Poems

Fog in the distance
Walk the beach where the crab lived
Dungeness crab cake

San Francisco hustle
Crisp cumulous cloud blue sky
Each corner a taste

Late winter gray day
Bereft of sunny expectations
Smart cats curled on sofas
I am scarved and bundled
For a neighborhood walk
Little distinguishes bay from sky
Autumn detritus still waits
For a sunny spring day
Respite arrives in a
Bright yellow crocus

We always try
To straighten out complexity
As if a single day
Could be a straight line
Hour to hour from
Awakening to bedtime
But chaos lurks
Present at the curb’s edge
In the glance of a stranger
The unopened door
A turn not taken
The unanswered call

Early spring walk on
A rare blue northwest day
Rivulets on green slopes
Magnolia’s pristine white
Memories of childhood adventures
Following the stream the other side of
Shade grown tobacco’s fallow fields
Far into the woods
I felt like Natty Bumpo
A frontiersman who understood
The ways of the forest
And all the lives it held
Carried everything he needed
In the constant quest for new land
Without farmers and rules
Seasons’ rhythmic cycles
Spring time exuberance
Shelter in the forest’s quiet
Then I returned home for cookies
I could smell coming up the walk
Chocolate chips and walnuts