Everywhere I Look

Everything I touch

Falls apart just as it should

In the compost pile

I’m at that stage in life

Where decay is

Everywhere I look

And that’s okay because

Creation is too

Summer Overspent

 Summer has overspent

All the long stem grasses

Have gone to seed

The Queen Anne’s lace has proliferated

And the afternoon shadows

Overtaken the lawn

About the fall there’s

Little room for doubt

Nor is there need for further effort

Henceforth everything shall

Proceed by grace

I am the River

I am the river

Never one or the same

Time flows through my veins

Rocks are the sort of thing

I simply choose to go around

Yes, I'm persistent

And impetuous

Single minded

But multidirectional

On occasion I've been known 

To reverse myself 

At times I think on a monumental scale

And am perfectly comfortable

Playing the long game

Carving up continents

With the ease of a knife

Passing through butter 

You can follow me upstream

To my native source

Where you'll find

I'm hyper articulate

Though fond of digression 

And forever changing course

Like language itself

I am the river

Never one or the same

Time flows through my veins

Every second another drop

The High Holy Days of Summer

The high holy days

Of summer - the zinnia

Beds in full glory 

The butterflies with

Their anthers full - the humming birds

Incessantly humming

The bucket of cherry tomatoes

Overflowing - the sun drenched

Kiss of hypertrophic growth

Everywhere on display yet

Indolence abounds

And even the red hibiscus

Singing its arias can’t keep me

From succumbing to the 

Swinging cadence of a nap in

The backyard hammock

A Voyage of Discovery

Tonight around twilight

I stood in the garden

And imagined 

I saw the admiral

Garden hose in hand

Addressing the fleet

Tomorrow we set sail

On a voyage of discovery 

He said

The Swiss chard leaves·

Billowed on the breeze 

And the spray of the hose

Spattered across the prow

Of the raised bed

With its semi precious cargo 

Of sugar beets

And altogether there were

Four rows of potatoes

Safely stowed away

Down below

And enough cherry tomatoes

To feed the entire crew

No matter how long

The voyage might 

Turn out to be

The Birds Seemed Emboldened

The birds seemed emboldened

When humanity's downfall

Became a foregone conclusion

It was avians' turn to rule

Send sssssss sssssss

Send sssssss sssssss 

Is what I butt dialed to

Myself today

Now celebrated

As a poet who 

Is both neurodiverse and

Well enabled to generate

Poems in such 

Diverse ways

Life Perennial

What I love most about

Gardening is that every year

One gets a little more proficient

And likewise willing to undertake

A little more work

Last year the Joe Pie weed

And milkweed took root

Increasing this spring’s bounty

That’s what it means 

To live and think perennially

To suppress and encourage

As needed yet remain

Open to happy accident

To be constantly raising 

The flower bed stakes

And vegetables too

The Iris

Before it opens

The iris is flat
And pointy as a stiletto

But when it opens

Oh my god

Suddenly it falls

Extremely agape

Almost shameless

The way it drapes

Itself - which is typical

Blue flower deportment

In point of fact from

Upward striving

In first position

To utter collapse

 

 

Spring Never Gets Old

 

Spring never gets old

As we do

Now that I celebrate its lyric 

With a limp all my own

It’s better than ever

More perennials than ever

To adorn my front lawn

If April makes such

Great showing who needs

May or June

Each moment of Spring

So full of promise

Is a lifetime entire

Complete unto itself

Life is All About Triangles

for my brother Hank

There’s one big difference

Between me and my brother

Whereas he has a prodigious memory

And has learned by heart 

To recite pi to 

More than 3,000 digits

I can barely remember

What year it is sometimes

Yet still I manage

To comfort myself thinking

Who needs pi really

Life is all about triangles

For most of us humans

Knowing how to progress

From here to there 

By making comparisons

Like me and my brother

All day long in disregard

Of the need for absolutes

Who needs one or the other 

When you can be both in turn

Poem written at the Kanas Center

Lately life has acquired

A beneficent hum 

Friday nights at hospice

Compost Monday or Tuesday

Back and forth from

Science to art

Just like life itself

True of Mr. Apology too

Far too deep in the weeds 

To know what was happening

Wednesday night

We watched a movie

By Thursday feeling blue

The Best and the Worst

This poem illustrates what happens when you fail to properly heed Rabbi Bunim’s advice about the importance of keeping a coat with two pockets. In each pocket, the Rabbi says, you should put a slip of paper, on one of which has be written “For my sake was the world created”  while on the other it says “I am only ashes and dust.”  The Rabbi stresses each slip being better suited to different occasions, the two of them are therefore better held apart in separate pockets.

This poem illustrates the peril and insight that result from resort to a single pocket.

*******

Yesterday around sunset

While walking my dogs

I put a bag of dog poop

In the pocket of my fleece

Along with another bag

Of doggie treats

And when I got

To the garbage can in town

I threw away the wrong bag

And continued home

With a pocket full of poop

The best and the worst

Become interchangeable, it seems

That’s sometimes how life works