Poem #3-2013 Rosemary's Hike

Rocky promontory
Natural seating
Whittier pond 700 feet below
The white dots? Ducks
Great and Long Pond in the distance
...and mountain peaks
Turkey vulture soaring gracefully -- eye level
(buzzard is a vulgar term)
Fragrance of new buds
Titmouse crying cheerfully
Calming hum of a passing plane
Whispering branches
All this . . .
ALL OF THIS!

And you had to go and die this morning



                                               Submitted to dversepoets.com for Open Link Night #94

Poem #2-2013 A Spring Day in Academe

With thanks to Gary Snyder for
Four Poems for Robin/A spring night in Shokoko-ji

Last year at this time
I was a whole human being
Teaching (or trying to) at university.
All I knew at that time
Seems lost to me now, except feelings.
Sitting here in class
In my "professor's chair"
I hear voices telling me I can't
And I think about what it's like
To be incomplete.





                                    Submitted to dversepoets.com for Open Link Night #91

Poem #1-2013 The Boundless Blackness of Heart

Until you've planned your own demise
Until you've been locked away
Until you've been "checked on" every 15 minutes 24 hours a day for a week
Until you're not allowed to have shoelaces or a belt or a pen
Until you're told what you can and cannot watch on TV
Until you've seen insanity firsthand
Until you've had your brain chemistry fucked with by doctors who are, at best, "experimenting"
Until you've looked into the boundless blackness of your own heart

Until all of that . . . and more (unmentionably dark more)
Do not expect to understand my suffering

Submitted to dversepoets.com for Open Link Night #90