“Night Walking” and other Poems of the Mornings

A daily practice of Kim Stafford-inspired writing of recollection, aphorism, and poem attempt has become one of centering in the early hours by the woodstove. After penning this day’s musing on reading Elizabeth Rush’s book, Rising, at the public library, I’m ready to put forward the first blog of 2020–braving a sampling of poem attempts and a scattering of aphorisms.

NIGHT WALKING (for my friend Jean)
Step into the dark forest
No flashlight
Feel the needled trail
Underfoot

Train your eyes
To accept the unseen
Soften into blindness
Awaken to sound

Muffled hoots
Great-horned owl above
Wind sussurrates pine boughs
Do the stars sing?

Aphorism: Not every bird that flies in the storm is a raven.

HUMMINGBIRD
One perfect snowflake
Balances on the tongue
Of a hummingbird
Who will bear witness
To this miraculous moment?

PUBLIC LIBRARY
Choose the comfy seat
By the bank of windows
Overlooking the leaning pine
As I read the book, Rising
This dismay of climate change

The man to my right
Chuckles once, twice, and three times
His book enviably humorous
I glance his way, taking in the grizzled beard

This pine angles over the parking lot
Defies gravity and chainsaw
I give a grateful nod
To the urban forester who let the great tree stand

Return to stories of
Flooding, catastrophe, and loss
In story prose I admire
When another man joins me

Whispers if he may sit on the other side.
Carries in the cold and snow
Clothes unlaundered, living rough
Book in hand

We face the window framing this
pine that leans over all of us
Trusting the tree
that does not yet fall

THIS BOY
This sky
These clouds
This chill
Find heat
In this love
My son
On summit
Waterworks Hill
Side by side
His steps
Match mine
For now
Always this boy
I love
The child
Flying kites
Chasing winds
With Luna
Our golden dog
Leaps high
Laughing, playing
Never coming
Down
Hard

Aphorism: Searching for what’s misplaced, lost, or stored, I open boxes of memory, spilling their contents.

ATTEND
Attend this full moon
Silvery light
Round and returning
Sky pearl

Attend this wilderness
Free flow
Tangled and turning
Self-willed

Attend this life
Ephemeral
Dancing and daring
Passage

Aphorism: Be Greta Thunberg.

PEPPER 
She sleeps by
The woodstove
Her head upon my
Crossed feet

Silky black ears
Warm velvet jaw
Cool nose
Amber eyes

Our petite lab
Four legs in repose
Floppy dog
Gentle breath

Who would think
She will race
The wind
Long tail flying?

FIONA
Dream I am the girl
in pigtails
Bold enough to be
Fiona Hill
Who put out flames
With her hand
After the boy
Sitting behind her in class
Set her hair on fire
And she kept studying.

GLIDE
Sea foam skims
The line of ocean
and sand
Gull finds glide
Sun slides
Into cloud horizon

Skate without ice
Ski without snow
Sled without hill
Run without seeing
Arms outstretched
Barefoot
Feel this lift
Rise into living

Aphorism: The full moon pulls the intertidal of our hearts.

DEGREES OF RAIN ON THE OREGON COAST
10 %
Mist spritzes face
In lavender spa

20%
Spatter like prancing dog
Kicking up heels

40%
Pulses of drenching
Sun flicker, rainbow sea

100%
Sluicing sideways
Puddling mud
Carving channels
Rain is the reign!

SANSKRIT
Wind upon the dunes
Hollows and sculpts
Drifts, cuts, edges, and swoops

Footsteps imprint
Until the next gust
Sweeps, bustles, hustles, and smoothes

Trace the calligraphy
Of wind Sanskrit
Ode to seabirds, mice, and the trotting fox

RIVER
I am the river
Of pool, drop, and pool
Cherish the rapids
And deep slow places
Soul love for
Pounding waves
And calm bays
This is who I am

WILD 
Cleanse my spirits
Wash away my worries
Kingfisher my desires
Merganser my dive
Heron my stillness
Where birds become verbs
The rivers are wildest

 

 

 

NEW YEAR
2020 yields our
Living room we
Painted coddled cream
And a wall of color called
Weathered wood

Dusting books
Pulling down art
Emptying china cabinet
Furniture pulled out
Paint splatters

From chaos
A new perspective
Arrange the couches
For a cozy nook
Around the woodstove
Why did we not see this before?

