You, Like Driftwood and Other Poems

You, Like Driftwood

You, like driftwood
Have known the sea
And paced the wind,
And each has touched you
And changed you
Without apparent design
Just a little,
So that when you again
Rest with shore
With me
I can scarce recall
That which is forever in change,
Undeserving,
And adrift.

The Down Children

The Down Children
Taste their day
Among the heart high grass
Of the morning tide
And shout
From beneath the bubbling sands
To the ghostly Osprey
Who wing their way
Toward barren nests.
At night,
Cramped in love,
They ply the silver sands
And write love’s poem
In a barren dune.

Untie the Twelve Year Knot, Untie

Untie the twelve year knot, untie
No signal moon to light me by
Nymphs and fairy thumbs churn the night
And scratch
Against the rinds in flight
While all around
The nails of bone
Build halls and hells
And call it home
And tile the air
With killing chords
And saw me up
And stack the boards
Until sleep
My boon companion
Whose magic oils
Stir my ruin
With chilling hand
Stills the many
Boiling thoughts
And brewing honey.

Can I Love You Better Than This?

Can I love you better than this
Than to picture when we kiss
A pond in winter
Ringed by snow
Where naked willows
Await the spring to grow
Where time too has frozen still
And all sounds elude the ear
Where my love abides forever
Like a thirsting winter deer?