I was surprised by joy this morning to discover that Verse Daily had featured my poem “Losing the Words” late last year! Somehow I missed it — and today was the perfect day to discover it! Here’s the link:http://www.versedaily.org/2015/losingthewords.shtml And here’s the poem: Losing the Words Wantons, they’d give themselves to anyone! See how they…
Again, our winter solstice ritual: up at 4 am to drive out to Hilina Pali in the dark pre-dawn. Here in Hawai’i, there is hardly a twilight: it is dark and then one blinks and the sun has risen. The island permits only amber street lights, so as not to interfere with the deep space…
Sudden Oak Death Syndrome Down the long body of California,ramalina drapes the dead shoulders of oakswith her bent hair. Lace lichen. It’s the color of sadness,of rain that goes on for a long time,of things fading into the distance. Behind its veil ooze blackcankers of phytophthora ramorum. We are in plague time now,these dead too…
In many traditions, the grouse is a symbol of the spiral dance to the heart of mystery. Here she is also an offering to my own limping, arthritic joints. Grouse spins inward, dancesthe one-wing limp-dance – the hunched, knee-favoring,stiff-hip-lurching two-step. Round and round she dancesdragging a wing, a thumb joint, and the dragged part, flightless,makes…