Tuesday, December 21, 2010

watching the lunar eclipse on the solstice

this hasn't happened in over 400 years.

happy returning of the ligh.

Monday, December 20, 2010

more lights

A LIGHT ROMANCE
For Meara

I look at the
Christmas tree
tiny tiny lights--
slide into tear drops
at the point
there are almost as
many yellow as green
as blue.
Not so with red and pink.
Yellow burnishes
needles with a glow.
Blue is drop of sky.
Green greenifies tree.
Red and pink--
a dialogue of tease:
Is pink, a red? Or red a…
quiet
enters in--
Lights begin
to blur,
body settles in,
shimmers
shifts
sways
to lights.
Then the tree
in millimeters
begins
to bend
its spine.
My hands
drift to my side—
a dance.

Heading towards the darkst day of trhe year

12/6/2010

Flat Black
December night
impenetrable
stars behind
shields
stop lights
like jewels
fallen from
heights
the time of
year when
heaven is
on earth.
I drive ‘cross
country roads
a winter wrap
of black
insurmountable
silence.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

no poem: just a footnote about my poetry

Many of my poems are sound based and have to be read out loud. The meaning comes from the intertwining of sound, rhythm, and physical image.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

continuing light

58 11/20 (111)

Did you ever
look up
into the
night sky
and one star
seemed to
claim your presence?
Tonight it
was a
blinking
rose
a treasure
to the left
of Orion.

Coming to the earth's turn at winter: Poems of light

50 9/5
My daughter
pointed to me
stars in
the water
I could not
see them
one left upper
another right
middle
below
lower left
more more

fabric
in a dark world
inner light.
I see more. (103)

54 9/17 (107)

tears in me
stars
hold me
in their constancy
mirror me.
how could
have I thought
the whirring chirp
of crickets
were frogs?

Friday, December 17, 2010

LIGHT AND CRICKETS

I want to include the following poem in poems of light. I guess “clarity” is a form of light.
48 8/23
CLARITY

crickets turning whirr
circling
wrenching to
sphere
orange
emanates
small
a baby’s
ear

hold it
in my hand
slips to touch
sideways glance
secures
not to know
but hear
say not
see but
touch
taste
my tongue
a cherry stem
twists
to
knot. (81)

This poem speaks to the part of ourselves where clarity is born. Not from the mind but the deeper regions where feelings, heart, mind are roiled around in a crucible and create a solid, dimensional object.


48 8/23
The crickets
began
chirping
at 4 P.M.
the sun in
golden light
chipping away
at the night
in its slowed
descent
now in pitch
black warm
the steady
hum
turning of the
Ball. (82)

LIGHT BEARER

35 8/2
I want to hold
the world
together.

dawn
penetrates fog
blue
everything
infused
in its wet web

doors blown
straps, bonds, hair pins, belts, buckles, thread. ropes, duty, lunch, jobs, punctuation, sleep,
buttons slide

jagged desire.
Lucifer comes
rises Venus. (68)

getting closer to the solstice

26. 7/21
Saw a
moth traveling down
around the bend
in the stairs
just like I do
toward the
sconce
of fluorescent light.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

celebrating light

28 7/23
Sun go down
on me
the stars
the silent
places
in my heart. (58)

29 7/25
Wake up
there is a
new dawn
and the light!
is glowing (59)

30 7/26
light below
sun above
no sky in
the middle. (60)


31 7/27
cleaned the
cob webs off
the panes
of the
porchlight
now all
that is left
are the
mirrors. (61)

Monday, December 13, 2010

will post another poem

more poems of light for the Solstice

16. 7/10
In the rear view mirror
Bright car yellow cat eyes
Following me home
Until I turned left. (45)

17. 7/11
light on the clay damp sand
underneath the gravel
sprayed
by the tires of my
bike
as I lie
far too close
with the road. (46)

18. 7/11
the light of this
summer day
stays in my heart.(47)

19. 7/11
soft golden grasses
brighter than
the dawn fog
above. (48)

20. 7/13/10
Up the hollows down the inclines
in rivers
falling down the road
sunlight on my face. (49)

22. 7/14
silver light
breaking through clouds
birds quietly sing
a square of paper
on our front gate
two, three of them
clothes pinned
dashed off by felt pen
she has that artist’s touch
arrows
pointing across across then up
to the side gate
quashed in between slats
sticking out
towards me
a newspaper
ours
from our neighbor. (50)

21 7/14

A PRAYER

the sun can seem
like a thousand lights
it lights up everything
every glen every glade
every stream
every pocket
if you hold it open
every wrinkle
on every face
if you’re out in the open
god’s laugh
tumbles down
with kisses
‘less the
woods too thick
mountain too tall
a shuttered house
a tree falls across a road
a damn to block a creek
Ganesha come to us. (51)
* (a magic number to be used at the discretion of the poet.)

