SPRING COMES SLOWLY Spring comes slowly in these parts ~            Like an old woman in the produce aisle,            hungry for new asparagus and fiddleheads            suspicious of bright strawberries            too soon, too soon Spring comes slowly […]

THE  LYRICS OF SPRING   Melting. The thick crust of winter      that crystallized life      holding it captive Is broken. In its place run      splashing veins of ice water Between the rocks Along the paths All singing their freedom In voices that challenge     the pounding of the sea. […]

  The Moon to Her Godchild                      On the birthnight of her seventh year the child, Selene, has escaped to the tree-circled pond where she and her namesake meet.  Tonight she finds a gift of twisted silver, kneeling, immerses her arm to receive it, circlet of light, […]

FULL MOON NIGHT  last night the full moon rose like a silver island anchored in a moody sea of cloud, first calm, then storming bright lighthouse, clear signal, safe haven, tall highland last night the full moon rose like a silver island over your distant sea and, landlocked, my land there was a warm wind […]

LUNA REPRISE I remember you rising above the surf, your shadow an amber’d river, the three blue spruces edged in ash, your unrequited pearl light bluing the figures of summer houses suddenly full of languorous ambition.  Marilyn Ringer

STAY   have you often awakenedon a foggy morning, so muffled and still, and wondered if you have  lost your hearing? the voice from your dream echoes stay the voice on the wind in the very top of the trees whispers stay the deep voice of the far away tide calls stay the muskrat from […]

SPRING MIGRATION, MONHEGAN At first only silhouettes, too distant for detail. They approach, exhausted from the long journey. The flight, across miles charted only within them, is soon to be over for a while. Do they feel a sense of joy at the sight of the island? A sense of joy that mirrors what I […]

A LETTER NEVER MAILED (in memoriam) I cannot find any tracks of birds In the snow this morning But by the feeder – a trace of someone there. Could a seed fall in this great whirl of snow? Never! A small live foot had been and left its mark. Late August one hot day I […]

DUOLOGUE NIGHT As the world floats into darkness Shadows go their lonely way Eyes are closed No one speaks Total serenity James Cundy MANANA MAKES IT THROUGH THE NIGHT hot coffee and english muffins                         -on the rocks- cool early morning light dissolving the […]

BEACH GLASS – A PANTOUM The shock, the joy of recognition Green or aqua, sometimes brown, occasionally blue Fragments sanded soft, glass hissed into jewels Plucked from sandy shore on a summer’s day Collage of colour, a mason jar full The shock, the joy of recognition Finding something precious, unexpected Fragments sanded soft, glass hissed […]

 FOUR HAIKU FOR SPRING                                  Why these thoughts of spring?     Is it the smell of the air,            the light on the snow?                       […]

  WRITTEN ON THE MAINLAND  In all the moss-deep silences, And all the dappled wells Of silence, gray and green and gold, In closely woven spells  The trees make, in the island’s heart– Still half-uncaptured we Within ourselves must hear the sound Of slanting, murmurous sea.  It is an island’s value that Each least thing, […]

THE COMFORT OF A SMOOTH STONE  I collected stones like friends filled empty shelves with chunks of mountain granite their feldspar blushing pink in mica mirrors, crinoids, trilobites, brachipods those hard bodies of Ordovician sea stuff, gaping mouths of geodes flashing sharp crystal teeth, odd lumps of pock-marked pumice, a smorgasbord of conglomerate.  I collect […]

Epigraph: In winter a stone is frozen in place  when there is a thaw there is a space underneath  that fills in with dirt lifting the stone the stone doesn’t work its way up to the surface.  –Robert Thorson, Stone by Stone     Stones   Robert Thorson has a thing for stones. Moved here […]

  SLEEPWALKERS: MONHEGAN ISLAND They are unseen presences on the road, passing each other unaware on paths narrowed by aster and bayberry opening to the sea. They are walking through what was, step surely over tangles of juniper, shifting stones toward a day of particular happiness, of clear, full-throated praise. Far inland, wrapped and sheltered, […]

THAT JANUS MONTH Harry ambles by in his red blanket coat, circles his houses, mending, tending. Rita rouses to her routine and makes for Carina though Newt has left the island, his flying speech run off into silence. The clock ticks; a few finches worry about cats. Today there is no sea but for the […]

JANUARY SNOW  A New Year’s snow, the snow untouched, the road is forked ahead, without a footprint or a track. The winter-morning shadows lean and indicate the right, but we want left where no one lives in winter, ‘round the bend and down the hill, a shuttered cottage on  the cove. It’s hard to visualize […]

 WINTER SOLSTICE                                   for Jeb                        The full moon floats in a cauldron of white. Along the bank, birches snatch at the boy as he skates the pond, dizzy […]

ISLAND POND HAS FROZEN  Island pond has frozen But not enough for skaters. Weather says: Three to five inches Of white stuff, Rain and sleet.  Hunker down, Hearth Huggers, Bolster forth, Brave Hearts.  Yes, we are dreamers of winter full, Still shy the solstice When time hangs still Twixt shorter nights And longer days to […]

TALISMAN  The rough rock path Worn to a V by worshipful throngs Meanders like confused pilgrims Over this fragile island face.  As I trace the way, I meet them– Fellow-seekers, and nod My head in recognition. I see the peaceful pleasure in them That I searched for, found, And hold again.  Holy touchstone, worry rock, […]