POCKET DICTIONARY

obscure words living damply under logs

growing in the dark

with woodlice fungus termites and rot

and many of them die there too-

living and dying in sunless oblivion

wax wane   wane wax    Circles

on circles on circles

animate ambulant words running circles in my head

ambulant is a laid back word despite its

implications   a mellow word in grey

and marmalade   supine even

supine is syrupy and muted    but

almost surreally purple with a metallic sheen

and not at all golden    supine so heavy

almost brobdingnagianly so

brobdingnagian  isn’t comfortable to say

like uttering stumbling line of ants    it stutters

off the tongue   letters coming in twos and

threes

ratatatat a shining drum with shining

sticks oompahoompah

listen to the marching band

wood wood wood wood woad road road

a bumpy road of letters

road woad wood wood woodlice termites

fungus and rot

they grow and they die and they

rot

     rot

           rot
COLORFUL POEM IN MONOCHROME

one tile grey

two tile grey

three tile grey

tiles and tiles and tile grey

grey like sun in the mist

grey like open doors

grey like a surgically clean lab

grey like being first awake

and watching the darkness all around

grey like flowers

grey like refrigerator hums

grey like ice and candle smoke and butter

grey like the tree

and grey like the lichen

grey like the only shoes that are truly loved

grey like lollipops in a shop window

also grey

grey like green and red and blue

grey like ghosts caught on doorknobs

grey like grey faces passing in a

grey grey hall

grey like raw salmon

grey like a paper cut

grey like thunderclaps and a dog hidden

under a couch

grey like wishing

like a truth cut neatly in two

like birthday party balloons

like a contradiction

grey like dust on my tongue

and like hope

grey like the lichen, yes

even grey like the lichen

and four tile grey

a dream of autumn leaves

autumns leaves

and lichen…

a dream of all the colors in grey

 UNEARTHED 

stones

and

bones and

rocks

and

stones

dear little skull

covered up with ivy

i bless it

with leaves

and dirt

and stones

baptism of bones

with stones

and the casting of stones

leads to the bones

though they are read

it is really a baptism of

stones

with bones

 stones

and bones

and dust

and time

bones

unto

stones

unto

dust

unto

bones…

time growing old in the bones

of the hills (whish happen to be stones

themselves)

look at the land

there is a surface that rises and falls

and shifts with the seasons

and below are the

bones

which have come home to the

stones

WORDS NOT SPOKEN 
these little words see too much

these little words are swift to go

these little words dont wear mittens

these little words row on row

sunflower words say hurry hurry

rainflower words say slow and slow

moonflower words are very quiet

moonflower words say yes or no

they little words in red and ivy

she little words say maybe so

he little words munch almond brittle

we little words tend that which grows

these little words so pretty pretty

these little words say yes and no

you little words may mourn my passing

i little words just maybe so

 

KINGDOM
Kingdoms 1

all around me

without boundaries or

division between

trunks and branches and leaves

just wholeness

but each wholeness unique

different in a thousand ways from

any other

I don’t want to see people again

just drinking in the wealth surrounding me

wondering if I will ever be so wise as

trees

falling into patterns

the cracks and swirls of bark

names written in the nets of branches

so far away

emblazoned on the sky

but reachable

now climbing

stickiness on my fingertips

so still now-

so still a robin lands on my head

trees

surrounding me

trees and the smell of pine

Kingdoms 2

silver trees with yellow leaves

teased by breezes

or yellow trees with sliver…?

enough and enough

too many silvers to behold

the silver trees

and silver stars

stars nestled in the grass

stars burst by the hoof of a one

antlered deer

and grey trees with lichen cloaks

there are brown trees with red branches

by the river and

dark trees with white branches

red trees with green branches

white trees with black branches

and golden leaves…

stars and stars and the

silver grasses

strewn with leaves-

yellow, red, green, brown, purple and black silver silver silver black red and green

like stars

stars in silver red

red

silver  black

and blue

WILD GIRL

Be wild

Be wild

and

shy

and

free

Be the wind

Be a fish and a hundred

thousand gallons of

sea

Be a sail and a kite without

tethers

Be breaths

Be a secret and a striped

honey bee and a parachuting dandelion

seed

Be hidden

Be a dozen dancing moons

                                                and a mirror- but not

both at once

Be loudly joyous and

solemn by turns

Be olive trees - 

                            a whole

grove of them

Be an orange hermit

                                      crab

Be a crow

Be a hail of arrows

Be lonely

Be a stone and a

shoe and a gentle

shimmering

                                     Snail

Be wood grain and

the smell of coffee

Be vanilla beans

Be wild: be a  green branch

Above all, be

                         wild

                                   WILD

                                       WILD!!!