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Solstice continued

13. 7/7/10
sunlight everywhere
today
on the roads
on the tops of trees
top of the steering wheel
on my hands
more light,
as they turn the direction towards the west,
it drips down
my left arm
stops at the
elbow.
I have to feel it. (42)

14. 7/8
driving down the road
this dark night
two rivers of
orange lines
in front of me
lit up by headlights. (43)


for tim
15. 7/9
the road today
is lighter
light all around me
even though I
can’t feel it.
I can’t
then I can
then it’s not there
then it is.

the tangling dance of light. (44)

16. 7/10
In the rear view mirror
Bright car yellow cat eyes
Following me home
Until I turned left. (45)

17. 7/11
light on the clay damp sand
underneath the gravel
sprayed
by the tires of my
bike
as I lie
far too close
with the road. (46)

18. 7/11
the light of this
summer day
stays in my heart.(47)

19. 7/11
soft golden grasses
brighter than
the dawn fog
above. (48)

20. 7/13/10
Up the hollows down the inclines
in rivers
falling down the road
sunlight on my face. (49)

Winter Solstice

To celebrate the winter solstice i'll be posting poems about the impact of light on our lives. These come from an ongoing project. The goal is to reach a thousand lights and will be compiled into a book: WINTER SOLSTICE: A THOUSAND LIGHTS. The numbers at the end of the poems indicate the number of lights reached. You can see I have a long ways to go. And you can see sometimes I cheat a little.

1.
moonlight
Closing the
window
my body
leans
towards the thick
lit fog. (1)

2.
a red window frames
it
my eyes
burst open
to see
sunlight
on the white lily. (2)

3.
1-2-3- shining spots
under the eaves
of our home
a box of light
on the outer wall
next to the front door
two floods
spilling more
a chorus of light. (8)

4.
a sliver of orange moon
about to vanish
behind the trees. (9)

5.
walked into the barn
last night
plugged in two strings
of lights
left over from a wedding
two years ago
where my daughter and her husband
danced
the marriage dance
line by line
the guests were illuminated. (33)

6,
light shines
into my tired eyes
in the middle of the
night
trying to read
I droop
Eyes burn
Light is not my friend. (34)

7.
white light heat
of summer
birds stick to the woods (35)

8.
no light outside right now
but fog and wind
but glowing hills
does this count? (36)

9. for susan kleckner
no light all day
then a square of light
cast down
shadows of leaves (38)

10.
smoky white
on the horizon
in the
middle of the night
what magic is this? (39)

11.
sunlight
strikes
my eyes
through
the
crack
in
the blind.

I won’t wake up. (40)

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Winter

Flat Black
December night
impenetrable
stars behind
shields
stop lights
like jewels
fallen from
heights
the time of
year when
heaven is
on earth.
I drive ‘cross
country roads
north right
behind west
a winter wrap
of black
I stop
get out--
silence.

(still working on this but wanted to put it up anyway)---feels a bit abstruse in the beginning. any thoughts?

Thursday, December 2, 2010

SKELETON WOMAN ARRIVED

50 paperbacks: beautiful cover, easy to read, beautiful back. great punctuation. reading flows. darkness of dark and blues and hidden faces. i held one in my hand for a long long time. one of those moments so big to hold you want someone to share it with. also one of those moments i know where Skeleton Woman never leaves us. hope she sings for many people. Andrea Dunlap (book designer), Betsy Pffeifer (editor), and Tim O'Reilly (took the bones of her and first published)--you have helped her appear in a form so approachable. thank you.

today we hear about the discovery of new life forms

this discovery will blow apart our conception of what is life in this world and others--here is a poem glancing at the mystery of connection.


