate I wait.
We wait.

-public domain-

- jenna dalton -

CHARLIE

One time in the main house dining room

I thought I heard a god at song.

Big god, little god, I couldn't tell -

it might even have been Miss Jesus flirtin'.

So I turned, looked, I listened -

ah Lady J do kiss me if it wasn't Charlie Sheppard,

little Charlie Sheppard,

laughin'.

NOW COME NOW

Sunday sister,

kiss this hand

this boardwalk boy.

Upon the soft cursing of the moon

we'll ride and play

all the sandy castle songs

that daddy taught us

when the moon was new.

Now come now

Sunday sister,

the Lord's away -
Let's play.

-public domain-

DAEMON

So quick he pained -

bursting imploded lad

into exploded man.

His furor must be chained,

and shall,

- public domain -

if singing can.

SLOW WINTER LIGHT

dells the meadow

and the little deer go home.

I'll be here when you come

and like an old broken leaf

beneath the snow,

- public domain -

I'll hear you go.

My Brother Bill - Epitaph

-quarterman-

Once there grew a sapling, deep in a glade

of willows. Screened and cool in noonday sun,

he lived in a world of vespers and evening shade.

Above the sapling greater willows laid

sheltering boughs in sky-crossed benediction.

Once there grew a sapling deep in a glade

with a young summer stream that chuckled and played

and nursed the green rootweb the sapling had spun.

He lived in a world of vespers and evening shade.

And light from a high moon that sometimes strayed

into the wood where, by a willow run,

once there grew a sapling. Deep in a glade

and greyed by early dawn, his shadow made

a green and darkened image of druid genuflection.

He lived in a world of vespers and evening shade

and most dry death when that chuckling water maid

grew humorless under a brown September sun.

Once there grew a sapling deep in a glade.

He lived in a world of vespers and evening shade.

LET ONLY THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

come by.

Those sounds the heart makes

-public domain-

when you say goodbye

or when your partner

begins to cry.

And as you watch there

all your importancies

just die,
just turn to air.

GREAT GREY STONERAIN DADDY

Mercy.


Grant mercy.

- public domain -

PUMPKIN'S MOTHER

Nine orphans of the morning came to me.

They came like hooves sans horses.

And they came shouting too,

"Peter, Peter, Pumpkin's mother wants you!"

- public domain -

And I knew they knew me

and had the right one

in the snow.

O MOTHER

do you hear me

- public domain -

down the long white howl
of the white valley wind?

My mouth has arms
that reach down all this long valley,
over frozen waters and empty trees,
stiff in their February days.

O Mother, do you hear me?
Do you hear the white foot of the rabbit
a-thump
a-thump? 

- public domain -

WHAT DID YOU SEE, THRUSH,

in the windowpane?

Why choose such a glass snapped death?

Out of all proportion

to your avian fragility

rang your fine whistle of bird bone.

I know there is no turning back from death.

But still  I wonder, can't help but wonder,

what did you see, Anne, in the windowpane?

SNAPSHOT

-public domain-

So it shall be a plenitude of small children

in chaotic placement about the swimming hole.

Three boys kneel in the crawdad catcher's stance.

A young and pretty girl, american blonde,

vibing so sure to be another lost

shopping cart mama when she grows tall,

dreams a breast stroke revery.

ANNA'S EYES

see heart sound.


Anna's blue blue eyes.

-public domain-

MORNING ANGELS

bright with new breath

swarm my ecosystem

and leave their tread

that might be silver

or is it tinsel

-quarterman-

dust?

SOME LUCKY MATTER TO ME -

that mountain daisy sprouting
from my compost slag.

-public domain-

WHOM SHALL SHE FANG

this day,

-public domain -

this Interstate?

DOG, NAME CURLY BAKER
snow don't bother him
mud don't, or
water and he
find some place out of wind.
Three sore feet, four, maybe just one, don't matter
nothin' ever bother Curly Baker.
Don't stop movin' 'cept for sleep or
try figger somethin'.
Never succeed figger nothin', make no difference
sit in one place quivver keep in shape
tongue in or out, he never know.

Seem have sense of humor, seldom bark.
Plenty smart but never take trouble.
to learn nothin'. S'posed to be sheep dog.
Nobody hate.
Nobody hate Curly Baker, treatum like Indian
say "GOGETUM", laugh when he go
"no savvy you bet" wag tail.
Too dirty go in house never seem be cold.
He like kids. Wish I
never be cold like Curly Baker and have fun
do no harm nobody hate
maybe even catch muskrat.

Black Curly Baker sit in white snow
breathe frost, keep sharp lookout, wait.
Somebody say: "Looka stupid Dumb Dog".
Ludicrous appearance suggest complete disorder
but simple setup never get out of whack.
Curly Baker okay.
Cavort back and forth cross front bumper pickup, yell
"Curly GEDDOU THERE" him simply put down ears
run jump in irrigation ditch, run long side pickup

down in fields couple mile, couple mile back
get loosened up good, run smooth like lubricated
two piece synchronize dog.

What happen when Curly Baker die?
Nothin'. Brother-in-law prob'ly get new dog.
No hurry. Curly don't do nothin', not even
help feed sheep. Knows how to
work gates, go in, out.
Ask Brother-law: "Looka that Curly Baker",
him only shake head.

I think Brother-in-law like Curly, Curly
think so too. He like be told
"Curly GEDDOU THERE". Put nose in glove,
make joke. Curly not likely die easy.
Been run over twice, still young dog.
 
- Joe Griggs

-Larry Calloway-

YOUR HOME IS LIKE A TREE
I climbed as a boy.
It gives and gives
surprising at every asking
with what it holds,
and yet so easy.
Common as daylight
on the rocks it is

-quarterman-

or sunlight through
an old glass bottle
in the window.

SNAKE VALLEY

-quarterman-

Not much here:
mormons and gentiles
rabbits and crows.

Silence so dear
you can hear for miles
after it snows.

Light so clear
you could put it in vials
if daylight chose.

TEWINOT

         MIGHTY  MIGHTY -

There is no moral to a mountain.

I accept that.


I am coming.

-public domain-

PAINTIN'S A LOT HARDER 

than pickin’ cotton.

Cotton right there

for you to pick off the stalk.

But to paint,

you gotta sweat your mind.

- Clementine Hunter

-public domain-