When a man in a hospital bed
Needs a haircut and shave,
The barber with his black bag
Goes humbly through the wards.
In shadow and in light,
The barber and his patient,
Seen through an open door,
A smile on the sick man’s face.
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Mercy for Mercy
for Ashraf Fayadh
Once flowers blossomed in the text,
Words were like petals on water,
Walls whispered in Andalusian script
And paradise on earth was whole.
So if a poet is to be executed
Language grows a stronger root.
The channel of living water
Runs the length of the palace.
So if a poet is to be executed
The sacrifice of one magnifies
The charity of the harvest
For those who are hungry to learn.
The example of the faithful
Who waste a seed of mercy
Is to lose the seven stalks
From which a hundred grains fall.
Crow Feather Totem IV
This time the signs are good.
Black and gray hairs grow from my scalp.
Ghost sickness has lifted.
Crow feathers fuse darkness and light.
Crow eyes see inner worlds.
I have found feathers
For a headdress of clouds.
Mercy for Mercy
for Ashraf Fayadh
Once flowers blossomed in the text,
Words were like petals on water,
Walls whispered in Andalusian script
And paradise on earth was whole.
So if a poet is to be executed
Language grows a stronger root.
The channel of living water
Runs the length of the palace.
So if a poet is to be executed
The sacrifice of one magnifies
The charity of the harvest
For those who are hungry to learn.
The example of the faithful
Who waste a seed of mercy
Is to lose the seven stalks
From which a hundred grains fall.
Lessons
A rude girl brushes past me in the music building and slams the door. After a few seconds I hear the most beautiful voice. How can I be upset when I was also in a hurry to break into song.
The Silver Maple
As they carve at our tall rotting maple
I stand outside to watch the old tree die.
One tree cutter said that a felled tree
Gives off its essence and an aura lingers.
As branches fall, a sapling grove springs up,
Light blooms green, air so pungent
With core wood I feel more alive;
And though the tree is nearly down,
I look up it towers above the pines,
Ragged crown of blue and silver leaves
Before darkness covers my tree of light.
Misreading a Line by Holderlin
For weeks I’ve not been well but refuse a doctor.
For weeks I’ve been unhappy but refuse the past.
For weeks I’ve misread a line of poetry
As “the aging of the dead” and not “the aging and the dead.”
For weeks I’ve been depressed
Thinking the dead grow older. One misreading
And I have wasted a thousand years in eternity.
City after Rain
Washington, D.C.
Marble is sticking to wet leaves,
Walls are dripping from ivy,
Pillars drift and become as trees,
Wide rivers of reflected light drown the streets,
The earth rises and the city is less real,
Monuments and memorials
Cling lightly to the air.
Shedd Aquarium
Behind the Greek facade
A sea, as in the pages of Homer,
A sea within words,
Within windows and walls.
Our reflections on the glass
Of a transparency
Between extinction and captivity.
Birthright
When you never leave the place
Where you were born,
You are more like a tree than a person.
An old person, an old tree,
With roots deep under the city.
And when you’re with others
Who talk of exotic lands,
You remain silent,
Feeling the strong winds of fate
Moving through your crown of leaves,
From every direction
Space entering your branches.
And they who are speaking
Become more and more distant,
The voices of birds
Departing for southern skies.
