Turtle

“Painted Turtle” by Doug Sharpe

unlovely dignified bearing

longevity marking his shell

time and symmetry shaped

time to ponder to think

deeper down than survival

to grapple with quieter

mysteries questions of

corporeal existence to muse

he must surely have wisdom

his unhurried passage gives

pause to the river course

silences nether woods stills

forest creatures who each

give close listen attending to

even his least rasping words

such is reverence toward

age in the uncertain wild
 

From my book Pieces of Wine

Old Men of the Forest

“Red Oak”
Photo by Lyle Hatch
From fineartamerica.com

stout northern red oak
will seal its old wounds
overgrowing the pain
reaching confident into
the face of new storms
understanding the
intimate gist of survival
the alternate beauty
of scarred-over age
the sheer sense of cert
as it surges from roots
standing into the danger
a casualty naked and
altered by time ready
willing and nonetheless
able to withstand the
onslaught of seasons
to come bearing nothing
of malice toward weather
and wind who will merely
attack in accord with
their own violent nature

stout northern red oak
old men of the forest
regret their lost limbs
but not so the girth of
their years or the loft
of their ego grown tall
in their consciousness
knowing those injuries
come through their time
and travails made them
stronger than ever

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
– Ernest Hemingway

Black Pearl White Pearl

Photo by anja
From lurvely.com

he and she
they were teens
a barely gold
bauble his
pendant heart
clasping two
contrasting
low luster orbs
he the black
simple abstract
young lightly
soiled soul
she the white
pure and perfect
of heart in full
feminine flower

she wore it
through seven
sweet decades
the everlast feel
of its delicate kiss
at the cleft
of her throat
wears it still
drawing warmth
from the light
and the life in it
ornament offset
by unadorned
darkness enfolding
her lovely
blue burial gown

General Sherman

 

General Sherman Giant Sequoia Tree

 

it blows holes in my mind
thinking he’s been alive
since King Midas touched gold
since that not-as-yet Roman wolf
suckled twin boys by the Tiber

that remote ancient age of men
saw this grand giant sequoia
shoot up from the montane
through soils now bedding our
trailheads across High Sierras

incredible majesty graces
impossibly high leafy limbs
massive rocket straight trunk
pointing halfway to paradise
dwarfing all civilized realms

 

 

From my book Range of Motion