A Selection of Poems

Epiphanies
I am afraid of the glassed perfective,
The mannequin stance, the face impassive
Of the never-awed, the caged, impressive dead.
I am afraid of the shut, the unreflective,
The hollow and public head.
I am in love with Sappho aging,
With Tu Fu exiled, white head verging
Upon the banquet dish expunging death.
I am in love with epiphanies uncaging
The heart from private flesh.

To Signal How We Know
Our local rosy finch ascending solo from this garden
Each noonday perches comfortably secure
Upon our alley phone-poles lightest wire.
We dare assume he rests there unaware
Of messages that surge along the wire he rests upon.
Other messages there are that also can transpire
Wordless and with not one outward sign
To signal what to us is known and how we surely know.
Securely we rejoice in sharing all those moments when
Your eyes salute my eyes in one shared glow.

(photo by L. D. Clark)