- Appetite
A satiated bear
Sitting back on the chair
I'm full
So now how am I aware?
Our bones will blow away
But what do I care?
Mountain shape
- Cold Mountain
Openhanded I tried to live
Among all people, ideas aloft
Openhanded I read the books
I learned the histories
I sang the songs
Until mountains bellowed
That my friends are flawed
- Crow
Sweet kid, what is this world we're giving you?
Smoldering and fascist with no mother
Are you dreaming about a crow?
In the middle of November we went back into the woods
Right after breakfast to see if we could see this past August's forest fire zone
On the hill above the lake, the sky was low and the wind cold
The trail was closed
At the barricade I stood listening
- Dragon
3. DRAGON
There is a veil between me
and the bottomless sky.
Cloud or a sheet billowing,
the edge of my mind.
Standing on the street
in the rain,
- Emptiness, Pt. 2
The feeling of being in the mountains
Is a dream of self-negation
To see the world without us
How it churns and blossoms
Without anyone looking on
It's why I've gone on and on
And why I've climbed up alone
But actual negation
- Flaming Home
You thought you knew me
Emptiness prevails
I thought our full house was glowing
Emptiness in the house
Every single shape I see for the pile of dust it is
Let's get out of the romance
Empty house
Now I look at the lights of town through the trees on my way home
- I Walked Home Beholding
the world was frozen
i left the studio
night had fallen the storm had cleared
the whole town had been abandoned except for me
i walked home beholding
the lights in the park
the moving trees
- In Moonlight
Walking down the road in the middle of the night
Singing this song to myself:
“I will find you, I will find you, I will find you, I will find you”
The wind goes through my clothing
Saying:
“I will find you, I will find you, I will find you, I will find you”
- Lost Wisdom
i got close enough to the river that i couldn't hear the trucks
but not close enough to stop the roaring of my mind
these rocks don't care if i live or die
everyone i know will finally turn away
i will confuse and disinterest all posterity
lost wisdom
is a quiet echo
lost wisdom
- Moon, I Already Know
Moon, I already know
I'm small on the ground
I roll around and feel menacing mountains
And old depths of sorrow dwarf me
Old towering terrors of mine
? below
I know I know I know already
So don't look at me like that
- No Flashlight
I can only love those dark hills because I live in the day
I can only see the mountain because I am in town
I only love night because I have only smelled it
Actually living in the night means no talking
I can only say "no flashlight" because once I accidentally forgot it
Actually living in the night means actually walking in the dark means
To find caves
In song
- Pumpkin
In the middle of November
smashed on the rocks
at the edge of the island
a bright thing caught my eye
it was a pumpkin half.
I walked to the bookstore
in a rain that silently
- Ravens
In October 2015, I was out in the yard
I just finished splitting up the scrap two-by-fours into kindling
I glanced up at the half moon pink chill refinery cloud light
Two big blackbirds flew over, their wings whooshing and low
Two ravens, but only two
Their black feathers tinted in the sunset
I knew these birds were omens but of what I wasn't sure
They were flying out toward the island where we hoped to move
- Real Death
Death is real
Someone's there and then they're not
And it's not for singing about
It's not for making into art
When real death enters the house, all poetry is dumb
When I walk into the room where you were
And look into the emptiness instead
All fails
- Seaweed
Our daughter is one and a half
You have been dead eleven days
I got on the boat and came to the place
Where the three of us were going to build our house
If you had lived
You died though
So I came here alone with our baby and the dust of your bones
I can't remember, were you into Canada geese?
- Spring
Mind like a flower,
a flower falling.
A candle in the basement.
Nothing is real
but there is a spring inside.
Waves breaking
still reflect the moon.
- The Moan
""the Moan""
In the night after the bats come out, I hear you howling.
I know no one and I hold nothing now that I know you.
This is how we howl.
In the dark night on the unlit trail there's no way through but to crawl.
Perplexed by the world around me, there's no way through but to surrender my body completely to you to be eaten, to be gnawed,
to fulfill the pregnant night,
- the Place I Live
If I look
or if I don't look
clouds are always passing over
the place I live.
The place I live
passing under
my feet while my mind wanders
- the Place Lives
Watching the light change
I see the place lives.
I've stayed here long enough
moss has started to grow.
But still, wind sweeping clear
the brief collection assembled,
the silt I clutch.
- The Universe Is Shown
""the Universe is Shown""
there's no way you'll get out of it
and in this way the Universe is shown.
""But I wasn't even looking for it.""
It doesn't matter, the Universe is shown.
""But I had some other plans for the night""
You are done. The Universe is shown.
- Turmoil
2. TURMOIL
In the morning it feels like coming into a clearing
and the disorientation lingers only for a breath.
I hold the thought,
a coal glowing
on the wet ground,
not long enough
- Waterfalls
In my most hopeless days,
Lost in pitch black caves,
There's waterfalls
And dripping stone walls.
It's so perfect and amazing.
So you may only naively believe
There's waterfalls and all perspectives
And when you see the light
- You Swan, Go On
As good as I could possibly imagine my life getting, it did
After I met you
The way you reached inside my chest and pulled out things and sent them off in breaths blew
And as good as it got with all the layers peeling off, and though I writhed
I could not upset you
With your hand down my throat you held on to my heart and pumped blood through
And then “it’s time to go” you said, “it’s time to go out