1.
While waiting for a train in Amsterdam
While traveling as an American
And sensing the depth of history and
Culture of Europe while reading Shakespeare’s
Sonnets I was filled with admiration
Because I loved the way he weighed the words
Within a line for resonation and
How the meaning flowed and turned and how the
Florid language presented the world with
The lens of Elizabethan England
And so I acquired a direction
But admiration and ability
Are different and I required years
To distill a healthy emulation.
But I must comment
on the crazy rhyming scheme
of Shakespeare’s sonnets —
I don’t see the need to do
a Houdini trick with words.
2.
If I were discovering my body
As I was growing I’d jump onto the
Top of the Refrigerator too and
Just for fun I might push the boxes of
Cereal off to watch them fall and hear
Them plop on the floor and thus to measure
Distance and then I’d gallop joyously
Around the rooms just because I could and
I’d strut out on the narrow ledge and knock
The knick-knacks down one-by-one just to see
Them go and I’d be curious about
The human and the funny noises and
The motions she’s making with her arms and
I’d flop on my back and ask to be rubbed.
It’s necessary
to be emphatic to be
noisy and grandma
isn’t enough to impose
her will on the new kitten.
3.
Ben Hur 1887 - 1916
It’s a day of celebration drawing a
A good crowd to the river and the dock
For a ride on the steamboat Ben Hur and
Perhaps as a part of the festivities
The photo captures the moment and so
I may see everyone facing me on
The three levels a hundred years ago
And each is distinguishable in the
Differences in age in attitude
In fashion in status revealing in
A relaxed and happy presentation
Engagement and eagerness for the day —
So I gaze with curiosity at
An alluring familiarity.
The postures and the
features of the faces in
the vanished moment
present a wide array of
living personality.
4.
Clearing the River
Each detail is rough hewn in the photo
Of 1886 from the boards of
The flat bottom boat to the steam engine
And the brimmed hats and the tough working clothes
Of the several lumber jacks with their beards
And mustaches because there’s no use for
Delicacy as the river is clogged
With logs in a tangled pile twenty feet
High and the scrawny men in their resting
Postures seem unequal to the task but
It was their business with steel hooked pikes and
Thick cords of rope to clear the river and
Raft the logs downstream as they must have known
How to take advantage of leverage.
Their faces are blurred
but the chosen postures
do communicate
hints of personality —
irreverence and bravado.
5.
Once the apex of summer is past the
Intensity of the sun lessens and
The light becomes golden gilding the leaves
Of the trees and the grass and the air is
A medley of cool and warm and in the
Late afternoon though the sun may burn with
Summer fierceness it doesn’t last long and
As the sun sets earlier a chill comes
With the night — and it’s so much easier
To sleep under covers with the windows
Open with a chorus of crickets in
A breeze and instead of tossing in bed
In a muggy atmosphere late summer
Is the absolute best time for dreaming.
A clear sky comes in
every season but the earth’s
responses depend
on its cooperative
revolution with the sun.
6.
Not only the plunge in temperature
And having to scrape a frosting from my
Windshield with the dawn for the first time but
Also the prominence of red orange
And yellow leaves on the trees I pass the
Swirls of leaves in gusts of wind I see as
I’m driving on the streets and a morning
Sun noticeably lacking the fire of
Summer all point to the necessity
Of taking cover and bundling up
For a coming winter again as the
Wheel of the seasons is turning again —
The trees emulate the flowers and bloom
And then they stand twiggy in the winter.
It’s ironic how
the autumn leaves resemble
holiday colors
before dissipation and
I do want to celebrate.
