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