poetry
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A Letter to an Artist Friend
We live on schedules that are responses to what others impose on us. The peculiar aspect of this is that we do this wearing different personas, masking ourselves as if in Greek plays, alternating between comedy and drama. People judge… Continue reading
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Living in the Circuit
There are all too frequent periods in our lives when our priorities cause us to lose sight of nature’s “staid current,” its circuit that we live within. We sense, but do not pause to see, to observe as we rush… Continue reading
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A Memorial Day Poem
A Memorial Day Poem Continue reading
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Daydreams, Imagination, and Childlike Wonder
Solitary moments are often difficult to come by in our contemporary life. But when we pause to reflect, we can see the interaction of space and time in nature, art, literature, architecture, and other forms of creative expression. How space-time… Continue reading
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Museum Exhibit: Seven Japanese Paintings
POETRY ichi (いち)Cherry blossoms—Moonlight so pureThe dew is unseen.ni (に)Summer breeze—The music of wind chimes;Black kitten cocks her head.san (さん)Clouds gather in the southern sky.Reeds motionless in the humid air.White birds circle waves of enfolding hands. An old man in… Continue reading
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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
Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal 