1.

Stillwater

When the native peoples walked for water

This same valley was here resonating.

They called a section “Stillwater” because

The water spread between limestone bluffs.

Iced-over river and overcast sky

Slopes of bare trees and snow the clean cold air

The quiet settling among the bluffs

Prepare this place for reverberations.

Sioux and Ojibwa fought in a hollow

Lumberjacks floated rafts of logs downsteam

A frontier prison held the Younger Gang

And steamboats plied the townsfolk with supplies.

Pioneer Park has a southward view

For sunrises and sun speckled water.

Sun river

eagle soaring

seeing

2.

Kristine

A name is a gift that accompanies

A life and the christening of a child

Is a bestowal of your parent’s best

Intentions and wishes for the passage

Of a life as if they could be present

To smooth the way so to proclaim “may you

Be Kristine” is to wish in all your days

That you be moved with wisdom and love like

Christ and Kristine is a lovely name you

Should cherish as a gift but a name is

Only a word repeatedly pronounced

And the magic of the naming does wear

Off and the essence of spirit is yours

To express and no one else can do it.

It’s much easier

to say Kris and pronouncing

Kristine instead is

expressing formality

invoking incantation.

3.

Her parents left her behind at a gas

Station and at a swimming pool and they

Didn’t intend to hurt her but worse they

Forgot she was one of the family —

And though they retrieved her they also gave

Her the impression she’s worthless

And now the grown woman can’t get enough

Attention to lose the expectation

She is forgettable — just as if she

Were given a piece of a puzzle and

And assigned the task of finding where it

Belongs — so it seems she’s been abandoned

She’s lost and upset and struggling to

Compose herself and to find the way home.

To compose herself

to discover the way home

is quite a puzzle —

in a world full of strangers

to find those who are loving.

4.

Eric

I remember my first friend beyond my

Family the first intimacy when

We discovered there were secrets to share

And with innocence I gave my trust and

I encountered how much fun it was to

Delve and roam the neighborhood and then my

Family moved to Minnesota and

I left my friend in Kansas — and there was

A procession of friendships and there were

Disappointments and betrayals and I

Had to grow a layer of armor and

I began to measure how much trust was

Sensible and I’ve tasted bitterness —

But I want to be gentle and sincere.

Wholehearted

innocence was

lost — but I have

circumspection

and kindness.

5.

A rascal put a

snail shell in a

tuba —

rumble has rattle

curlicue in curves.

6.

Matt’s a six-foot banana today on

The sidewalk and might have been Gumby a

Coke bottle or Spiderman yesterday

And he’s standing and driving a Segway

A T-shaped vehicle with two wheels and

He was a soldier in Afghanistan

Was shot in the head has memory loss

And headaches and because he can’t work he

Passes the time in a costume looking

Ridiculous to snare the attention

Of passersby attempting to impart

Happiness because he intends to turn

Around a bad day someone is having

Because his humor is the best of him.

It’s too easy

to become isolated

laughter is magic

humor communicates and

people need inspiration.