On the gravel drive, a sleek-skinned slug
moving slowly, antennae swiveling about.
A bumble bee, flying along side me as I run
its wings moving a thousand times faster than my feet.
Horses in the pasture, does at the edge of the woods,
a new fawn, thrushes, blackbirds on the wire and
buttercups by the armful strewn
across the fields.
This is my prayer, my alter here,
to move among this tall clover,
to run one foot after the next,
and to take note of this always and again
blooming glorious day
Summer Poems
certain things keep on in their own fashion without us /
I don’t know how to reclaim any kind of balance now and so this is what I do instead: I list the day, one thing after the next.
The white herons, a pair, that fly overhead as I drive on a flood closed road, water licking at the front door of a white house the whole first floor a marshland spilling across rugs, abandoned furniture, things left as the water continued to rise.
The lake is engorged, spilling across the causeway washing over the sand bags that are stacked like prayers heavy and hopeful in the hands of men.
After the herons a V of geese confuses me, flying northward several dozen in formation, their long necks like compass needles while elsewhere geese have goslings now; grey and yellow like the tornado threatening clouds that came and went, lightening splitting the sky like an over-ripe fruit, and thunder that made the picture frames clatter.
I’m always on the lookout for the way things will turn out next: the yellow dog, Butters, bounding to greet us; the cat who waits at the door bringing mice; the grasshoppers starting to saw away at their summer song in the fields where grass grows taller than ever, taller than a two year old child’s head, even though the corn still waits, and the garden waits unplanted save for last season’s volunteers: tomatoes always find a way back, and lettuces without explanation; certain things keep on in their own fashion without us.
It is enough to simply notice this /
