Site Content

 Selected poems 

Glass Trees
My trees are glass
clad in ice...
Breaths of wind
cause twigs to ring out
like a hundred singing triangles

A cut of sun melts
their clothes...
'Til they are naked,
as eager tongues of warmth
lap up the bitter tasting moisture

A gush of wind and
the glass bodies...
sway in unison, shake off
clinging drops 'til they are dry
as sand and cold as the winter sun

And my glass trees
shatter into
morsels of dust

Lev And Sonya

They would not let her -
Would not let -
Would not-
Let her comfort him
As he lay dying
In a railroad station
Like his Anna but not severed
They would not let her -
Whose fingers untangled his prose -
Whose body bore fourteen children -
And he died wanting her

While outside
In peasant clothes -
Face pressed against the window
She said farewell
As greedy disciples stole his words -
Her children's heritage -
Because he would own nothing

Shadows

I see you standing there so frail
And I reach out to touch you but I fail
Perhaps it was a shadow that I saw
Underneath a branch of sycamore...

A bird that's flying to its dreams?
Not you, not you, it seems
My sight grows dim and my eyes fail
Is that a boat asea or just its waving sail?

No longer can I tell the shadow from the man
The distant shapes are difficult to scan
I also had a dream so long ago
So many hopes now buried in the snow

Was it you who left me in my prime?
Or was it I deserted you before your time?
You were grown up, I did not wish to smother
I thought how well we knew each other

And then we drew apart in space and mind
To distances so wide they left me blind
Shall we now turn and walk and meet?
And find each other in the common street?

 Bitter Rain

When love comes bounding down the hill
And smells of earth and bitter rain
The petals of a daffodil
Press on my palm a yellow stain
I will remember you again

And as you cross the raging stream
Swollen from the melting snow
You sense in my dispersing dream
What you and I will always know
Our love will never staunch its flow

Though now you tread a different path
Through scalded meadows and burnt pine
I hope you'll dissipate your wrath
And toss away the bitter brine...
And share with me a glass of wine

Eva

It was the first time
Eva had ever seen the ocean...
Her feet clutching dry sand
Her eyes trembling,
Speckled with ocean lights,
As Hokusai waves
Scrolled into high breakers,
And smashed, gashed into foamShe followed me into the sea
As spent waves looped around our feet,
Watching as I knelt
To pick up fragments of shells
And stones bright with wetness.
She nudged silvery shells with her toes
Until they rose up out of the sand.

I gave her a perfect scalloped shell
To bring back to Poland.
Exultant, she ran along the curve of the sea
Until she was a distant figure
Tall against a white sky, like a Masai warrior.

Ophelia And Virginia

A sliver of light
Drips pigment into the River.
A woman with garlands of
Nettles and daisies in her hair
Lies down and floats as her clothes
Drink the water,
Then she sinks.

A woman with silky stones
In her pocket walks
'Til whirls of water
Cover her head,
And petals of Rosemary,
Rue, and Columbine
Dapple the surface.

And willows on the bank wonder
At images of themselves
Dancing a jig in the water
While two men 400 years apart
Mourn.