A WEEK INTO A WONDERFUL SUMMER

To the northeast, Mt. Baker looms

The two-thirds full moon risen

At least an hour in the east

Warm sun on my back

Moths and bees dancing between

My eyes and view

Of the clear cuts

And the water ways

Fir and alder, ferns dancing

Clover and lupine

Eagle spirit!

Spirals

In front of the moon

Dancing high

On the free winds

Higher and higher

Wide wings

Motionless

In front of blue sky

Tufts of pale white cloud

To the west

The sun two palms from the horizon

The pale orange ring around it

Twice that wide

A week into a wonderful summer.

6/28/85

ANASTASI LADDER OF THE KIVA

Long pole

Short pole

Tied together by

Common rungs

Lead

From past

To present

To future—

From world

To world---

From creation

To creation—

End time

A dream

A dance

Of rungs---

Leading down

And up

And out

And in

For the people

Without a sea—

Only waves of rain

And drought---

Increasing

And decreasing

Cobs of belief.

Clan names pecked

By knuckles

On stones

By shamans---

Each dot a family

Each hand a clan

Each big horn sheep

A spiral map

Of the hunt.

From out of earth

We came

Counting cycles

That filled our future

With kin---

From out of the canyons

Our spirals---

Building rounder walls

With fewer stones.

8/1996

BETWEEN THE AYES OF TOMORROW

AND THE NAYS OF YESTERDAY

BECKON THE DECISIONS OF TODAY

1996

AMBER

For Amber

ESSENCE OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS

CLEAR

SOLID

LIQUID

TIMELESS JUICE

WITH HIGH POWERS

OF PRESERVATION

LOCKED IN THE DREAM

OF TIME.

9/27/1996

ACROSTIC FOR CHRISTIE, CHILD OF THE STARS

Child of the stars, your blond

Head dances to the beat of

Rhythms that pulse through

Interstellar space beyond your dreams.

Star child dancing in the sun

To you I extend greetings

In hopes of looking closer into your

Eyes, that like lightening, awaken.

1985

BOOK PLATE

LIFE IS MYSTERY

THESE FEW CLUES I HAVE DISCOVERED

I LEAVE BEHIND FOR FUTURE

DETECTIVES OF MEANING

AND ESSENCE

EX LIBERIUS

DWIGHT RUSSEL MICNHIMER

1948--

BUDDHIST WRITER DEATH POEM

Down below zero

Cold wolves

Howl

For cold bones

Separated from hot flesh

Baking in the

Vultures jaw.

Relax old meat

Old dust

Old water spray

Only words

Written down

Remain

Rejoice!

Cheer!

Liberation is near!

Literation is near!

5/2000

CHECKS

Hat check rat check

Rubber check

Check

Check?

I remember the week

They painted the checks

On the big barn roof

That’s been torn down

Now for years

That checkerboard roof

Painted to advertise

Animal food

On the big barn

That stood locked

And enigmatic

Around the days

Of childhood when

Checks

Were something wrong

At school

Or cereal

One ate for breakfast

Before I knew

Of pay checks

And travelers checks

And cashiers checks

And unbalanced accounts

Years wrapped in the warm embrace

Of provincialism—

The limits of the world

From where the farthest

Log trucks came.

1981

COMPOUND I HALLOWEEN 1996

How many chickens?

How many eggs?

Cows?

Spuds?

Pots?

Pans?

Weeds?

Hams?

Ditches?

Carrots?

Holes?

Wholes?

Tolls?

Scrolls?

Looks?

Books?

Nooks?

Hearts?

Seeds?

Bowls?

Beads?

Casts?

Trolls?

Foals?

Breaks?

Brakes?

Clutches?

Crutches?

Kisses?

Misses?

Mrs.?

Msss?

Knowings?

Growings?

Harvests?

Needs?

Rights?

Wrongs?

Warnings?

Heeds?

Sowings?

Sewings?

Stitches?

Reapings?

Pitches?

Songs?

How many rights

Are out of our control?

How many parts

Keep us from our wholes?

How many holes

Do we fall through

To reap the harvest

Of our name?

CONGRATULATIONS

For Dustan Hinkle on graduation from high school

Do in this life all your heart, body and mind bid you.

Understand permanence, cycles, change and your way.

Sow each action carefully and embrace what you reap.

Test each truth offered with the truth you know.

Answer the challenge of following your own truths.

Now is the forever that we are becoming.

