Rock Bed

Full marble moon

rolls snow shadows

across high Christmas chaparral.

A million moth fat flakes

fly in the face of a driven man,

wise tomorrow.

Short visit.

Long road ahead,

behind,

and beside the unblinking

lane change.

Family tree, measured

in miles. Our pace,

our place on the King's highway,

eternal.

Apron Strings

The sweet part of an onion

stings. When you won't

call home, I cut slices

under water.

Setting plates around the table

one breaded breast enough for two,

but not enough for Christmas.

Heaven invites us to save

a chair, the number of chairs

to make a party, astronomical.

Old wounds don't need salt.

Grace, a feast for the eyes.

Silver Lining

The closest hawk 

cuts a silhouette against  milk clouds.

The horizon, half sea and half water reflected,

swallows the swell of the ocean at bay.

A kayak arrows to the sun's roll in the waves,

paddle length dripping back

to glide.

Worship is a tidal ventricle

pumping the planet's peace.

Jealous turtles surrender the shore to

muck boots in chorus, a choir of pink whispers

before the set.

Nature trumps the natural way of thinking,

it's the breath taking secret 

of the breath giver.

Vocation

I save nine seconds of light

bulb life leaving the work room

for the kitchen. That much dark

I can handle,

the doorway never moves.

It's a home office,

the dryer dings between cold calls,

work shirts drape the ironing board.

The value I bring, on days I don't

sell well, is this separating peppers from seeds

slicing avocados into smiles.

Thirty years I've nuanced accents over the phone.

Eight to five I remember father

was a salesman, but

it was mother taught me, before

paychecks mattered, 'Think

of eating, before you're hungry.'

Pilgrim

What we learned

can be forgot,

what we know

dismissed.

Who we are

is debatable,

why we're here

the cosmic question.

Whom we love,

and who loves us, is

the suring thing,

the truth we bring to

table.

Election Sure

While you vote,
I trim the driveway rose,
nine foot and then some thorn spindles.

The dew drowns my sleeve
by the quart,
every corner of the day star blinks.

What a plant proposes
blocks another's garden.
Bring light, bring light, bring light.

Task aside, the next door tide
of the polling booth repeats;
bring light, bring light, bring light.

Crisscross

There's one bloom left
on the front yard rose,
being November that's not bad news.

The foreclosure should settle soon
and another round of birthdays
will end the calendar.

The bluff busy bees 
clambor a long lonely lavender,
winter already whispering.

To be useful
I open a book sent in the mail,
something about Jesus in a grocery store
sharing short cake in the storm.

Window Seat

The honeymoon lifts
to a cruising altitude
of eye to eye,
the rings catch light
chipped from tandem stars.

Tide Fool

What I read,

hand shading the gold glint

of the ocean,

is my little pocket book

of lies

and aberration.

My wife trusts God

to know me

better than I know myself.

The small cold rock of

a song I sang Sunday

turns in my hand.

If my brother whispered

something similar I'd throw it

a mile deep, past dolphins, dinghies,

and the wrong side of dawn.

The bench I watch the west from

is a pew to the wide sky and white caps.

What I negotiate here, what I navigate,

what I need is a way to walk on land,

as well as He traversed the waves.

Early Harvest

Hollyhock high as a house,

yapping dog smaller than parson's shoes.

Gray wall of fog mutes

the pink tiles and garden whistler.

To grow things is to know things.

But I've assumed too much

having met my first atheist corn rower.

Not for me to prove seeds swelling to fruit

are for courage as much as cobbler.

Talking to dirt a comfort 

to being born of dust.

Scarecrow's got some sense.

Looking up for rain. It comes

with or without praying,

can't argue that.

Takes a certain talent to ignore

miracles. Imagine the poems

I could write

if this whole world

were up to me.

Pigeon English

A man seeds pigeons,

doesn't have to be a man,

eight bucks a month for coos

and guano,

crows come too

cawing for attention.

Not pretty, 

nobody watching

the scatter get pecked,

some fall by the wayside

and sprout.

The strange maize escapes the birds

and waves a foot higher

than the broken sidewalk.

My neighbor, never seen,

spreads the gospel of grace

to critters bobbing heads

and pedestrians carrying bread.

BS Poem

Be still

and know I am God

Be silly

and know I am God

Be serene

and know I am God

Be strident

and know I am God

Be special, be singular,

be surprised

and know I am God.

Be sincere and know I am God.

Be salt, be Saint So-and-So,

be sober, be salubrious

and know I am God.

Note to self,

Be self being selfless

and know I am God.

Polaris

Peeling sunned shoulders
means summer, berry stains worth
the scrapes,
sleep barely in the sheets
window fan
comfort
milk thistle
milk shake
braving the lake
skimming the river
picking out stars
He knows by name.

St. William's Day

Boil water twice over
coffee grounds
to stretch a cup into
the next need for it.

Birthday coming,
I'm short a grill,
clover too high to
dance.

My Closer Walk With Thee
gets me through the kitchen.
Blank page staring
like a bus window leaving town.

Folk's talk about
having your cake,
meaning humble is the best
slice of pie.

Mother Told Me

Six wheeled trucks through
the residential,
low pine branch broken,
dangling accusation
on the march of cement.

Below the bluff house
of the forgotten Hurok
tsunami jetsam confounds
the beach.

A carbonated footprint
on the sands of time,
celebrating trees
with plastic magnets.

My mother told me
to forget poetry
and write bumper stickers.

The margin for prophets
wide as streets paved in gold.

