Poems from
Big Winds, Glass Mornings, Shadows Cast by Stars

TREE

You may believe
that inside a tree
there are many voices
discussing directions,
but I say
there is silence
inside a tree,
and no matter
how loud you call
no one will answer.

And you may think
the leaves gossip,
but I tell you
they are solitary hands
unable to applaud the wind.

No, there are no sounds
inside a tree,
a tree does its work in silence;
it is a tall solitude
we all must come to.

Only the processions
swimming toward it are noisy--
slamming gongs,
hooting,
shimmering into small pools near stones.
The earth is full of such noises,
of those on their journey
to the tree.

CLOTHES HANGER

1.
He is the bird
whose wings are always rising,
only to be held down
by the gravity of our clothes.

2.
When we rip our coats from his shoulders
and he is suddenly naked,
jangled,
spinning in the light,
he emits a small song,
a chiming cheep,
but only when he and another nude bird
touch.

3.
For us
he dangles all day
over a precipice
by grasping a plank
with his beak.

When he has fallen,
do you lift him
gently?

4.
Realize this:
his shape is our skeletal design.
When we load our jackets on his back,
so we can shower,
sleep,
enter the lives of our lovers,
then we
are naked,
flapping,
ready to fly.

I AM 3 OR 4 PEOPLE

I am three or four people:

the man ripping the upholstery,
slugging sofa and desk
in the study downstairs;

the woman lifting belly and back
as she opens her legs to the dark
in the upstairs' bedroom;

and the one in overcoat and hat
who stands in the rain outside
watching the house.

Big Winds, Glass Mornings, Shadows Cast By Stars: Poems, 1972-1980 (Jazz Press, 1980) is a collection of miscellaneous personal lyrics written in various styles since the publication of Where the Oceans Cover Us.

Critical Comments: "His is a special empathy. He is trhe poet of the simple gesture as that gesture evokes metaphysical meanings...(He) proffers a special communion of bread and poems--touching of an organic, elemental sort...Our cupped hands (souls) need more poems like his."
-- Robert Peters, Kayak

"He is related to Rilke, Seferis, Lorca, Pasternak, Blaga, Max Jacob, Lamantia and a few others...He is the kind of priest poet who, like Peguy or Jacob, gets to the light by tearing up the universe in ecstatic dance." -- Andrei Codrescu, Shocks