Hi there.
I’m checking back in after another period of unexpected dormancy. The poems have still been coming almost as reliably as the sun rises, but my consistency about posting them online has waned while still getting settled from a recent move. Regardless, today I’m posting a seasonal poem that came to me while returning home from Wordcrafters’ spoken word open mike late last night.
Below you’ll also find a photo from Piper’s Creek of a salmon swimming upstream to spawn, in celebration of the historic deal the US Government just made with tribes of the Pacific Northwest to restore salmon runs in the Columbia River basin. Given how ecologically significant salmon are as a keystone species, providing essential nutrients for not just humans but the entire ecosystem, this is big.
Enjoy.
Streetlights starburst through bare branches
Beams starker in the creamy fog
Of a December night bike ride home.
I’m not afraid of the dark,
I’m afraid of the dark falling.
But once it’s here again
I recall the carols to sing.
No matter how many sound sleeps I’ve had,
How many holy mornings or radiant evenings,
Doesn’t change the dread and doubt
The frazzling midday brings
Before the latest bedtime burst of creativyt
Gains definition through the stressors’ residue.
What greater weather systems am I pedaling through?
Enveloping the valley that houses me
Catching streams and deer trails
Down from the hill country.
If the climate’s changing, so must we
Like leaves clinging late to endangered oak trees.
Yes, the change will bring grief
But grief will make poetry.
Like all beauty, aroused
In response to a need
True love meets intuitively.
The mist becomes rain on my face
Warm enough to change phase.