From Dandelions Among the Roses

White Noise

Light flame dancing in the night,
Reflected from the window panes,
Illusions mirrored elusively
In bright mirages of the mind.
Like a glow above the shelf
Of the changing horizon,
Marking city incandescence,
Where the clink of laughing voices
Fills the dim and crowded rooms.
Empty life, revolving, muffled,
Touching is forbidden here.
Surface, glitter conversation,
Rebounds from the shimmering scene.
And if wanting, needing, caring
Steals into the spaces, hidden,
Dispersion soon destroys the feeling,
diluting it in smoke-filled air.
1975


Tiger Balm

I've never liked endings, farewells or goodbyes.
Though I know the winter follows autumn,
I long for summer green to be forever---
Scent of grass and honeysuckle,
Dandelions and yellow roses.

Circles are much better than straight lines.
I'll even settle for an ellipse or two.
Unbroken roundness like soft eyes.
Or, better yet, to feel a circle warm and strong
Of hands held tight
To be a part of infinite belonging.......

I've heard there are no beginnings to be had,
Unless you take an ending in the bargain.
Sold in pairs, I guess.
Still, I never liked goodbyes,
Standing there watching distance
Swallow up the warmth of closeness,
Leaving empty space behind in dusky, silent corners.
1979



..
Tonio Kroger and I are Friends

What happens when you don't quite fit?
Whatever do you make of it? Having pushed, shoved and pried,
Your square peg once again denied
A place inside
The round and tidy human mold,
Safety in the common fold.

How often have you sat alone
Gazing at a telephone
That never rings with invitations
For light and laughing conversations.....

Does there come a time at last
When you accept the die that's cast,
To take your solitary stroll,
Quiet peace within your soul?

Knowing that you've tried to share.
Knowing that you've always cared.
Perhaps that makes some sense of it,
Even if you didn't fit.
1981


Corner

She draws herself
Inward
Looking
Downward.

Keeping in or keeping out,
Both are the same,
They mean
Alone.

1981




Put 'er There Pal

The cat and the rat
On a hilltop sat,
Together surveying the scene.
Said the rat to the cat:
"Isnt't it lovely that
I always know just what you mean."
The cat purred on with a fiendish gleam
In the corners of her eyes.
Said the cat to the rat
Most purposefully that:
"Our relationship you can surmise,
is one of mutual admiration,
so I have every expectation
that you and I will utilize
our brilliant attributes to gain
all we hope soon to attain."

The cat and the rat
On a hilltop sat,
When a storm began to brew.
The cat looked hungrily at the rat,
And pounced without much ado.
To herself she smiled and switched her tail:
"I must go before it rains-
ah, that stupid rat hadn't a clue,
that I always look after my sweet self first.
Alas, rat, I'll get along without you!"

1984



Morning Silk
(With Best regards to Carl Sandburg)

White fog drifts above the fields,
Nestling in patches of Queen Anne's Lace.
White and pure the silken dawn
Lights a pale and silent world
Of brush and grasses half-obscured
In sleepy blankets made of mist.

Against the dark streak of the road
A white cat springs from sumac depths,
Then leaps with swift and startling grace
Across the gently curving lane,
Returning to become as one
In the softly waiting arms
Of white, engulfing fog.

1984