When winter beats its broad path
across fields, kneeling the weed
and setting, too, over sage and oak,
deep white pavement;
after wasps and beetles
have borne off, crumb by crumb,
rusted plum and apple pulp
so far beyond the last gather
the ground where they fell
no longer smells of cider;
when there is light instead of leaf
on the branch, star instead of pear,
deer [...]
“I’ve always pictured Cedar Hills as a daffodil city. They’re beautiful and the deer won’t eat them.”
“He’s laughing.”
“Sorry. It’s just such a good quote.”
“I’ll look for it in the paper.”
An hour later the reporter stops short of his car.
Behold
Three night-lit deer on the lawn,
Across the street three more in the [...]
Cayuga Lake’s asleep again,
ice-locked at her edges.
Dressed once more
in shreds of white,
organza, wispy curls
across her skin-
beauty lying deeper
than her dreams.
Denise and I would skate
when we were girls,
flying toward each other
till we met and locking hands
would spin in dizzy circles,
laughter pealing bright
in frigid air;
innocent of life to come
and choices made,
of sorrow bearing arms
against the days
that rush [...]
He walks slowly, his back more straight than not,
his gait timeless. Strong.
Still, there is something hesitant and
questioning about his steps, as though
he were feeling his way through the stony-bottomed
stream of a shallow river. The wide path allows him
to cherish his granddaughter’s hand as they walk
abreast at a pace that suits them both, supporting one
another in [...]
Prologue
When two universes collide
one is destroyed, or
is it
masked?
hidden
in the wind,
preserved,
like a seed to come
forth later?
The other however
folds in on itself,
slowly,
a topological twisting,
until it engulfs itself and
is gone.
Coyote-Man, it seems, never
learned how to deal
with motorized vehicles.
They escaped his desert
logic.
Hasje-altye—Talking God—
never prepared him for
the intrusion.
The invasion.
But who’s to blame?
Who would have believed that
metal
and carbon
seduced from the earth
could [...]
In early March
an indolent sun
persists in tossing
volunteer rays of
soft flickering sun silk
through dark desolate
willow tree branches-
melting remnants
of snow diamond crystals
from weathered wooden planks
on my balcony.
I’m starting to think life
is an adjective exaggerated
by the sway of seasons.
It’s normal feeding time.
Below two floors
wild Canadian geese
wait impatiently
for the tossing of morning feed;
the silent sound they hear–
no dropping of [...]
Mark Twain on the tundra: At times, that’s how this 1963 classic played to my mind. Farley Mowat’s sense of humor—often self-directed—and the acuity of his social criticism reminded me so much of Twain’s acerbic wit that I found myself reading Mowat but seeing in the text Sam Clemens’ ghost—flowing white hair, white mustache, white [...]
Swallows skim the glass
Of a beaver pond, drinking
From their reflections.
“Look, here’s Fezzika,” my mother said, bending down to point out the Woodhouse toad tucked under the garden stone. We had discovered the amphibian’s house a few days earlier, and I was fascinated by the placement choice. She had dug into the soil under a cornerstone edging the flowerbed beside the main path through the [...]
Jules Vincent (marvelously played by Steward Granger) is a happy-go-lucky French trapper making his living off some of the most dangerous country in Canada. He comes to town one day to replenish his supplies. While there, he rescues a kitten from a bad-tempered collie and an unhappy part-Chippewa woman (Cyd Charisse) from the saloon where [...]