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Passage Poems: #8

A flow of fresh air fell into your field–– the open door, a portal to things abandoned but not forgotten. Breeze calls the tree limbs home, slanting shade into your slipstream, sunlit, warm and worn. This journey’s craft banks broadly, traversing the low and languorous byway, the last stop before oblivion. Breath holds its pattern [...]

Passage Poems: #7

Attics are awful places, Teeming with dust, dirt, forgotten faces, When I enter, bent double, the uncertain floor Feels false and I want to run Away. Such things collected, here and there, Brought to the edge of narrow spaces We force our lives through, shafts of light Betray openings in history that close In solitary [...]

Notes From a Pandemic: August 13th, 2021

Greetings, dear friends of the present and curious citizens of the future. When I got vaccinated back in the spring, I thought I was done with the COVID-19 pandemic, at least personally. Well, as it turns out, the pandemic wasn’t done with me! The vaccines, we were told, were our ticket out of the months [...]

Passage Poems: #6

Absent rings and broken trees, We’ve got our fair share of these. Empty seats and missing words, Taking flight they’re all a blur. When we recall the fall and all the lightened thing within us stalls. When we replant this hymnal rant our next most precious thing just can’t. Separate strides and rotting leaves, We’ve [...]

Passage Poems: #5

Three hundred pounds of geodes, Brought back from wilderness, Each with its own secret, Some savory, some sweet, Some blatant, some discrete. Cut them open, one by one, Spill Earth’s contents, cut and run, Build a map of what you found, Out there, Give nature’s mystery a new home, Shut away, Hidden from everyone but [...]

Passage Poems: #4

Safety scissors, paper scraps, Fleeting faces, torn up maps, If you cut me out of this, I’ll be friendly, you won’t miss. Stuffed up kitties, paper skin, All these faces look like kin, If you say what you would like, Loneliness will never strike. Sunlit shadows, end of day, Caught you thinking, go away, If [...]

Passage Poems: #3

Language is a brushing broom, Sweeps intent and dusts desire, When it first reaches us, so far away, Yet within, the only force we know, Rushing forth from cradle’s cover. Language is a learning lamp, Gathers fuel and sets ablaze, Dark discoveries of limit and loss, Every chance of loyalty and love, Empty echoes on [...]

Passage Poems: #2

When I was a boy, my heart broke double, Splintered edges and rough tools, The smell of home made strange, The sound of love distorted, Underwater, Drowned. When I was a boy, that same sound saved me, Caught me in calm moments, Made me whole again, fleetingly, As I waited to be dragged, Underwater, Drowned. [...]

Passage Poems: #1

When you go, get gone with grace, Meeting wind, earth, cool and calm, Be light, like you showed me, Cast your crooked smile and disappear. When you go, fill up that space, Churning memory, identity, bits and bobs, Be you, like you showed me, Your ever and only one last time. When you go, take [...]

Notes From a Pandemic: March 21st, 2021

Greetings, dear friends of the present and curious citizens of the future. Yesterday, March 20th, marks the one-year anniversary of Humboldt County’s original shelter in place order. Today, March 21st, marks the one-year anniversary of my first pandemic journal. So I thought it would be a good time to check in and share some updates [...]