crow story

all day

crow perched branches in the woods

speaking the language of black

absorbing all other colours

like death

like bare branches in June

like brown grass on the lawn

like dried day lilies

wise words tell me crows don’t like shiny

like compact discs twirling in wind

so I hang them from the trees

sway and spin

like dancer catching the sun

banishing the black

psalm XIV

birds echo this cloudy morning

sound fractured in branched woods

and my cold hands touch the warm skin of my ear

perked to hear birdsong

the music of summer winging

summer solstice

wait through

bare November branches

like death            sky scratch

wait December

gnawing cold through

dark       dark nights

wait white

winter sun glinting with

waves of chill

wait early Spring

like budding trees unfurl

with returning warmth

wait May

feel sun warmth

stealth approach

for this day of

earliest morn

and latest eve

for now summer frees us

wind washing all

Phil

practical close-cropped hair

above welcoming laugh

faith lived in doing

serving tables

frying rollkuchen

shaping and guiding young lives

around template of truth

crafting lyrics and melody

into songs of smiles and tears

carefully shaping resonant wood

with curved symmetry

instrumental in creating

family

that sings together the tune

of close-cropped servanthood  

look up

green arc of tree canopy

against refracted blue

in cloudless sky

framed by tall narrow window

in this darkish room

it’s the arc we live

so delicate wavering in wind

greenness our gift to the frame

gradual up and

gentle down

I only see part

through window

from one angle

from this far away

but the story is mine

below the dome of sunspilled blue

Wednesday

and so falls the rain

grass and dandelion stand to gain

on this droughted plain

psalm XIII

there’s a beat

elusive amid rustle of

hypnotic repetition

wind waving branches

inside fabric of new leaves

kick drum heart beat

beneath interweaving brass band

flights of finery

steady always there beat

the flap of wing in

massive blue infinite