Here with these simple congratulatory lines

I offer you access to my books, knowledge, experience and wisdom

No matter when you feel the urge.

Know friendship, brotherhood and family

Love are the greatest gifts I have to offer

Eternally—all ways and always.

May 1998

WELL PLACED LAKE DRIFTWOOD

For Tim Quinn

The subtle signs you leave behind

Indelibly etched into handles of my

Mind are true logos of genius—

Quintessential elements that embrace

Understanding and

Impart it to all forevers, all

Nevers and all

Nows.

6/16/2000

DANCING WITH THE SHADOWS

I asked money to dance

She said ask my sister time;

I asked wisdom to dance

She said ask my aunts

Knowledge and experience first.

I asked fire to dance

She said ask my parents

Oxygen and fuel.

I asked time to dance

And she said

OK, but just this once.

Wings of the angel

Fire of the fool

We take different steps

But we burn the same fuel

We cross the desert once

To find the gold

We do it again

On a different mule.

Even if it’s the same cross

Each time it’s a different bear

One time it’s dancing

One time it’s mauling

One time it’s called teddy.

One time it’s the honey

One time it’s the chaff

The hops in the pilsner

The hope’s in the dare

The laughter of women

Gets me out of the chair

Dancing with the shadows

Who the hell cares?

Eye of the needle

Fruit of the loom

Tall in the saddle

Fruit of the womb

Call the shots

Interpret the blots

Those who have it

Those who have not

2

Wee Willie Winkie

Runs through the town

Half the time up

Half the time down

Arrows are fragile

So are the nouns.

DANDELION

Ad from a 1908 newspaper: "Dandelion seed—guaranteed to reproduce—a hearty serrate leafed

Perennial producing a brilliant yellow flower."

The works of love are a numerous

As dandelion floss floating in the air

Each seed a migrator, a wanderer

An act perpetuating its genesis

By letting go it grows

By surrendering it own sense of importance

Humbles itself in the wind

To land and flourish

Or perish

At some new site.

1985

EASTER POEM FOR JOHN AND ETHEL

Here is the place to which return

All resurrections—here on this glorious

Planet—here in this grand glorious

Place we call the earth—

Your place and mine—

Each of us plants—

And according to the care we take to

Sow the seeds—to that extent returns

The abundance of harvest—

Each of us creates our own

Rock and roll!

1981

EPIPHALAMIUM

For Kim and Terry

As seconds turn to minutes and hours into

Days may joy and happiness fill

All your years and ways. As you

Tread together up the golden steps of

Always to forever, may the bliss of

Balance be the diamond banister

In grasp on every side.

Limitless is the path of love,

Indestructible its stones.

Through the moments, we see from

Yesterday into tomorrow. The world

Is filled with joy and

Sorrow, so sing the songs of

Smiles and clouds all go away.

Until the empyrean of love a constant

Ring of rainbows all around and

Voices from all the world echo

In harmony with the notes your

Voices and visions sing.

Always is but a second in

Love’s eternal song.

1981

EVOCATION TO PSYCHE

Call to my tongue the thunder

Of the wisdom of the ages;

Call to my tongue the lightening

That men call truth;

Call to my pen words from

The realm of immortal ideas--

May they grow like branches

Through the sky of innovation

Nourished by rains of excitement

From the thighs of my lover;

Call to my heart the torrents

Of blood that form the tides

Of generations.

1979

F

FIF

FFIFF

FFFIFFF

I

R

FOR DONNA

From your silver chalice

Diamond nectar flows in

A warm spiral of rainbows

Around my heart.

Thou art a jewel of always set

In a band of now; a galaxy

Of light, endlessly reflecting smiles

Through a mask of stars.

1979

FOR HER FROM HIM

I rejoice I hear

And comprehend you

I regret I could not compromise

I rejoice I was honest

I regret I hurt you

I regret our differences

Divide us

I rejoice our samenesses

Unite us

I regret not a moment

Of our love

I rejoice to know

It always is.

1996

FOR LEAH HINKLE UPON HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION

Leaving one level of learning and

Entering the next evokes my congratulations!

As you embark on life’s long journey

Have confidence you will meet each challenge,

Have faith that answers you need are

Inherent in the proper asking of the questions.

Now as you continue from known to unknown to

Knowing again, may the unending joy of discovery

Lead you always to realization of your dreams and

Each step be a treasure that fills your heart.

