For Kevin on his 75th birthday The wood from a house builta hundred years ago is strongerthan what we use today. Ringscluster tightly in old growth forests;their density makes them resistantto disease and decay, in ways thatyounger trees cannot replicate.I read somewhere, in an articlethat I have never been able to find again,that trees can …
Category Archives: Poetry
Two Poems About Motherhood
Full texts here: Bicycle Seat Missing Mothers
Antikythera Mechanism
Salt preserves. Slows timeby fending off decay and sothe sea must be a slowmotion machine since we canonly measure time by change.It is not just light that movesdifferently underwater. The true treasures are notalways obvious. We rescue,then neglect. Spend decadestrying to understand knowledgehumans had thousands of years ago. Lost. Found. Recovered. Discovered. When we measure …
Pablum
The spoon weaves, teasingly,But the game soon dissolvesInto mealy-mouthed frustration. Cheeks stuffed full of unwanted, overprocessedNonsense. Mush, where real nutritionOught to be. The dilemma: swallow or spit? The biggest challenge is not evenThe blandness of the taste itself But the endlessness of the oncoming drivel. What shall we do today?Eat like a numbly obediently child?Or …
stepping stones
for Kevin on his birthday you give me the greatest giftI could ever have asked for the knowledge and reassurancethat there was never a planjust a life built from the simple actof taking the next right choicethen the next and the nextuntil it begins to form its ownmajestic pattern with a meaningthat will keep evolving …
The Hummingbird
For Anita, for her birthday Joy is never earnedIt can only be a gift And the moment it arrivesThe winds again begin to lift But favour can be courtedBy things beautiful and bright And we can gently temptThat little bird to alight If every soul’s a gardenWe choose what we plant And every tiny flowerHas …
Hamartia
His mother holds the golden vaseThat holds the bones of her only sonThat hold the memory of AchillesThat holds an eternal question When she took her infant to the river StyxAnd dipped her child in the waters of deathAnd won him this underworldly armourAnd slept easier knowing he was protected What if instead she had …
If I forget to say thank you
If I forget to say thank youI know that isn’t rightBut it isn’t out of maliceIt isn’t out of spite If I don’t stop to say I love youIt’s not that I don’t careI just feel scatteredIn a million pieces everywhere If I never say I’m sorryI still feel it deep insideIt just got tangled …
Holding our breaths
A poem for election day Is this howThe Roman charioteersFelt when straddling two horses?Straining towards separate pathsDancing on the edge ofDisaster At leastThe Romans heldThe reins in their own two handsWe steer while yoked to madnessOn that at least weCan agree We hoverOn the future’sPrecipice HoldingOurBreaths Photo by Anastasiia Krutota on Unsplash
Drought
Look at the dried earthHardened, so that water onlySits on its crusted surface It will take months ofAbove-average rainfallTo restore the depleted reservesThat lie far, far underground It is only gradually that fluidCan be absorbed, softeningThe ground into a placeWhere things once again can grow It takes so much gentle healingTo recover from a scorching …