Monday, January 27, 2014

Brainstorm

Meteorology of the mind.

  Brainstorm

First comes the freshening
breeze and the distant
thunder, then the random
drops before the flash of
light and pounding rain,
mostly runoff  for the
gutter, but some soaks
in until it finds and feeds
those long buried stones

which are really seeds. 

Monday, January 20, 2014

Call and Response

Here's an old, old poem of mine from my youth- one of the few I remember and like, although it's more abstract and allegorical than what I tend to write these days. (Yes, it's been a hectic week and nothing new occurred to me.)

Call and Response

I found myself
in a world of half-truths
that didn't add up.

I found you playing
on an abacus
as if it were a harp.

And when I asked you
for the answer,
you sang to me.

And when I asked again,

you stopped.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Polar Vortex

Another meteorological poem after some record breaking cold air moved down from the North.


    Polar Vortex      

All the Arctic air has
migrated to Manhattan
as if the Earth were lying
on its side. So the glaciers
melt while the Hudson freezes,
and New Yorkers watch for
flying reindeer near the new
North Pole in the Bronx.


Monday, January 6, 2014

Border State

Maryland was caught between the North and the South during the Civil War. It is also often right on the cusp of winter weather systems. These two thoughts came together during an early snow flurry that did not stick.

             Border State

The undecided snow falls as flakes
from the cold December sky but lands
like rain, melting as it touches the still
warm ground. A few degrees south of
a blizzard and north of a thunderstorm,
autumn makes a final stand against whatever
comes after, not too far from Gettysburg.