6/5/2000

FOR ROBIN WHO SELLS VEGETABLES

AT THE LINE SHACK BY THE SEA

She brings a song to the line

Between dawn and dusk;

She brings sweetness to the line

Between the shore and sea;

She brings freshness to the line

Between the calm and breeze;

She brings joy to the line

Between the ending and the start;

She brings smiles to the line

Between the body and the heart;

She brings ecstasy to the line

Between the nectar and the vine.

3/6/2000

FOR VICKY, A WARM WYOMING WOMAN

Vast wide open spaces

Insure survival of your

Caring heart. May love

Keep the sparkle in

Your brown eyes always.

6/1996

FRAGMENTS

A bowl teeters

On the edge

Of the concrete step

Beside the iron claw

In the wind.

. . . . .

years seem to pass

with no new visions

to report

and no one to

report them to

. . . .

small birds

on two wide apart wires—

gone!

1981

FULL MOON AT 1981 SPRING EQUINOX

AT A WOOD CUTTER’S HUT IN THE FOREST

NEAR PORTLAND WITH SMOKEY THE DOG

WRITING WARMED BY A COLEMAN LANTERN

The sky was orange in the west

As the sun set

And not yet dark

When the full moon

Of spring equinox

Peered over the alder quilled

Hillside into the still

Crisp clear night

Moving the bones

Makes the juices flow--

Hard work keeps us

Walking erect.

I search for the voice

Behind the flow

Of thoughts.

GLOSSINALIA

Ein toon ed bonny feisters

Aften tymin der riggin chorden

Heifl n’ln bin

Reble cardens jendy poppin

En die moufer lieden

Weester die flufengiggen

Du horpinnoonin

Eider briffle bracken henden

In der lazer corden

Proctor or gingin gimal

Pricce der dimll de doken

Bersheer-westl lencher dodenhoggen.

1996

GUN CONTROL

How finely needs edge

Be honed

To deftly cut

Flesh

To bone?

How finely needs caliber

Be defined

To separate those

In and out

Of line?

How finely needs size of stone

Be measured

Between those caught

And those

Thrown?

How finely needs fertility

Of seeds reaped

Be reflected

In those

Sown?

10/8/2000

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATRICIA SUE: AN ACROSTIC

Hours here in this life

Are like strings of a lyre

Plucked by our hearts’

Pace. The music of our

Years is the song of our

Becoming whole and

In tune with the wide

Range of our possibilities.

The choice is ours as to

How and who we are.

Destiny is the melody

Around our hearts desires.

Your birthday sweetest

Patricia Sue, is

A day of joy and

To you I wish only

Recurring happiness

In all the opuses you’re

Called to play.

Inside you is the music,

Around your heart it

Sings and its notes rise

Up and up and up to the

Eternally listening empyrean.

1985

HARVEST

Knowledge is the seed of wisdom,

Gather it, gather it, gather it;

Prepare soil in a proper place

Well for planting

And it will sprout as insight

Mature to understanding

And blossom with tradition

To yield the fruit of wisdom;

Plant it well and worry not

About the abundance of harvest.

1996

HIAKU FOR PLATO

Inside the cave shadows

Are bigger that we are—

Outside—they vanish!

9/9/2000

HYDRATION

There is something soothing

About the rain when

It begins to fall

After months and months

Of dry sunshine—a

Gentle, edge of the front, dry

California rain, while

Already in higher altitudes

Snow is falling

And winds of hurricanes

Threaten Florida

There is something soothing

When the tears of homecoming

Wash again the dry arroyos

Of the heart.

I ONCE BUILT A FIRE FOR THE DEAF

No one is watching

While you skillfully build the fire

But all are attracted

To the light and warmth.

If the blaze is kindled

If combustion is coaxed from damp tinder

And moister logs

Even the deaf

Respond to the language

Of the flame.

No one is watching

While your knife blade

Whittles twigs to slivers

No one is watching as

You seek the driest needles

No one is watching as essence

Is drilled for

Lost and found

Pumped and sprayed

On wet fuel

To hurry the process.

No one is watching as machete

Strokes split kindling

No one is watching as

Yesterday’s headlines are crumpled

Into the first phosphorescent sacrifice

Non one is watching

When the first spark

Drops into the dark

And misses the womb of its dream.

No one is watching as the spark

Catches the tinder and ignites

Into leaping orange

Connections with its source—

We built a fire beneath

The snow laden boughs of fir

Because the fuel was drier there—

A blaze we had before the others—

It melted the snow on boughs above

And it rained on us—

But we ate while other’s

Food was raw and cold.

