through an open window
one shadow
sharing with me this night, alone
the man on the street bench
haloed in moonlight

Isn't it strange
that you are in my thoughts
and I worry so . . .
Will you be there tomorrow
emptiness?

Thunder and Lightening

each night you come to my door
and tease me with your power
so strong are the feelings
as you leave me standing there --
counting the distance between us

I am song and singer,
the dance and dancer;
upon this barren branch -
I am the leaf.

Baptized

all night rain
taste the sweet water
feel the spray of wind
my dream beating
of my heart

tucking a mandrake poppet
in his cap, for ripened fruit
awaiting the sound of bluebells
a snow-white hair graces
the chin's cleft *

*old wives tale: a cleft in the chin; the devil within/mandrake poppets, lovespell)

blue grass
and white rabbits
the same song
with different words
sipping shades of pale,
moonlight

The Spaces In Between/Tanka Splendor Award

from the choir loft
a child's voice a cappella
this morning in April
rain on the metal roof
sounds like bells

left in mom's pocket,
needle, thread and a button--
all through the eulogy
I feel the space between us
doesn't really matter

forgetting, again
my birthday--
for our anniversary,
he buys a pecan seedling,
together we wait for its' fruit

smoke from your hand-hewn pipe
abruptly tapering
into slender wisps of thought
I have no pen, nor scribe
just the portent of you

moon-soaked
mountain suffering
the night, elegant
in new snow, my footprints
left behind

each heartbeat, mirrored
in a thought of you
while I gaze into the ending,
an audible moan of a bud
opening

focused on a leaf
tossed about in the wind
both of us transfixed
into a single thought
beginnings and endings

Divining The Sun

A sunny hillside redolent
with Kipling's thyme,
"like the dawn of paradise"

Wildly stirring the hearts of men.
stems of light'braided in her hair

A brew of tea, for thee and me
shades of chivalry fade
Off with the camisole of sunset!

flung to the ground (in colorful sprays)
to consummate this day