I'm Still There

 

                                                              twenty miles from where I live now

                                                              my childhood home

                                                              I'm still there / my four year old self

                                                              on the porch steps sitting in sunlight

                                                              dressing my reluctant cat in doll clothes

Photograph by Evan Leavitt

December Moon

                       ... december moon / sleepy owl in the wild plum trees




Written with Cletis L Stump

Originally posted here:  https://latenightfootfalls.tumblr.com/post/70600705933 

Winter Coming On

                                            

                                                 maybe it's this stage of life

                                                 or maybe it's just winter coming on

  

                                                                                ... the comforting sound of the river

               

 

Photographer unknown

Heading Home

                                        ... crescent moon

                        on a winter road 
       
                                                          ... heading home



Written with Cletis L Stump  

In Memory of Cletis  (November 5, 1948 - August 1, 2020)

Originally posted here: https://latenightfootfalls.tumblr.com/post/73636850802/crescent-moon-on-a-winter

Edge of the Meadow

                       ... taking the chenille cover from the bed / she moves to the edge of the meadow

         ... bare skin in autumn sunlight / blue eyes locked on blue sky

                                                                                                ... horses by the fence line



Written with Cletis L Stump

Originally posted here: https://latenightfootfalls.tumblr.com/post/64780250928

Photograph by Cynthia Fleury

First Snowfall

 

                                     ... resting on the roof of the birdhouse / the first snowfall

                                                 ... on the perch outside the entrance a small mound balances in the wind

                           ... inside, the emptiness grows

Photographer unknown

Denial

                                                   ... birds come and go / dishwater grows cold

                               ... denial has worn itself out

Painting: John Farnsworth

One Trumpeter Swan

                                ... calling only once, a lone trumpeter swan flies over my house, my garden

                        ... this small patch of black eyed susans where I stand looking up at the sky

Image by Loui Jover

September

                                                                                           ... september

                            ... she waits with lantern on the porch / moonlight falling on leaves

                                                                     ... beyond the yard / forest shadows

Written with Cletis L Stump

Originally posted here: https://latenightfootfalls.tumblr.com/post/62874671937

Photographer unknown

Restless

                         ... restless stars ... it would have always been too soon





Photographer unknown

A Quiet Understanding

                                        ... sitting across from each other / knees almost touching

                       ... between us / a quiet understanding

                      


Photographer unknown

I Sweep the Steps

                                                                   ... late summer

                        ... I sweep the steps of dying leaves

                                                                           ... unaware / unconcerned ... the moon saunters past



Written with Cletis L Stump

Originally posted here: https://latenightfootfalls.tumblr.com/post/75494790120

Photographer unknown

Leaf by Leaf

                                                       leaf

                                                             by        

                                                       leaf

                                                      my

                                                      life

                                                        goes

                                                     by

Photograph: Andres Canal

A Thousand Crows

                        ... madness / a thousand crows caw in the field




Written with Cletis L Stump

Originally posted here: https://latenightfootfalls.tumblr.com/post/59880621829/madness-a-thousand-crows-caw-in-the

Art: Vincent van Gogh

Early Morning

                                                  early morning

                                                  barefoot in wet grass 

                                                  I wait for the lilies to open




Photograph: Anne Silver

Leaf Shadows

                                                              
                                                               leaf shadows on the kitchen floor

                                                               the freedom in choosing not to wonder
 



Photograph: Howard Dale

Minnesota

                                                   ... minnesota / late afternoon

                        ... walking back from the clothes line

                                                               ... arms full of bed sheets / eyes full of autumn



Written with Cletis L Stump

Originally posted here: https://latenightfootfalls.tumblr.com/post/64420058427/minnesota-late

Lilacs

                                   ... morning light / spent lilacs by the kitchen sink ....... this brief life




Photograph: Anna Marcell

A Bowl of Amber

        
                                            ... wheelbarrow filled with last night's rain

                       ... straw bales in broken sunlight

                                                ... wallace stegner in a bowl of amber ... me listening for the river



Written with Cletis L Stump

Originally posted here: https://latenightfootfalls.tumblr.com/post/63650463946/wheelbarrow

Photographer unknown

A Small Bird

                                      ... near the river / just down from the abandoned foot bridge

                   ... black eyed susans grow wild

                                                        ... farther down / a small bird ... safe on rusting barbed wire


                                                                         
Written with Cletis L Stump

My friend, Cletis Stump, who introduced me to micro-poetry and whose poems I've featured here in the past, passed on a few days ago. He had been struggling with health issues for some time. I've not posted some of our collaborations, so to honor his memory and our friendship I'd like to post a few of them over the next several days. This is the first of them. Originally posted here:   https://latenightfootfalls.tumblr.com/post/63727836587/near-the-river

Photographer unknown

Foxglove

                          ... winded
                                              / I lean into the fence line 

                                                                                                  ... my footsteps lost in foxglove




Photograph: Fiona Louise Larkins

Across the Evening Sky

                                                                              ... across the evening sky / red winged blackbird

                       ... so many ways to slip into the next life





Photograph by Sarah Gallaun

What We Choose to Recall

                                 what we choose to recall    

                                                       ... where the stone wall once stood / a patch of wild daisies

                                                                                                                 

                     

Photograph by Peter James

A Flower For My Hair

                                              strange how you came to mind
                                              only to read of your passing the very next day

                                              remember that summer we ran for
                                              the bus as they threatened to leave without us
                                              you'd stopped to pick a flower for my hair

                                              our laughter, the dandelion safely tucked behind my ear

Photograph by Martin Stranka

Apple Trees

                           ... the apple trees are on my land, but the neighbor is the expert on pruning

                  ... in the fall, we share the apples

                                                                        ... this year, he's pruning them alone

                                   ... we talk on the phone and say, we hope it will be a good year for apples

             ... and, the river is running high / the island has disappeared





Painting: Martin Johnson Heade

After

                                        that day has come around again

                                        that day ...
                                        when everything that came before
                                        became the after





Photograph by Sophie Fontaine

Angels

                                                on my way home
                                                from an early morning
                                                run to the grocery store
                                                I think about the receipt

                                                $7.77

                                                a few minutes later
                                                I pull into the driveway
                                                and step out of the car

                                                above me
                                                seven trumpeter swans
                                                headed toward the river

                                                we live in the company of angels




Photograph by Peter James

Apples

                                           from the field along the fence line
                                           my pail overflows with apples

                                           sunlit grass against bare legs





Art: Olga Grigorieva-Klimova

Storm in the Canyon

                                            ... storm in the canyon /// we find refuge among the ruins





Painting: Ed Mell

Turning on the Evening Lamp

                                                               turning on the evening lamp
                                                               I pause to look around
                                                               pottery, art, photographs

                                                               books that helped me through

                                                               I am overwhelmed by the past
                                                               by all these people looking back at me

                                                               seeing now so clearly
                                                               everything is memory





Image: Mara Light

Bluebells

                                         beyond the window under a foot of snow
                                         bluebells wait for spring

                                         from the warmth of my kitchen stove
                                         I wait with them

                                         this wildflower promise between us





Painting by William B. Hoyt

On the Riverbank

                                                                 alone on the riverbank


                                                                 moonlight

                                                                 falling

                                                                 on

                                                                 her
  
                                                                 breast
                                                                  

                                                                 a white swan in late autumn





Image: Jeanie Tomanek

Rattling in the Wind

                                             it will hurt as long as I let it
                                                                                         
                                             beech leaves
                                             rattling in the wind





Photo: Leila Fores