2

Every one is watching as light breaks

The silence of twilight

And grows to orange heat

Everyone is watching

As light chases darkness

Into retreat

Every one is watching as warmth repels

The receding of the day

Every one is watching as meat

Sizzles over open flames

Everyone is watching as logs

Chopped by thoughtful ax

Are added to the blaze.

Every one is watching

As the fuel pile gathered in the light

Sustains shadows in the night

Every one is watching as crisp orange flames

Lick melody from the voice of day.

Every body is listening

To nobody

When the ashes cool

Nobody is listening

To every body

When they are the fuel.

Who is listening the next morning

When your breath rekindles the flame

Who is watching the next morning

When your breath reignites your name?

1996

NOTE: I-CHING POEMS ARE READ FROM LAST LINE TO FIRST

I-CHING MEDITATION 6/26/85

What am I to concentrate on this coming year?

Hexagram 18 Mountain over wind Work on what has been spoiled.

If you feel the point between the petal and the sun.

There is no answer you can’t find

To flow through your will.

Allow the higher power within

By exercising your abilities

Establish your own credibility

And the happiness it brings.

Your heart is made for sharing

Of warmth and caring

Cultivate new dreams

Nutrients there you will find

Search through the roots of mind.

I-CHING MEDITATION 2/19/1981

What changes further?

Hexagram 33 (Retreat) changing to 1 (The Creative)

Center of our awakening?

Raises us toward the sentient

Of this creative earthly empyrean that

What force is locked deep in the loins

Into the truest approaching empyrean?

And raises the mind to beyond its comprehension

By the vortices of our compliments

What deep force is unlocked in our loins

To the bright pinnacle of awakening?

And raises the juice of our spines through the marrow

Releases roots to rondevous with moon

What deep force in the center of receiving earth

I-CHING MEDITATION 5/5/1981 SEQUIM, WA

On what should I focus my attention?

Hexagram 33 (Retreat)

Unseen.

Fate waits,

From nurturing clouds.

Action precipitates

Which to starve, which to feed?

Branches, stems and seeds—

To move the mind toward the roots?

To move the legs and till the soil?

Which the weeds and which the fruit?

Sprouts of ideas break conscious earth—

Personal, collective, supraterrestial

Immersed in subterranean mind fields.

GARDENER

I-CHING MEDITATION SUMMER SOLSTICE 6/20/96

Hexagram 15 (Modesty) changing to 63 (After completion)

Dreaming the way.

Winds and clouds

Lead to the path that’s right.

Health and clear sight

Is dry and stable and deep.

The land on which my house sits

I-CHING MEDITATION 6/21/85

What state of change is predominant this summer?

Hexagram 49 (Revolution, Molting) changing to 17 (Following)

Read from the bottom line up.

To fill and heal the soul.

Will from above flows

Into actions that create.

Heart draws Divine Love

Upward into harvest fruit.

Roots draw nourishment

IT’S ABOUT

It’s about beating nails

Into two by fours

Or beating the bends

Out of four by fours

It’s about taking the kinks

Out of mistakes

Or the madness

Out of beef

Or the sting

From the bee

Or the prices

At the pump.

It’s about the wine

And the cheese and the olives

It’s about the squash and

The beans and the corn

It’s about the pull

Behind the bowstring

And the iron

Behind the furrow

And the crease.

It’s about the voice

Of the collective

Screaming its wants

And its needs

It’s about the voice

Of the individual

Screaming and sowing

The demands of its seed.

1996

KALI

I am the dust of mummies

I am the ash of avatars

The foam on the waves

Of the seas of the breaths

Of my fathers.

I am the silence between

The signs of the deaf

Carving the amulets

Of their subtle amnesia

On the heart

Of our forgetfulness.

I am the genie

Bottled in the flame

Of generation

Drinking the ambrosia

Of our forgotten beginnings—

Intoxicating myself with the agony

And orgasmry

Of the bellows

That incinerates generation—

It is silence and the sounds

That produce wisdom.

1996

LET US GO IN PEACE AND REST: AN INVOCATION

Let us go in peace and rest

Where our ears listen to silence

And speaking lips are stilled.

Let us go in peace and rest

Where our palms and soles

Cease to feel the earth’s embrace.

Let us go in peace and rest

Where our tongues no longer taste

The food of days and ways.

Let us go in peace and rest

As our minds still current

Becomes a mirror of the stars.

