Tag: poetry

  • clearing sky–
    cherry petals lying blown
    upon the asphalt–
    what have you taught us
    except to fall, and fall, and fall?

    published in American Tanka #16

  • Backlash

    One thing follows another,
    as sure as teeth mesh
    with teeth, the pinion turns the gear,
    the axle drives the wheel and the world
    tumbles forward on its pivot:
    Some things are reversible,
    allowing for the unavoidable backlash,
    a little play, a wiggle in the works,
    a slap in the gears, the jerk of each car
    as the train gets underway,
    the taking up of slack
    and the moment
    just before reversal,
    the holding of breath, the gasp,
    the lash, the slop, the stop.… Story continues … “Backlash”

  • Chamber Music Society

    The rosin dust on the violinist’s
    oldest violin is white,
    like the chalk beneath the words
    where children learn to write
    the equations that will define
    the arcs and angles of their work.
    Rosin is the trace of a hundred
    thousand notes, silent, no spark
    remaining but the sense that all
    has come to rest: the scratches
    on the indestructible stands,
    the shabby folding chairs, matches
    in the composer’s tweedy pocket.… Story continues … “Chamber Music Society”

  • My haiku in Heron’s Nest.

    Calder sculpture;
    a single brown leaf tumbling
    from the sky

    published in The Heron’s Nest VIII.2, June 2006

    This is my first published haiku outside of tinywords.