Orion Rising

Rexroth didn't exaggerate-
When some errand
Took me to the street at 5AM
There he was rising full splendor
In the east-
The great celestial hunter ORION-
I staggered backward
From the sheer spectacle of him,
"The most impressive sight
In all the universe....."

haiku

The heatwave made it
Far too hot for carpentry
We worked anyway


Next to the red barn
Long pools of morning rain
Shine in the cornrows


Riding the ski-lift
Alone
Through ribbons of snowdust


Obituaries-
Knowing someday
The name is yours


After dinner
She snaps the gingham tablecloth
Out the backdoor


The dog to whom
Table scraps were slipped-
Never forgets you


Next the Thrift Store racks
She holds a gingham sundress
To herself laughing


Already she's asked
For a sign
From "the other side"            /TR's deathbed


Big arm bruise:
I've no idea
How


On the log-truck
Still rimed with snow:
Giant Sequoias


Trailing clouds of dust
Kids chase a blue-ribbon goat
Loose in the duck pens                      /Nevada County Fair


After he perished
We found his stash
Behind the Britannica                   /Chuck D.

Improvement?

     Americans seem possessed by an irresistible urge to improve everything: to streamline all scenarios: to make its world faster, wider, more convenient, ever-more productive.  It greatly admires engineering & technology, that tirelessly tilt at the windmills of time & space.
       But along comes the poet: that marginal, raffish soul with the silly question, "what's wrong with the world as it is?  Why make a straight race out of every curve & feature, in love with expedience, why take all the personality out of the landscape so that where you arrive (so quickly) looks no different from the one you departed? Why compress time to the point it chases you?"  And then he adds the familiar question posed by poets down the ages: "in this haste to manufacture ever-greater wealth for ourselves, have we glossed & trampled a less tangible and less measurable wealth, an indulgence of sunlight & morning breezes, of bird-frolic and the easy laughter of friends?

Kool-Aid

Ten thousand Muslims
Knelt & bowing in a vast circle:
Nothing frightens me more
Acted out in venues
Through vast tracts of space & time:
The human being born Free
And discerning
Selling it all for some formidable belonging:
This poison peril
-No matter its name or nation-
Called groupthink