1979

LIONESS BESIDE THE SEA

For Gale Ambur

Gorgeous smiles purr quivers of joy

Around my savage heart as a

Lioness licks warm wet lips, listens with

Ears alert to jungle music,

Arouses growls from my roaming

Mane. Her frisky playfulness

Brings unexpected ecstasy

Under the stars, beside the waves,

Raging through my roar.

September 1996

LOVE POEM FROM A MOUNTAIN TOP

For Astrid

I look through the lens of my heart

And feel your embrace here

With me in the mountains

I see your eyes

In mountain lake blue snow melt summer

Water in which I see no bottom.

You next to me feel so warm

Like the sun now on my back;

Your touch, like the warm

Gentle wind coming and going

Around me from up the mountain

Slopes—ah, the slopes, the softened

Folds of earth, rounded gently—even now

My palms and fingers tingle with a

Anticipation at the thought of further exploring the curves

Of your heart.

The two lakes below me

In the valley are sparkling

Deep green emeralds

And since they are two

They remind me of you

Two eyes two ears

Two lips two breasts

Two cheeks two lips

Two thighs two arms

Two hands two lips

Two feet.

High above

In the valley of a cirque

Another smaller single lake

Is a shimmering silver button

Surface stroked by warming

Morning breeze;

I sit naked and erect

Wishing you were here

So we could love

All day long.

I dream still in ecstasy

Of our union.

2

You awaken me like the sounds

Of stones tumbling off the shear north face

Of the mountain beside me into lengthening

Shadows and valleys of snow,

Your voice is like the dance of wind

Through valleys of harp string straight firs—

Quiet and affirming, I hear your voices’ music

Here among the silences of these stones

And in the silences between the mountains—

Your silences are there and here too—

Those times of listening to the spirit within

That guides the path

Of our warrior ships.

. . .

The sun has set, Mt. Olympus my bedroom

Window to the south, and you are on my mind

And it feels so fine to find you there

As silent still night wraps his arms

Around these mountains

And bids their creatures rest.

Though some, like me, are yet wide-awake

And with you on my mind wishing

You were here beside me—

It seems like in so many ways

You have lived for so long

In my idealistic fantasies

Of what a woman I can love

Would be like, that now that

I find you in my life

More real than I ever imagined

You might possibly be

I am in a state of shock

From ecstasy.

Above the crimson slit of sunset

Floats the tiny thin crescent

Of the new moon

And Venus rising over my shoulder--

First stars flash on

I am lying directly under

One of the first

Thinking about you

Feeling longer than the distance

To those stars.

3

On the sudden flash of a shooting star

I make a wish to share this

And many many more

Beautiful places with you.

Wish you were on my shoulder

As well as on my mind—

The curve of that tiny thin

Orange crescent moon

Feels to my eyes

Like your curves in my hands—

Perfect.

. . .

Here you are on my mind again

With the fresh dawn wind

And the rising sun

And silence.

Thoughts of you awaken my manhood

And I wonder what I’m doing

Laying here alone on top

Of this mountain

Harder than the stones.

And this silence, so delicious

Like the dances of your lips

And tongue awakening, exciting

The extensions of my heart.

The stones here, layered ancient sea beds

Uplifted now into crumbling multiple

Tablets like the ruins of ancient

Cuneiform library –words written in

Hieroglyphs of moss and lichen—a few

Dwarf firs standing like perplexed librarians

Amid the growing hum of bees

As morning brings a marmot

From his den—like an ancient scholar

He peers curiously at me

Over the shale stacks

Before scampering

Off up the hill.

4

I look through volumes of the library

Of the heart

And find the most exciting

Is the one that is blank

Awaiting our writing

Of it together.

May we fill libraries with our songs

Until they rise around us

Like all these mountains

To peaks above the lakes.

LUANN

We spread the sheets of our desires

Into a tapestry of perfection—

A thread thin as spider web

Unraveled

But kept us connected

By the perfection

Of our dreams.

1996

MOON KOEN

Rue the day

That lips

Turn to rock

And the furrows

In the forehead

Turn to stone

For stone is

A step from

Sand

And sand a step

From dust

And dust a breath

Away from rain

And waves

And tides

And floods

And drought—

Like on the moon.

4/6/2000

Morning

Buzzing red flowers

Humming birds sound like

Dry alder branches

Rubbing together in the wind

Hawks soar in the wind

Clutching small wiggling

Furry animals

In their talons

Two blue jays

Visit my hut

As frost turns to dew

On glistening leaves

Sun shines through

Droplets sparkling

Fern leaf tips

Into beacons of rainbows

1981

MY FRIEND HELEN

Perfect acceptance is the way she treads,

She thinks with her heart as well as her head.