Did you ever
look up
into the
night sky
and one star
seemed to
claim your presence?
Tonight it
was a
blinking
rose
a treasure
to the left
of Orion.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

SKELETON WOMAN IS LEAVING LULU

and is due to arrive in a couple of days!!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Sonoma County Summer Reading

Last summer, Patti Trimble, Nancy Dougherty and I did a poetry reading in our barn...



Here's Nancy's segment of the reading:



And here's Patti's:

Saturday, October 23, 2010

AN EROTIC FAIRYTALE

THE SECRET IN A WOMAN:
An Erotic Fairytale (mid 1980’s)

Fairytale, fairytale.

Long, long ago, in a village, in a remote part of India, there lived a little green frog. She was a stunning little frog. Colored vibrant, shimmering chartreuse, much like the green peepers found in the West.

This frog was very frog. She hopped, climbed trees, ate bugs, dove under water. You know Basso: Old Pond. Frog jumped. Splash.

But then one day she started to do different things: She watched the bees; she watched the trees; she watched…the flowers grow.

Anyway this frog became obsessed by watching. She watched and watched and watched. She got so she could see the wing of a hummingbird in flight; she could see a rock becoming smaller; she could see herself as frog. And at that point, she began to change.

Soon after, she began to spend her days differently than before. She played hide and seek with the bees. she danced with the trees. She became…a flower…opening. At the same time she became both more silly and more silent.

Her nights were different. There was darkness. She would sit small, black frog next to tall, black Banyan tree and wait. She would wait and wait. After many nights of waiting, a darkness began to well up in her…Discontent… Discontent swirled into sadness. Sadness… turned to grief… Desire emerged… Rushed headlong into unutterable longing. Longing. Longing. And the rain poured down into her heart.

One night as the moonlight glanced off the swaying, swishing branches of the Banyan Tree and the warm, sultry breeze kissed her body a thousand times, she thought she saw something. Maybe it was the edge of a flute. Maybe a tall dark shadow, dancing….

And the next day she danced. She danced and danced. She felt a funny sensation in her toes.

The next night she thought she heard a haunting, lilting, echoing sound…calling her.

And the next day she cried. She cried and cried. She began…to melt…inside.

The following night… the Dark One came, and touched her. He caressed her smooth, wet skin, now shining of love. He blew flute notes, sent them sliding down her throat, gliding slowly, softly, into her pool of joy. Her body ached…. His dark, blue body arched into frog shapes. Shape upon shape. Small dark frog mingling with tall, Dark, Dancing Lord. Dark to dark. Limb spiraling with limb…. Who could tell …whose was whose?


(NOTE: I'm posting this older piece because I love it and some day I will dance it.)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

FALL

Calling
call
owl
sound
flat
pressed
‘gainst my
brain
like the
lid of
pan
not piercing
ear
like the dive
of swallow
compressing
containing
consoling
twining in my flesh
like a woven paper
basket.

I hear death
strand by strand
is a great unraveling
and I wonder
has this note
kept me
whole
and I wonder
will this be
the last sense
of me
and will it go
back to the wood
where it
began.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Will post another poem

a new poem

tears in me
stars
hold me
in their constancy
mirror me
how could
have I thought
the whirring chirp
of crickets
were frogs?

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

SKELETON WOMAN APPEARS

Well you're not going to believe this but there was a sighting of SKELETON WOMAN, my play, a few days ago. The first four books came back from Lulu which we're going to be using as galleys and hopefully within a few weeks the book: SKELETON WOMAN: A DANCE WITH THE DARK will be available. We're very excited about it. I'll be sending copies to everyone directly involved in the production and if you are inadvertently left off the list let me know. An exciting time.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Saturday, May 1, 2010

EVERY DAY MERMAID POEMS

I've written a book of poetry and am collaborating with a fabulous illustrator Deidre Scherer. Just google for her and you can see her fine work.

Playing with sounding out the poems and hearing the different voices in them. Hearing cadences and trembles and music. Getting ready for a reading. I'm also choreographing the poems --that will be awhile :-).

Here is a poem I'm noodling with and posting it because it reminds me of tonight:

ALL WEEK

All week the night sky
Has hinted at red lavender
The moon has shone out
All the stars
Except a few
Casting shafts of light
On the meadow.
Gone are the flesh
Of Orion &
The Pleides.
The crickets hum
Caress the air
And I wonder what
Is to come
In the spaces
I have not foreseen.
I am enveloped
In a dark wool
Blanket.