Cha-cha-cha

The sweet spot

found the blink of an eye,

infant boy on my shoulder

a full minute longer.

My grampa cha-cha

making sleepy smiles

and training my calves for the

marathon of the next twenty years.

Its grace,

not bloodline, giving

me goosebumps

and burp duty.

I married into functionality,

fill in the blanks,

take the steps

step-fathers take.

Quick, rock back,

quick-quick-quick.

I saw my parents dance

once, in fifty years.

What they gave up for us

I want to play over and

over again, before its time

to change my diapers.

Drizzle

Satisfaction

guaranteed to miss

appointments.

The first strawberry picked

a day early,

the chorus entered twelve bars

late. Stare at the sun

you can't see behind the moon screen

of the kitchen window.

A son returns,

a grandson turns 

from a camera flash,

and the anniversary of demise

lands on the calendar again.

Only eternity

outlasts confusion.

The certain heart fills

a certain part of

the puzzle, the outlook

and the in, look like rain

before drizzle.

I put off penning,

the blank page no calmer

than this stage of our lives.

This too is perfect,

no matter the grammar.

Leopold

Life
and life making
a boy or a girl.

That moon
pulling oceans
with a head of hair.

The clock can't count
a catcher's mitt
pacing the hall.

Manger, mansion,
Momma, breast,
blanket.

The name game
riddled
and solved.

This day, pink sky
blue plums,
your place in the sun.

Grand schemes,
grand pianos,
grand baby
born.

Another Year in April

Blue through clouds
is the eye of God's promise.
A ray is a way of hope.

All that rumbles
in the bottom of our hearts,
will rise as steam,
after night fall's rain.

Any day you wake up
is a good day.
My Momma taught me that.

The next day she wakes
will be the Last Day,
when we look at clouds
from the other side of blue.

The Tangle

Lilac and chestnut
sweeten the tromp,
wild radish and mustard
high as a streetlamp,
pink plums tangle telephone lines.

The awaited sun,
since January,
since March,
alights,
not just the crazies and homeless
barefoot the beach.

Warm, warm
of heaven
softens the wait for Jesus.
Weather or not,
we believe,
but it is easier
in bloom.

Graffito

Elk stands,
mallard roosts,
a big lagoon
named Big Lagoon,
the drive to Pelican Bay State
Prison.

The boys have tattooed heads
and necks,
insignia knuckles,
state issued pants as low as gravity
and code permits.

Forgive Us Christ King
is carved in the plaster chapel wall,
grammatical rescue, sound
theology.

A sleeping Villa Boy
startles to join the choir,
mercy chasing all the days of his life.

His forgiving heart
slips eternity
past the guards.

The Curve of The Earth

There's an ugly plant

in Africa.

A crusty star aloe,

looks like something a dragon

spit out when Adam was struggling

to pronounce wildebeest.

Its root holds dust dear as a child

and the flower bobs centuries old

under the sweltering Serengeti moon.

When the rain comes in buckets and tubs

in Northern California

I think of the thimble full it would take

to make the desert dance

and how Isaiah promised blooms

would supplant thorns.

My throat gets dry

as I argue.

If God meant for this,

then why is there that,

knowing full well

He asks the same thing of clouds

and neighbors.

I saw the curve of the earth there.

The horizon has that much play,

to bend things,

as if the earth has a choice to smile,

or frown.

Fog Fold

Our ocean slams the sand under fog.
The gulls won't fish this slop,
train inland to peck trash
at Wal-Mart.

The buoys in chorus,
the light on the head rock
give bearing,
on glassy days they're quaint,
like Scripture and hymns.

A poster on the meeting board,
under plastic for the rain
that falls on the just,
and the just so,
sells a lecture on 'The Folly
of Faith' for five dollars.

Ought to draw some disgruntleds,
except for the storm.

My windbreaker wraps
my preposterous soul
against the pull of the moon,
my worn portrait of Abe Lincoln
folded in my jeans.

This side of the grave
ignores the tide,
but every sea
has another shore.

Clever won't cut it,
when the waves break
higher than a man can
stand himself.

Equinoxial

What the rose knows
about saving daylight
is dismissed by the poppy.

The first to shed
a winter hull
is the only expert
in the running.

Plant politics.
Put down roots,
face the sun,
even through clouds.

Mud is so less useful to me
than them with stems,
stain my hands and shovel,
make or break the stalk life.

Bloom where you beat the other guise
to light and water,
we assigned such grace
to cutthroat chlorophyllians,

but soil or soul,
it's a battle for the seed
to spring forward.

Night Willows

Worry winds whip

the roof tiles,

pounding the dog's heart rate

a yelp above normal pulse.

Willows bend

outside my window,

storms come

and leaves blow, with an occasional branch,

down the bluff.

I won't walk out on the choppy bay

but go to the sink

for a drink to calm down.

Dehydration a very spiritual metaphor.

Midnight prayers

with morning in mind,

selling the stark dark short.

There is a root

I belong to,

fruit connected to faith,

not shadows on a wall.

Lightning

silhouettes

a trunk.

Man like arms

and hair

up raised.

Jesus slept through

worse than this, so

it must be the dog

keeping me awake.

Buoy Bell

An anchored bell

sounds noon

above a bluff of

fishermen, California seals,

and children that won't wear

wetsuits for years.

He brought me here,

this Lord of the winds, to know

the twenty steps from East Street

to West in a harbor town.

I count the boats

easier than waves;

crab traps, buoys,

mechanical foghorn

in a Mecca like song

to be stilled, and know,

the call to be a fisher

of men, comes with boots.