Drink hot cocoa and Baileys
In dainty china cups
Poured from the white porcelain
Pot from England
My grandmother emerges from the cabinet

Rearrange our thinking
Shuffle our tightly held cards
Believe in the America
That elects
Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren

Paint our living rooms
The colors
that warm
the winter
Of our hearts

DEER AT THE WINDOW
Mule deer eyes
Shadowy pools
Seeking shelter

Human eyes
Teary with loss
Ask forgiveness

Aphorism: Stay put in nature. Open senses to what comes by.

DETERMINATION FOR LIFE
Juniper twists and gnarls
Raises one living limb
Needled defiance
Roots muscle into
Lava rock
Finding secret soil and water

Coyotes yip across
The moonscape
Kinnick kinnick finds purchase
On ledges
Moss glows from a crevasse
Neon green lichen
Clasps driftwood
Last year’s flower
Gone to seed
Yields offerings

Two ravens fly over
Black obsidian colors
Like this lava

Find the one big grove of pines
This island in lava
Touch the wide bark plates
Of the 500-year-old ponderosa
Tilting upwards
Limbs tangled into brooms

Life corkscrews into rock
Persists
Reminds us
Nature does not give up
So easily

HATFIELD LAKE
Shoveler ducks winnow the waters
Beak the surface
Sort wheat from chaff

Mallards chortle
Quacking guffaws
Feather shakes spray diamonds

Cascade Mountains reflect in waters
Festooned with waterfowl
Partying rafts feather the day

Aphorism: Can writing call in the bird of my desire?

SISTER SOULMATE
Taste beauty
Touch joy
See sweetness
Breathe in love
Wild rose
Petaling perfume
Elixir always

WORD PLAY
Moon froths the milk
Of a hazy night

Wildness steams our senses
Kingfishers scrub the sky

Wake to words
Here by the woodstove heat
Exposed to possibility

WIND ON MT BACHELOR CHAIRLIFT
Gusts sideways
Blizzards our faces
In stinging snow
Skis chatter in grasping winds
Whippeting our bodies
I throw my arm
Around my son’s shoulder
“This is terrible!” I cry out
My son is my comfort
The one I watch over
Watches over me

TUNE
When the kingfisher tunes
Her flight to the river notes
She pauses mid flap
To adjust the glide

River steams by
Flinging frothy droplets
Mist rising into chilled air

Kingfisher never fizzles
Always sparkles
This river composer

Conductor of dippers
Orchestra attends her dive
All eyes on the bird

THE WORD FOR WORLD IS FOREST- URSULA K. LE GUIN
The word for world is
Forest
Is river
Is ocean

Is all that roots
Entwines, taps, surges
Supports life

Do not cut down the world

RAVEN
Raven lifts from the highest branch
Sends fresh snow blizzarding downwards
Flings forward on onyx wings
Neck feathers a muffler
Flies into gusty winds
Shoots the rapids
Rolls like a kayaker
Plays in storm

BATHING
Come to the river
Kingfisher dips her feathers
Preens until she gleams

Come to the river
Body sweating and
Hands rough with toil

Come to the river
Shed clothes and shoes
Plunge into freezing waters

Come to the river
Bathe with the kingfisher
Cleanse our spirits here

TWO FRIENDS
Two friends span
Their geographical canyon
With a suspension bridge
Of stories that sway
And fluctuate from the every day
To the mystical
Like walking in the night
Trusting the outstretched hand
Will be there

PEPPER #2
Curled up like a seed
Rested nose on tail
Paws tucked under
Black fur glossy
Morning pose

Seed snaps into action
Uncoils to leap
Over manzanitas
Flying in winds
To touch the earth
Only to bound again

Aphorism: Break trail through deep snow. To go first is to be ever the explorer.