I
1 Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us ...
2 Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent ...
3 Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient ...
4 Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,
5 But nothing happens.
6 Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire.
7 Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.
......
O camp of flowers, with poplars girdled round,
Gray guardians of life's soft and purple bud!
O silver spring, beside whose brimming flood
My pensive childhood its Elysium found!
O happy hours by love and fancy crowned,
Whose horn of plenty flatteringly subdued
My heart into a trance, whence, with a rude
And horrid blast, fate came my soul to hound!
Who was the goddess that empowered you all
Thus to bewitch me? Out of wasting snow
......
I've got to tell you
how I love you always
I think of it on grey
mornings with death
in my mouth the tea
is never hot enough
then and the cigarette
dry the maroon robe
......
Some thought she had slipped, the plank
glazed slick with ice, or maybe
already cold beyond care,
drowsy and weary, bare feet
tempting a creekbed's promise
of sleep, though she struggled out,
her trail a handprint of stars
rising toward a dazzle of white
where sun and snow met. They found
her homespun dress, underclothes,
......
January brings the snow,
makes our feet and fingers glow.
February brings the rain,
Thaws the frozen lake again.
March brings breezes loud and shrill,
stirs the dancing daffodil.
April brings the primrose sweet,
......
Peaceful is the dusk
When snow is softly falling
And ruby sun's just faded
Snowy hills beckon
to eager ones, sledding soon
in the gladsome days of youth!
deep snows have fallen
and the firs are weighted down ~
beneath blue sky sun
I was talking to my solitary self again, grumbling how life held no adventure,
And my parrot, Cherry, often echoed me, as moon echoes golden splendors.
She'd ruffle her feathers and preen, as she perched redly upon my shoulder,
As the sun perches redly in the mahogany west, in its hour of dusky smolder.
Cherry was used to my frequent griping, like flowers are accustomed to rain,
Bringing chaos along with sweet relief, like wisdom that can come from pain.
I lived in a small town in southern Alabama, and it was the place I was born,
......
The very fact of being alive, often causes one to seek adventure;
And sometimes it is no deterrent, when it carries traces of danger.
I was not a seasoned survivalist, but very much loved the outdoors,
Like varicolored flowers of summer, that are theirs mine and yours!
The red robins enthralled me, chanting down the brass sunny days,
In the way of the wild and free ones, adapted to their warm ways.
My friends were very like me, for we had many matching interests,
......
Rapidly down the mountainside,
The pure powdery snow spraying!
Nearer to vast sapphire skies,
And long ere a perplexed purple.
Bracing winds travel from afar,
And carelessly tousle the hair,
Long after the mists of orange,
In the treasured golden noon,
On the other side of the moon!
Enormous speeds are attained,
......