In Klawock stands seven totems
and a madman, chanting under ebon skies
he is embedded in the cedar wood, he is connecting worlds
a master carver, of language without words
of the raven clan, he is tracing ancestry in the wood
seeking the old ways of eagle, wolf and bear
born of water, amid the realms of earth and air
his spirit runs with salmon.

In Klawock stands seven totems
and a madman, chanting under ebon skies,
embedded in cedar wood, he is connecting two worlds
a master carver, in a language without words.
Born of the raven clan,
he is tracing ancestry in the wood
seeks the ways of wolf and bear.
Born of water, amid the realms of earth and air
his spirit runs with salmon.

Bright chartreuse edged, magenta flowers, with lavender
just beyond in the bee fields of summer, thousands of seeds, days spilling over
planted in early autumn rains, to wait again, dotted in red rows of poppies.

Today no clouds will come
only purple mountains glow, before the sun
beyond these fragrant hills, I wander
watching hawks and sparrows
til the golden day slips away
and I am lost between the space
of night and day, and lose all trivial words
and think how glorious
to be a bird

Today - it came suddenly, like rain it came in sheets, stormy without warning
it left nothing to repair, no way to undo the longing, swift we fell, fumbling
as you flew far, forever and gone  
with no one to find you
again at your home

Somehow I felt you smiling or knew you'd be laughing,
dancing in daisies, barefoot and singing Sinatra
on the other side, sweetly
by now

My bed of stone polished cold
wintery bones no sleeping
Abandoned - thirsty on the vine
lips of wine to dine me drinking
Kissing fools and lovers,
my passion plays, go dreaming
Still your body next to mine
my soul is silence screaming

I looked into the center
into the circles of gradient color
the pollen, sun gold anthers
sepals green, holding close the petals
smooth stemmed, impossible heavy heads
beautifully in rings around trees
the honey sweet blossoming spring
busy with new born bees
that fly in fragrant dream
discovering lilies bright as sun
watching bees with flowers become one.

When you came from mountains
came washed from seas
you gave me words
told me everything
like two birds or flowers
blooming in the Spring
the green of everything
soft and mossy dream
it spoke of love
told me everything
when you came
gentle, sweet with rain
not an ordinary day
the way you came
and told me everything.

Moon winds pretend to know me
clouds steal the sky away
never knowing my name
Remove the veil
what game            
night stars
play

Moon winds pretend to know me
clouds steal the sky away
never knowing my name
only a diaphanous veil
what game            
night stars
play

Moon winds pretend to know me
clouds steal the sky away
never knowing my name
Remove the veil
what game            
night stars
play

Tonight the wind
the pouring rain through trees
hiss and whistle of kettle
water poured for tea
the lashing winter willows
this coal, dark storm that blinds
and hides away your face
and any trace of moon.

Tree, I have come to shelter and with the rain to weep
I am soaked, barefoot, with mud running through
soft the moss, cool and cold
to soothe my heart that bleeds.
Our waxing nights of love and moons
now fallow, a field that burns
****** our hollow bed
of haunting, silent screams
too soon the fiery devil
too far my lover
the spring.

Tree, I have come to shelter and with the rain to weep
I am soaked, barefoot with mud running through
soft the moss, cool and cold
to soothe my heart that bleeds.
Our waxing nights of love and moons
now fallow, a field that burns
****** our hollow bed
of haunting, silent screams
too soon the fiery devil
too far my lover
the spring.

Tree, I have come to shelter and with the rain to weep
I am soaked, barefoot with mud running through.
Soft the moss, cool and cold
to soothe my heart that bleeds.
Our waxing nights of love and moons
now fallow, a field that burns.
****** our hollow bed
of haunting, silent screams
too soon the fiery devil
too far my lover
the spring.

Deathly quiet all the sky, distant black, pitching
birds, sudden screeching turns, disappearing
windows rattled, beneath banging shutters
awaiting the pain of centrifuge
a house, like glass to shatter
shards of cutting winds

I am looking at maps, constellations and planets
plotting routes to drive, to hike this country
seems I would stagnate and die
were I to stay put all of the time
my eyes scale topographies
like braille, my fingers feel
the green of flowering fields
the rain running down hills
always I dream of skies
I envy birds flying over
in cities, I don't seem to settle
pace this floor, a caged animal
daydream of wilderness walks,
spending nights watching stars fall
the heavenly peace of it all.

Love lost
such cost drowning in seas
Waves flooding, some wading
tides to recede
Wash over
troubles, waters run free
to float, touch clouds
we hope
Smooth sailing, dead calm
we'll drift, waves lift
to carry us
home

From the high cliffs a rugged landscape swept, dropping to the sea
windy clouds, gray rain soaking tiny flowers, waiting for the sun
smokey town so far off, walking farther on

A weathered, rocky place high above this world, climbs a path to stars
with twinkling eyes of sky, where night collides with sea
a traveler, seeking refuge from the shallows
rests her head, soft upon a grassy pillow

A warm wind to caress, sails away the day
drifts quietly her dreams - slipping underwater
where seaweed clings, to pearly rings of sleepy siren's bells
in echoing shells no darkness dwells
in the heart of forgiveness

Breath of life, it is a wild ocean
always a tide coming and going
in this place, it does not linger long
never holding on, only drifts quietly into night
into stars, into fleeting sparks of fire flies
or in the night waters, a ghostly glow
of phosphorescence, a transient trail
of luminescence that soon
fades and reappears to light
the deepest depths
of sea

Wind shadows blow swift
cool smokey air lifts
clouds of dream, adrift
that come and go

Iridescent wings, sing
crows of summer
a ****** in winter,
a frozen mirror,
melting in
Spring

Emerging greens, soiled leaves
grow skyward
to the sun

Blossomy buds have sprung
with fallen petals on the ground
fading into earth
changing forms
that can't be
found

Wind shadows blow swift
cool smokey air lifts
clouds of dream, adrift
that come and go

Iridescent wings, sing
crows of summer
a ****** in winter,
a frozen mirror,
melting in
Spring

Emerging greens, soiled leaves
grow skyward
to the sun

Blossomy buds have sprung
with fallen petals on the ground
fading into earth
changing forms
that can't be
found

It's like an Arctic wind, a bitter cold hovering
piercing, icy lunged we breathe the hollows in
A dense fog surrounding time, trapping
moments like hours, waiting the days like years
spilling over one another, waiting like a flower
to open in the sun.

I cannot remember, only I can feel the empty chill of steel
sometimes, colored ghosts of autumn whisper in the shadows
that I follow, to take me far from home

Today with sun or clouds and all the bluest skies
a truth revealed, and I awakened to a madness of lakes and rivers,
spilling over - to flood, a place
within

So swift the night will come, soon to leave this home
darkness winds a long road on
and still the sun will come

Never run swift and away
leaving without words
never go fast my love, escaping on far off trains
only to ride all of your days, gone from me
arriving in places foreign and sad
left waiting empty
traveling ever lonely
on and on

Redolent rain
steel train
streak of blue
racing through
night lands
rainy window
sallow moon glow
no reservation
nor hesitation
time to travel
some things
to unravel
go looking
unhooking
my mind
drift into peace
float in my seat
high in the sky
sweet sighs
to feel again
finally
understand
there is
no plan
only
a dream
within
a dream
to feel
a life time
so surreal.

Looking at apples, my mouth of juice
longing to taste one delicious bite
I stand under this tree
for days

I climbed many a splintered fence
saw you from a great distance
sturdy branches, your arms
leafy crown of thorns
and charms

In trees where ravens fly
from blackest skies
to shelter storms
days of clouds
and cruel raining winds
where even strongest branches falter

Only a desert of blowing dust
a junk yard of weathered metal rust
the brutal blare of scorching sun
the cold of winter's raining snow
an ever changing, tricky season
a killing storm without reason
only a metaphor to explore
the hot and cold - of you
that I deplore.

A merry forest pig was he
he woke up very early and hunted until three
snorting, sniffing, the air he's whiffing
never is he ruffled, only focused on his truffles
He goes **** rumping
grunt, grunting for truffle - O's!

Wild he runs and trots the greeny forest
with a jolly jig he wriggles and digs
his cloven hooves moving dirt like lightening
hunt, hunting for truffle - O's!

When at last he finds his gourmet morsels
a squeal is heard and fly the birds
clear from the forest, a happy hog
a squealing song of treasures found, his beloved
Truffle - O's!

This sacred mountain
holds me ever close
this trail fat with hope
to whom I've finally
told the truth

In this city house amid the screaming sirens,
here in the whirling of paper and garbage
I hear the banging of trucks over broken roads,
low rider stereos, their deep boomed, throaty moans.
Here in this strange forest that flies with cactus birds
alluringly they sing in secret symphonies,
before the howling chorus of coyote calls,
the rising magnetic moon, a mountain flower
pink blushed that fully blooms.

Our eyes met
softly, fluttered danced
and perhaps again
shall never meet
still, twas love
miraculous
beautiful
thing

Our days
like pearls come
ever from darkness, sprung
we've come in human form
twas always
always love

Your eyes are polished amber stones
gold flecked, honey brown
a warm spring of waterfalls
our love, a whispering river call
we, a silhouette of wild birds
winging amid a
softened world

Bird wings, sing
song's sweet play,
gone - the rains washing
Hawk glides the sky stalking
talons piercing prey
dark the skies
they fall away
two birds
one dying

Two maple trees
sun dappled window leaves
doves awake my dream
mourning breathes the air
breezy robes caress
green leaves
singing

In Uganik Bay that year the sun never set
I walked the long greening path to the dock
fireweed taller than I shooting summer's sky
Warmth of sun bringing lazy lily's leaning
Little waves splashed breaking cerulean blue
I waited the mail plane, pontooned it flew
Lulling oceans smooth you landed
with eyes that sailed me far-off island stranded
next to you
Float plane to carry us edging mountains, snowy, jagged
Dall sheep, perched asleep precariously rocky hung
Kodiak bears forded rivers we circled streaming on
Deep black kettle ponds no man to touch
snowy patches amid viridian lush
frozen, not to melt
our treasured days of flying
We met again at Hatcher's pass
with hearts to break as fragile glass
a part of love undying

Moss and moon-green Spring
fully bloomed, the dogwood trees
our breath mingles ever in the ethers
a place where sweet the soul will dwell
and shall not die nor wither

Crocus flowered violet grass
scented sweet pink hyacinth
yellow primrose metamorphosis
inhale we drink and can never think
only lose ourselves
deep in fragrant amnesia

Until beyond this meadow
when day recedes into night
and the scarlet sky of purple blues
is swallowed once more by
the molten, pearl moon

Here we sleep under star flowers
a flash of meteor showers
our room a fire light - full bloom
sigh and breath of moon
we travel nights like this
in a sky of sparkling jewels
swim and dream, float
in shimmering pools.

gentle water ripples
snow of falling flower petals
soft the landing of your lips
we merge like clouds in dream
become one, learn to breathe in sync

It was a dreamer's day that spun me visually undone
in cloudless skies of wild blue, beneath a basking sun
I drove the mountain road, where flowers bloom wildly to the sky
lupines, lilies, of twinkling starry hills
tallest summer grass, wildflower entwined
with deer to rob such beauty blind
with an other worldly view, I climbed and climbed
leaving all darkened, lowly thoughts
so blotted from my mind

It was as if they wrote only to set us free,
never thinking twice about the landing or flight,
plowing dirt fields, with scores of prose, in sorrow and delight.
In a room of sun, where seasons come
with snow and rain, and none will ever be the same,
long after the reading, and none will ever know the poet's name
or why the words have opened wide
their buried hearts
to grieving.

Just the sound of rain on the tree leaves
your voice there on the line
Just a love note I'm waiting to weave
a sacred path to unwind
Just my heart unraveling a daydream
a sorrow felt undefined

I could no longer see the sky, stars all blackly veiled, senses numbed
in the gathering storm, a smokey room void of living breath
choked the night air, gasping
consternation of a dark wilderness
a sad vanishing note, played
unrecognizable

There is no river winding, trickles splash, vanish
silty waters stone cold, gone
glacial icy blues fading fast
recede deep into
our past
soon recalling
nothing
not even our
breath

This is the shadowed imprint, the trace left
ice melt and sea drift of time erased
soft-shod footfalls once apace
this ancient path we travel by
wild with beasts, fledgling trees
of downy wings
we cry, learn to fly
stay awake to see the night
how light penetrates
moon tangled through trees
our souls to illuminate
stars light the way
carry us ever further away
once per chance, never again
until morning