For her, Love is heaven on earth

She sees in each soul the dream of their worth.

Her smiles and laughter quickly spread

With those whom she chooses to break bread.

With all she chooses to share her joy;

The world’s her playhouse, her life a toy.

Woman and love in her combine

Those are the qualities she refines;

She’s always nice and ever so sweet

That’s why union with her is complete.

1985

NEARLY FULL MOON

Early morning gray light

Waiting for the sun

To splash the silence

With bird songs

And insects hum.

3/18/1981

ST. PATRICKS DAY HIAKU

My hammock

Has green and orange

Strings!

Thunder booms

Across the sky

Or is it St. Helens?

1981

NEW FIRE

OR WHAT PEGGY TEACHS ABOUT LOVE

From the old dark forest of chaos and sorrow

Gather twigs of wounds and branches of scars,

Pile them around the tinder of hope

And build a new fire of love for today.

Strike a match of like on the heart

And touch it to differences, imperfections

And distance; fan new sparks

With kindness and patience.

Sticks of understanding ignite with new light.

Logs of meaning blaze with new heat.

Add new fuel with wisdom and with new

Words and actions dance upward with the flames.

2/2000

NEW YEAR KISS

For Eleanor

Fun is the scarlet

Of sunrise and sunset

Reflected on your lips.

Fun is the new horizon

Reflected in the eyes

Of your bliss.

1995

NEWLY EVOLVING INSPIRATION

For Eleanor

Every time I hear you soft voice, it

Leads me in the direction of caring about

Each step your heart-breath takes

Advancing toward the mysteries that

Now we embrace in searching out

Our opposites, harmonies and our

Reflection; reflecting eternal infinity.

PAINTED KACHINA

For Penelope

Pigment flows to canvas as vision

Evolves into scenes

Never seen before—

Each brush stroke a

Laugh of joy that

Opens new eyes of

Peace on the face of the

Eternal mask of the land.

7/1996

KNOCK AT THE GATEWAY

For Leana

Lightening flashes with

Each smile and thunder

Awakens all far and

Near. Heart beats

Answers to the call.

7/1996

PATHOS AND BATHOS

I cried

Looked at my finger tips

After wiping tears

And was surprised

Because I saw

No drops.

Where do they go

Once they are wept?

I laughed

Shed tears

Looked at my finger tips

And was surprised—

Drops were still there!

3/2000

RUBY

Ruby is the birthstone of July

It’s said to make your sorrows fly;

It’s said in Burma where most are found

They’re clear until they ripen in the ground.

Some say rubies, evil thought diverts.

The "Timur" ruby, largest known, is 352 carets.

The "Black Princess" ruby now in England’s crown

Deflected a sword blow from Henry V that would have cut him down.

Ruby entered into English around the year 1310 it is said

Through the Latin word "rubeus" which means red.

It’s believed by some that this red gem

Represses the effects of too much money in them.

1985

SESTINA AND ACROSTIC FOR ASTRID

As we explore the here and now

Smooth ripples echo in our hearts

Truth and trust balance our minds

Return us to a natural state

In which the joy of being grows

Directed by higher magic than we may know.

And we tell each other of truths we know

Speaking them as we understand them now

Teaching each other with acts of hearts

Rapport building with our minds

Intertwining we vibrate to an ecstatic state

Deepening our affection as it grows.

Around us brightening clear light grows

Shimmering the depths of all we know

Touching each and every eternal now

Raising joy beams from our hearts

Infusing clarity between our minds

Developing us to our truest state.

Absolute joy is our purest state

Surrounded by our heart it grows

Telling us what we need to know

Reaching us in our place of now

Inside the knowings of our hearts

Delighting the intertwining of our minds.

Actions proceed first in our minds

Suggest to us the desired state

Together exquisite pleasure grows

Reminding us that what we know

Is always here and only now

Dancing with beats of our hearts.

Always is where the touch of true hearts

Satisfies the touching of two minds

Toward that union and blissful state

Responds our spirit as it grows

Into the depths of what we know

Dreaming in this sea of now.

Union of hearts and sharing of minds

Keeps us in a state that always grows

Until the bliss of now is all we know.

