Poems – as iron day fades into glowing night

How the Bridge is Made

The engineers who ruled a younger age
Had visions of a bridge of peerless span;
They set their grand designs upon the page
And called their work the greatest work of man.

You’re It

The melody of love rings sweet and true:
in beats of eight we count the music out.

prayer to the dawning light

brigid walks barefoot through winter snows
a lantern in her hand and flowers in her train

to my lover

have you ever loved a man
whose smile was the kiss of summer
tumbling into your bed
for the first time each year?

to my waters in winter

the glinting flow of autumn’s tea-dark deep
has given way to winter’s snowy white:
beneath the ice the waters softly sleep

to my city at midsummer

the sweet hot air of summer softly sighs
and gentles with the evening’s fading light;
the city stretches out beneath the skies

to my river, overflown

the river overran his banks this year
not softly, as he does with each spring’s flood
—but in a torrent

to my river

soul of the river, they say
you dress in murk, but oh,
king of waters, i know it is not so

loons call on the lake and i cannot answer

i have listened to you call to the loons on the lake
since the first time i heard that haunting birdsong

love songs for death gods

by nature i am a monstrous thing
twisted, bent, and torn
an untamed wilderness of thorn and vine
grows where my humanity should be

Two Elegiac Couplets

Stars all are born in a fire and a conflagration: so with us.
Your hands ache upon me.

On Light

The fire seems a paltry, trembling light 
Held next to you: for you are making light.

Sonnet for Eivin

I loved thee in another kind of life 
that time had seemed to scatter and erase: 
the pain, the joys, the sorrows, and the strife 