Chainsaw

Winter warmth is
Exculpation enough
For me to take down
This poor tree,
Buck its dead wood,
Free the light
Of other years
Inside its rings.
There's some good
In the warmth it
Brings, and no blame.
All life is combustion,
All one flame.

Grandparents

I sat in my chair.
You sat in your chair.
Time passed.
We sat there,
Children climbed onto
Our laps then slid
Under the table as
Children do.
Emerged grown,
Involved, capable.
You look at me
And I at you.
We done?
No, another one
And one again.
They keep getting in!

Holographic Equation

Why not extend
In all directions?
Leaves rattle in a nut tree,
And if a shadow winks only
Once, one could deduce
Autumn, know all things
Hide in yellow
Light where late
Summer slipped out a
Weedy gate.
Fall will heal something
No one noticed injured,
Something heat can't kill.
Dreams endure and will
Always slide like a
Ouija planchette across
Seasons, not led but
Followed by reason.

Garden Table

Here, worries pass,
Regret resigns,
Heavy years lift.

I raise my glass
And all its shines
And shadows shift.

Flying With

[with thoughts of L. J. E., b.Jl. 29, 1910, d.Nov.7, 1960]

 Wind ends nowhere, 

Erodes sand, yardang,

Clay,  roof, 

Web, hair and lifts 

The matted woof of 

Forest floor away.

Cyclic, like night

And day, causes 

Clouds to spread, 

Spins storms to 

Shred on hills, crags, 

Drags seed onto new 

Meadows and, under

Spill and spell, leaves 

A distillate

Of rainbows (ends nowhere),

Begins in mystery.

Between, it 

Tests eternity.

Yosemite Simile

Gullies dammed on
Ice-falls raged
And bubbled.
These were troubled
Times, and cold--
Chipping footholds where
Streams overflowed
And froze into
Unforgiving glass.
A dozen times we
Lost our footing
On the pass and
Slid grasping what
Grew through --a
Foolish hike,
Winter too.

Greensward Sunrise

Impossibilities seen
Ahead of dawn
On a raw day:
An elegant ghost
Trailing across
Lawn toward
A wagon on
Slow gray wheels.
Geese untuck their heads,
Silent, not scared.
These are not spectres
Of the dead but
Dreams hauled away,
Cleared for children
Waking, children who
Will shortly wake
And come to play.