4 x 6

felt in my time
sad in so much
the mortar paste
flow-dried in the
cranny chinks of
satisfaction

A Lease Fulfilled

My
Batteries were dying
The chatter was sliding
The shadows untying
The balance relying
The stingray devising
The husks browner drying
The black hole refraining
The alley cats wailing
For a lease was expiring
But you were not
Waiting
Nor
I

For Jānis/John Vilums, March 2006

Two names
1 man
Two lands
1 home
Two tongues
1 sense
Two tones
1 song
Two eyes
1 vision
Two hands
1 heart
Ten fingers of
changing lengths
To sure
count
and
recount
the
many
fern flowers
of
Jāņi
that
gracefully
blaze
upward
as the
quiet
Daugava
flows
knowing
Rīgas Jūras Līcis
is ever
sooner
so
nearer
so
freer than
an
oak-lined
Scioto
or
a grey-foamed
Baltijas Jūra.

al-Manàkh Mac Brìghde (tree-friendlier)

Free-verse poets know more or less
rigmarole plays with no less rhyme
nor reason’s strict glances
over fields of furrowed time and time again

===========

Let my people go people this and that generation
That assembly ekklesia that work leitourgia
that I know mine
them
then they are gone

===========

Argon decays not the hot filament
Inert around the 6th the 9th until near
the 11th hour the 11th day
the ancient mid-Brighdeal martial month
leads in founders seekers keepers reapers

==========

Oh leading element
oh far-seeing son of the servant of Brighde
common-sense uncommon-tongued
servant of Cill-Dara Church of the Oak
whence even now pilgrim petals droop
in-pedaling shape-shifting dogwood lattice
bow down and shoutest that

===========

You who may and can not re-verse your songs
And the bricks and the walks and the open arches
Shall echo on and on
You freer gone

al-Manàkh Mac Brìghde

Free-verse
poets
know
more or less
rigmarole
plays with
no less
rhyme
nor
reason’s
strict
glances
over
fields
of
furrowed
time
and
time
again

===========

Let my
people
go
people
this
and
that
generation
that
assembly
ekklesia
that
work
leitourgia
that
I
know
mine
them
then
they
are
gone

===========

Argon
decays not
the hot
filament
Inert
around
the 6th
the 9th
until near
the 11th
hour
the 11th
day
the ancient
mid-Brighdeal
martial month
leads in
founders
seekers
keepers
reapers

==========

Oh leading
element
oh
far-seeing
son of
the
servant of
Brighde
common-sense
uncommon-tongued
servant of
Cill-Dara
Church of the Oak
whence
even now
pilgrim
petals
droop
in-pedaling
shape-shifting
dogwood
lattice
bow down
and
shoutest
that

===========

You
who
may
and
can
not
re-verse
your
songs
and
the bricks
and
the walks
and
the
open
arches
shall
echo
on
and
on
you
freer
gone

Colombeins ed Padus e San Loreins

Pilgrim pedals drop
Shifting currents shape their way
Dogwood leaves shout out

LAF Talk

History's blooming
Narrative widens each breathe
Flowers into light

In al cor ed Rèz

O Po river strand
Damp fog banks over hedge rows
At salôt arşân

Looking down a pilgrim-road

Once a grade-school boy
Waiting for life
to find him in
my mother’s kitchen
“You know, your father
needs your help
out-back,” she said.
He tripped
Down the porch steps
Toward the growling
Garage.

===========

Sometimes
In those days
On a morning
It was his turn to acolyte
He listened to the birds
As I walked down the alley
Toward the side-street
To the church

============

Children’s chapel
Bite the apple
Cain and Able-bodied
Fix the candles
Any angle
Age, school birthday rangle

============

Gabe shuffles the cards
“One hand and then our lesson.”
Patty’s photos
Of
white-walled
Churches against the blue, blue
Sky
Who lights the candle
“Who
Brought
the powdered
doughnuts?”

=============

White Lake sun
Clear thru to the bottom
Cut
the cards
again
Waffles and eggs
Carawinds begs
To float or ride
upward

=============

Ann is here
Catalina there
Gabe is on the call
Bo steps up
To
For
Ryan
Raleigh
Quovanda
MacKenzie
Jessica
Graham
Ryan
Grayson
Whitt
Auriel
Shannon

===========

Movin’ up
Slip and sliding
Acolyting
Still calls
Down the hall
Donna
Becky
Michael
Gregg
To play
To pray
To ask
To beg

===========

And
Now
The
North
Country
Deeper
Into
Where
We’ve
Been
And
Then
Some
He
Had
Seen

===========

On the road ahead
The pilgrims carry
The load
Within
On
Their
Way
Out
Of
Where
They’ve
Been

==========

Amen

Dawn’s Anthem-Question

Ocek can you see
the road way round the next bend
yearning for your step

For a Reading by Alyse

Words in bloom leg in
Cast let's its true attractions
Split infinitives