1985

SHADES

Some where behind the shade

There is a window that opens

Into the leaves of trees

That whisper onto lawn

Their shade.

1978

SHADOW OF MORTALITY DESCENDING

Emotional quicksand!

Where is the branch

To save myself?

All the ropes thrown

Turn into nooses

Strangling inconsistencies

Writhe with fangs

Bared to bite

At the jugular

Of aspirations

Predators with habits

In their eyes

Burning resolution

Like a laser lobotomy

Injecting vicarious venom

Of delusions of happiness

Mock each grain

As it predictably

Engulfs the lungs

Of youthful ambition

Drowning in thirst quenching water

Ambition freezes as

One’s whole life flashes

On fast forward

Shoulds

Coulds

Woulds

Like tines on a pitchfork

Spear

Accomplishments

Fulfilled ambitions

Plans

And turn them to ashes

Growing cold on the grate of fear.

1996

SOLSTICE 1978

Winter has begun--

Daylight hours grow longer.

We, recorders of patterns of passing suns,

Scribe our lines through seasons of moonbeams

We balance the black with the white

As we draw lingual parallels that reflect

The visions of our passing through

Those worlds our dreams create.

Days grow longer now that wintertime is here

Peeking muddily

From beneath a collar of late fall snow.

SONG FROM A DREAM

Your blue eyes appeared

With your soft voice

In a dream of a song

Full of happiness

Your blond hair appeared

With your choices

In a dream of a song

Full of hope

Your music appeared

With your openness

In a dream of a song

Full of loveliness

Your dance appeared

With your agileness

In a dream of a song

Full of unions

Your smiles appeared

Across the miles

In a dream of a song

Full of whiles

Your heartbeats appeared

Quick and regular

In a dream of a song

About one drum.

September 1996

STONES AND BONES

STACKS OF STONES

GUARD THE BONES

SHAPE THE BONES

BREAK THE BONES

MARK THE BONES

GRIND THE BONES

8/1996

SUNSET THE DAY BEFORE I AM 37 (6/25/85)

Pollen in the sunspots

Germinating seeds

Heart guided by head

The warm rays lift

Above the horizon of gentle wind

As the last degree

Split second

Laser eye

Sinks

Below the dim powder blue

Island horizon.

Be it known that in the mid day sky

Appeared the colors of green

And orange in the high clouds

Like abalone shell

And I had the good

Fortune to share it

With the woman

With whom I’m

In love.

SUNSET

For Patricia Sue

Soft magenta fog fired hills

Beneath setting orange sun

Your lips

Softly rolling hills silver sheened

With dandelion seeds

Your hips

Strawberry blossoms hillside carpet

Filled with glowing orange crystals

As the cleft in the clouds

Grows pinker, hotter

And I imagine

That circle of the sun

I see in that cleft

In the clouds is the thrust of my manhood

And that pinkened cleft

Is your womanhood around me—

Together, us,

Among the stars.

THE LOVE OF THE WAY

The love of the way

Is my way of love

In the gateway

Between below and above.

1985

TWENTY WORDS AND TWENTY LINES TWENTY HOURS

BEFORE MEETING JILL KATHLEEN ANDERSON

JOKING

INTUITING

LOVING

LIKING

KISSING

AWARENESS

TANGY

HEARTENING

LEARNING

ENGAGING

EARTHLY

NEBULOUS

ASTOUNDING

NEAT

DELIBERATE

EXCITING

REGENERATIVE

SUCCULENT

ONTOLOGICAL

NEW

Jubilation greets me at every turn as

I meet a kindred spirit, ephemeral,

Like a zephyr ringing a lake with smiles,

Like comet tail glowing in black velvet space.

Keeping my attention focused, joy greets me

At every turn, a heart as real as

The rising sun, a mind as real as

Heart, beating a tempo of truth.

Learning more with each

Encounter about where our spirits touch,

Each new tangent we explore brings

Nearer, intersecting hearts.

Aphrodisiacally, the mesh of your charms

Nullifies emptiness inside me and

Delivers new awakenings, leading to visions

Of eternal awakenings in your arms.

Reverberating emanations from the glow that

Surrounds you awakens knowings

On this premier corporal occasion, at last

Now I know, at least, I love your smile.

12/5/2000

UNTITLED

I speak into the silence

Of many listening minds

Edges and echoes

Hail from many

Distant shores

Some in time

Some in space

All

Magnifying and diminishing

The dimensions

Of our

Gaze.

