poetry
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Notes on a Sketch Made at a Pasture’s Edge
Half moon in a lake blue skyReflecting cloudsCrows circling shadowsOver cut paths of SeptemberDry hay bales shade wovenPurplish blue on a broad flank hillAt the field’s edge Queen Anne’s Lace Butter-colored golden rodsSeed laden milkweedsWaiting on the stalled breathOf a… Continue reading
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Poetry and Standing at the Edge of the Raccoon World
I had the opportunity to be an early reader of the galleys of Who By Fire by Mary L. Tabor. An excerpt from my review appears at the end of this essay. What do you take with your morning coffee? What… Continue reading
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Translating Judith Herzberg
The Dutch poet and playwright Judith Herzberg has presented the world with a body of work that reveals her sensitivity to fine details of a moment, those details she observes, and to the language required to express the subject. She… Continue reading
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Still Life
Still LifeSpreading dawnDelicate pearl-pinkFiery red weaves ragged cloudsA cardinal dartsAmong snow powderedSpruce branchesSpinkling snow dustOn grave stones Plastic Christmas flowersRibboned wreathsA mourning dove coo-oosHoney coloredLight spreads blue shadowsBeyond the wrought-iron fenceMorning rush hour trafficPasses on a gray thread of roadPoem:… Continue reading
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Jazz Notes
In the oblique stagelight moon,He, closing his weary raven eyes,Lips puckered, lifts his trumpet.On a breath, deep from his lungs,A burst, a single improvised note,Rises, from the arteries of his soul,Free to the bell’s silver flair height,He teases melodic notes… Continue reading
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A Poem
Walking from the BarnAt the pasture’s distant edge,Spines of twisted trees, branchesKnitting the waning gray lightfall sky.My breath vapors form cloudsIn the air smelling of snow.Crows, in curved flight, caw Their roosting hour notes,Rising as if released fromSheet music uplifted… Continue reading
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Advent
All nights become silent and holy,Laved in the candlelight of our prayers,As muted songs of lamentation are sung,Rising as incense in autumn nights’ air.In this place of our lonely exile,Anticipation rises again in our breastsFor a child, to be born… Continue reading
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Postcards from Taiwan: Three Poems
Wanderers on the Narrow Path In the morning solitude Sunflowers lift their heads Serenely towards the ascending light. I too wander on the narrow path To where the sun descends beyond the Yu Shan Mountains. In the morning solitude Walking… Continue reading
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The Environment of Dante’s Inferno
The name David Suzuki is unknown to most people residing in the States. Canadians know him as the host and narrator of the CBC science program The Nature of Things from 1979 until his retirement in 2002. Suzuki taught genetics… Continue reading
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Memory and Loss
This past week I drove past the home of a couple that I briefly had known. Judy and Diane lived next door to me while I lived at a place I came to call Hermits Pond. The following is a… Continue reading
Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal 