1.
This winter I’m seeing the naked trees
And remembering I will be sixty
Years old in November but I’m lucky
Because I don’t feel my age and because
Of my exercise I’m as spry as a
Teenager but I have wrinkles about
My eyes and I have memories also
And as I’m driving and seeing the bare
Branches of the trees overhanging the
Street I remember the cathedrals in
England I saw when I was a student
And realize that the stone tracery
In those churches are meant to represent
The graceful lines of trees in the winter.
I’m sometimes
surprised by
eyesight
memory
and insight.
2.
Nothing is like an onrushing cold for
Grabbing attention as I felt it in
My throat in my voice when I tried to speak
Especially in my nose which began
To run and mostly in my noggin which
Became seasick and then there were the times
When I rose from bed once the congestion
Had taken hold and my back and shoulders
Felt sore my head throbbed as I went to the
Rest room but there is a lighter side to
Getting sick as it took me out of my
Daily routine separating me from
The hamster wheel of doing the same things
Day after day exertion without thought.
Recovery’s not
quite like returning from a
vacation but it
is a rediscovery
of marvelous energy.
3.
A word carries a meaning and a string
Of words make a sentence carrying a
More composed meaning making a point that
May be worth remembering and saying
Hippopotamus makes me wonder why
This pell-mell collection of syllables
Is stuck to that creature because the word
Hippopotamus can’t be said primly
Or lackadaisily without losing
Dignity and if you’re serious when
You say hippopotamus you have to
Use a neutral inflection and also
The cadence should be a bit quicker than
An ordinary word — so be careful.
Usually I
don’t have to enunciate
hippopotamus
or also rhinoceros —
But when I do I’m ready.
4.
A crystal glass is weighty in my hand
With the liquid light of the sun and I
Drink and enjoy the water flow in my
Mouth and throat and inside of me with the
Taste of no taste that tastes like nourishment
Like health without anything extra and
Drinking doesn’t have to be something I
Do without noticing just as I make
The slightest effort drawing air in my
Nose and appreciate its expansion
Within my lungs and I can sense a wave
Of clarity throughout my body as
The persisting rhythms of life are like
Wind in the leaves and the waves on the sand.
I know the words
needed to find
direction and
then I savor
needing no words.
5.
I’m grateful for the asphalt because if
My driveway were gravel I’d be blowing
It away bit by bit and I’m happy
To have my sturdy snow blower because
No matter how prodigious the dump it
Plods along spewing the snow to the side
And I can swivel the direction of
The spray by turning a handle because
I don’t want to blow into a fierce wind
Because my face would get crusted with the
Snow and as long as the temperature
Stays well below freezing I’ll be OK
Because if the air is around freezing
The snow blower clogs and then I shovel.
It’s not much fun
thrusting away with
a loaded shovel
with snow sticking
to the metal.
6.
When the wind blows through the bare branches of
The trees on a morning in December
When there’s a chill rising from the snow on
The ground when the sky’s predominately
Cloudy with scattered stretches of blue there’s
A bleakness about the moment as the
Trees epitomize the absence of the
Sun as in stark nakedness they’re swaying
In a fierce wind that’s not leavened with the
Soothing sound of the leaves and yet there’s a
Warmth in my heart and a kind of austere
Beauty about this day that reminds me the
Sun’s not really absent life endures and
I discover fortitude in winter.
Suddenly there’s a
Pileated woodpecker
on the cottonwood
Striking the tree with its beak —
its scarlet head is lovely.
