Heaven and Earth

Where the field has been crossed
daily by the cows and the old man,
there is a path that meanders
down the contours of the hill
like a seam of gold.
Sometimes his grandchildren
walk with him.
The valley sucks up their voices
and laughter like a miner
hungry for their young hearts,
searching for a way
to keep them here
as grandfather's mind
widens into the ocean
of thoughts a cowman has.
His expression
sighted mostly beyond him
he stands leaning into his stick.
The cow bells dong
and skylarks sing in the heights.

Small Green Frogs Wordle # 152

Small green frogs

Plop

into the ditches

Still full of winter's rain.

So much fuss

Before it all turns

To dust.

Robert the Bruce wordle #140

There is a story,a Scottish story,

of a great warrior,a leader,

Robert the Bruce.

His army was being pulverized

and he had retreated to a damp, mossy, cave,

with barely a thought left intact.

In the silence with just the echo

of dripping water he sat,

listening and grieving

for his country and his men.

He noticed a spider

attending to it's broken web.

Broken but not beyond repair.

To and fro the spider shuttled,

following it's instinct to mend,

without despair.

In this dark,damp place,

the unfaltering work

of a small spider

cleared his head

and leveled his thoughts,

enough to listen to his heart.

His men would follow if he would lead.

He would try

and try,

and try again.

There would be no defeat.

(Spider, echo, clear, attend, pulverize, intact, fly, shuttle, means, follow, listen, split.)

Parents' Nightmare

In the race

to grow up

I was fast.

Spitting out childhood

like spent chewing gum.

The whiskey.

The pain.

The befuddled brain.

Staggering home

in the murky dawn

with razor breath

and lanky dreams.

Mouth full of lies

and silky

half-truths.

Isolated memories,

an archipelago

of shame.

Puppy Love (wordle # 133)

Ah, the love for small, miraculous creations!

She's so tiny one's impulse is to whisper.

I kneel before her and stare

at each little whisker and claw.

She toddles, bandy-legged

under the sofa, where,

lost and invisible in the shadows,

she emits small whimpers.

Outside, in the infinite grandness,

she follows me

smelling new smells

and licking dew off the leaves.

I see afresh

the beauty of the simple things,

close to the ground.

When she wanders off

I feel the distance between us

and the precarious nature of being,

and being cared for.

A tender balance, not precise.

No bigger than my two fists

her little spark lights my day.

(Infinite, hit, invisible, emits, rhythm, impulse, distance, kneel, creation, whisperings, fists, precise. )

Home Alone in a Storm #132

Pebble dash dreams

rattle the window

sheet rain slashes

the inky mire.

I lie in my clay house,

my safe house,

still awake,

and yearn,

as the storm prowls

the walls,

yearn for his company

like a stove yearns a flame

(waking, sheet, safe, clay, still, inky, erode, flames, yearn, bend, immeasurable, pebble)

On Being Born - wordle 129

When the gentle, constant massage

of many months, changes,

becomes stronger

and more urgent,

and the nest,

this watery home

becomes too small,

this being, ripe and ready,

takes the chance,

the journey,

through that secret passage.

So clever, it knows the way.

With hands crossed and head down

it travels,

swept by muscles,

into the light.

The stars circle above

as s/he is born

and, shorn from that rope of flesh,

blinking, full of love,

one becomes two.

(Chance,blinked, hand, saw, swept, stars, flesh, ripe, secret, clever, basket, nest)

And here's a sideways view of how I began to put words together.