the problem with elephants
there’s an elephant in the room
frankly, it was fine until
she had to go to the bathroom
no one is sure what happened
to mother or the dog
and no one much wants to check
25 September 2013
State College, PA
Category: Nature
on the Black Moshannon
a flotilla of water lillies
floating on the Black Moshannon
each one a seat for a deity
my son picks one white flower
brings it into the canoe
droplets falling off the petals
the sound of our hull
as it strikes the lily pads
is like metal on metal
later, as we stop beside the dock
Jen and I hold the boat stable
while our sons step back onto land
7 September 2013
State College, PA
tweets
descending the stairs
I look toward where
the birds used to sit
remember they’re gone
they weren’t like dogs
or cats, no cuddling
but they would perch on my hands
happy and singing
it’s important to not
be the only living thing
in the place where you live
20 August 2013
Auburn AL
counting snails
we called her name
shouted from the back porch
come to find out
she’d been out in the woods
all afternoon counting snails
she came back covered
in grass and leaves
cheeks streaked with mud
but smiling like it was Christmas
she showed us a sketchbook full of swirls
snail trails she’d copied
each one a little galaxy
gone almost before she could draw it
27 July 2013
Auburn AL
Mother Nature, the poet’s friend
you can forget
most of a day
to write
only to be
reminded by
the distant
sound of thunder
15 July 2013
Auburn AL
be nice to bees
(for Bonny Chen)
I don’t remember
much about bees
but I think it’s true
that when a bee stings
its stinger rips off
and it dies quickly
if that’s true
I don’t quite get it
it’s not a useful defense
if it’s fatal
so then I thought
maybe bees have stingers
to protect the group
not the individual
the defenders
sacrificing themselves
for the good of the hive
when this occurred to me
I started to feel
differently about bees
8 July 2013
Auburn AL
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Leave a Comment![[Photo Credit]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:European_honey_bee_extracts_nectar.jpg){kind=link}
the blue crane and the yellowwood tree
in my dream
I saw a blue crane
under a yellowwood tree
she was standing there
majestic and serene
like a silent song
I couldn’t get out of my head
I approached slowly
she moved away
but didn’t fly off
she looked at me
with eyes like your eyes
I stood rooted, expectant
the smell of mangoes in the air
I thought if I could touch her
I might wake from the dream
to find she was real
so I moved forward again
but it was too much
she spread her wings
sang one bright, clear note
and flew off into the African sky
7 July 2013
Auburn AL
rainy season
the walkway to the laundry is flooded
following days and days of rain
it’s pouring now, in fact
so I’ve opened all the windows
to let in the sound
my first full summer in Alabama
reminds me of Japan
flower petals covering the stones
wearing my outdoor sandals
to haul the bag of laundry back inside
when I arrived here last year
it was in the middle of a drought
I hiked to a waterfall but found
a trickle (and even that’s generous)
this is the part of the poem
where the metaphor goes
6 July 2013
Auburn AL
all the way down
turtles still make me think of you
I imagine they always will
even though I can’t remember why
or how the association started
but I know that every time
one of these quasi-dinosaurs
crawls his imperturbable way
between the lines of one of my poems
he’s bringing a message from you
2 July 2013
Auburn AL
tiger
at lunch the expedition
was interrupted
by the arrival
at the edge of camp
of a Sumatran tiger
a creature so rare
everyone leapt up
to catch a glimpse
it eyed the watchers warily
for a moment
then stalked off
into the underbrush
leaving behind elation
at its existence
disappointment
at its departure
fear
that it might never
come again
20 May 2013
Auburn, AL
under a bigleaf magnolia
I can’t identify most trees by name
but I can remember exactly
where we were standing
the first time you kissed me
afterward a friend told me
it was a bigleaf magnolia
a primitive tree, she said
one of the first with flowers
a tree with leaves so big
they sometimes break
their own branches
I know how the magnolia feels
standing in its shade
I thought my heart might leap
through my ribcage
dissolving when it touched the air
and I imagined you opening
your own chest / reaching in
to remove a piece of your heart
so you could share everything with me
1 May 2013
Auburn AL
tall grass
there’s a place just off the path
where the tall grass is pressed down
fingers scratched from a prickly plant
growing up through the tall grass
hay strewn across the tall grass
caught in hair, on clothing
tall grass bathed in the full moonlight
like a day-for-night shot in a movie
still the next morning the tall grass
retains the shape of the night before
and in the laundry basket there is tall grass
and hay and a prickly plant waiting to be removed
27 April 2013
Auburn AL
migration
there are
a thousand birds
of every color
sprinkled
across the sky
like distant gods
26 April 2013
Auburn AL
/ / /
This poem tried hard to be the beginning of a longer poem, but I just kept coming back to these two stanzas until they felt complete.
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