5/2000

UNTITLED

We dance through the peaks

And valleys of love

By moonlight

The unbroken melody of the brook

The tempo of the wind

And rain on the roof

The waltz

That carries us in its arms

Across the dance floor of ecstasy

In the ballroom of the sun.

1981

UNTITLED

I assume under this

Thunder fuck bull shit

Canopy of never ending

Slime and dust

There is a pearl

Brighter than the sun.

Taken on faith

Perfection is

Possible

Probable

Essential!

Indispensable!

Diamond?

Or rabbit fart dust?

5/2000

VCR: VIOLENT CORRECT REDUNDENCY

AUGUST 15, 1945

They keep replaying

The faces of the dead

Their grief

And smiles

Atrocities and triumphs

Printing and scripts

That vanquish names

From history books

Every one leaves

Traces

Of the needles

In the veins

Nagasaki! Nagasaki! Nagasaki!

BE REMINDED! DO NOT DO IT AGAIN!

3/ 2000

VIEW AT DEER PARK

Hidden acrostic (first letter of second word in each line)

When in summer, snow has melted

From lower mountain peaks, we

Climb on top of Blue Mountain and have ourselves

A view. From the summit we see far

In every direction—the Straight of Juan de Fuca, Mt. Baker, the Cascades

Sequim, Port Angeles, Hurricane Ridge, San Juan Islands, Dungeness

Spit and Olympic Mountains—our eyes trace

Horizon three hundred and sixty degrees. We watch high

Clouds racing from the west turn to abalone shell swirls

Passing in front of the midday sun. Bright purple and yellow

Blossoms carpet the slopes, orchestra pits of humming bees. Deer,

Antlers in velvet, graze on tender green blades in gentle

Breeze. A Power higher than we are is working magically and

Playing songs here that echo between our ears and the empyrean;

We understand a few phrases of that symphony and

Listen eagerly at this apex to eternal encores of that Heart.

7/4/85

WE MAKE LOVE

We make love

And sing a paisley

Song into the laughter

Of the night

While our tongues

Pluck a fugue on the strings

Of Eros’ harp.

We make love

And climb a pyramid

Of light

To its apex in the sun

Where we crack like crystals

Frozen in space

Into cosmos

Where light and dark

Are one.

We make love

And dream of worlds

Beyond the realm

Of referenced mind

Where feelings rainbow

Through skies perfumed

With pomegranate serenades

Where our hearts

Beat a single breath

In rhythm with the stars.

1978

WELL PLACED LAKE DRIFTWOOD

For Tim Quinn

The subtle signs you leave behind

Indelibly etched into handles of my

Mind are true logos of genius—

Quintessential elements that embrace

Understanding and

Impart it to all forevers, all

Nevers and all

Nows.

6/16/2000

WINDOWS, SUMMER 1996

Shapes of windows

Shape our seeings

Looking out and

Looking in

The apertures

Of our knowings

Are shaped

By our comings

And our goings

Around windows

We build the walls

And doors.

. . . . .

Hearts shaped by generations

Beat ancient rhythms

Modulated and modified

By the heat of our days.

. . . .

We walk the deserts

To springs of our passing

Satiated and thirsty

For the awakening of our dreams.

. . .

We scratch and paint

The walls of our caves

Hoping to dispel

The shadows of our

Ceasings.

. . . .

The bread of our beliefs

Is our escape through

The windows of our years

Leavened by the cynicism

Our knowings adds to the dough.

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL TO ME

For Peggy

Because you always brighten my day

You are beautiful

Every time your smile brightens mine

You are beautiful

All your words are perfect notes so

You are beautiful

Understandings flow between us and

You are beautiful

Time passes and endears me to you because

You are beautiful

In each moment of joy you are there and

You are beautiful

Fully a man in your presence I feel

You are beautiful

Under the moon and sun and stars

You are beautiful

Lust and love and like with you merge because

You are beautiful.

6/21/1998

YOUR SMILE

For Peggy Jean

Your smile washes over me like

Sun’s returning rays at dawn

Lifting my sleeping spirit to

Embrace a new day’s wonders,

Brightening the glow of dreams

Into the actions of the day.

Your smile floods me like

Melting snows filling lakes and streams

Filling my heart to overflowing

With your kind, gentle understandings

Quenching the thirst, filling

Me with knowing.

Your smile fills my heart

With the joy of your heart

Your love cascades over me

In a rainbow of fulfillment

Teaching me that ecstasy lives

In each heart beat of living.

7/22/1998