Short Poems: six lines or less
It Does Not Matter Where You Look
A big blue bend in an endless sky,
A yellow fire clinging deep in a dry well,
It is all the same.
A cloud of stars,
Grains of rice in a black bowl,
Simple.
A Song Without a Beat
I move in dreams
frantically arranging pictures
in their places,
painting faces,
timing the spaces,
missing the beat of my own heart’s thump.
The Way I Came
Searching for beginnings, I write days.
From suburban boxes, I moved moments.
I was incrementally replaced by another.
Singing loud we filled the night.
Through summer days, we tumbled blindly.
alone, together, alone together, together alone.
a note about a toy elephant
Israel
Can play with
this
after Wednesday.
He threw it in
the bushes on Tuesday.
Kendo Class
The tiny woman pushed the large dry mop,
with precise grace,
bare feet patting,
like a fox on the snow.
The Last Summer Train
A train moans and roars through the valley distance
down the hill in the cooling last summer night.
Carry away despair.
Carry away my weary worries
and leave all silent shining in the morning sun.
Winter shell
huddled in a ice white cacoon
I drink warmth from earth
ready to rise
with the coming dawn.
The Ferry Dock
In the delicate
Shadows of the pier,
Waves break around
Wooden posts.
Progressive Painting
If thats gonna be hills
then thats gotta be blue
Spring
Yellow lilies in a crystal creamer
Perfume the air.
Books lay open on a table.
Time is not here.
Wind Tides
The rush of wind bends trees almost in half.
Soon they will bend over backwards,
Flying their furious heads to the sky.
Gristle Fist
Gristle fist, gristle fist
Platypus Plunk,
Centipede, millipede, Ganymede,
Chunk!
Staff Meeting Prayer
My heart is impressed, experienced,
broken and healed strong
fused with the world
through the fire of passion,
connected to my mind
through my dreams.
Just Passing Through
Light travels through light;
air through air.
Sometimes we travel through each other
as if we weren’t there.
Larger Infinities
The bars of falling life
and the prison of the hermit,
Inside,
All of this in the rain outside
the garden,
green behind the bars.
Sunset on the luna sea
Leaves between you and me
Nothing but the right to be
And ripples drifting silently
Hitcha Scritcha Momba
Hitcha Scritcha Momba
A tomba tooberu
On her violin she did begin
and made a helluva hullabaloo.
A Silent Dream Movie
Hitler with a teaspoon
burying plastic animals
in a sandbox
The mumbling of tired old men
who can’t kill anymore.
A jangle of bones
tangled in flesh,
trying to push shape
into a cloud
Song from a dream
I’d rather be dancer down the street,
with broken glass and garbage cans
beneath my feet.
I’d rather be a painter or a devil.
Afternoon Walk
Sunlight falls in stripes
on the path
“The water is high today,”
she points.
“Look, this is where the children usually stand
and play with their dogs.”
Our Part of the Meal
We will carry
the bag of red and yellow cherries
up the hill from the ferry
with the watermelon
and the beer.
