Monday, December 14, 2020

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

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

December Moon

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




Written with Cletis L Stump

Sunday, November 15, 2020

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

Thursday, November 5, 2020

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)

Thursday, October 29, 2020

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

Monday, October 19, 2020

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

Monday, October 12, 2020

Denial

                                                   ... birds come and go / dishwater grows cold

                               ... denial has worn itself out



Painting: John Farnsworth

Monday, October 5, 2020

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

Saturday, September 12, 2020

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

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Restless

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





Photographer unknown

Sunday, September 6, 2020

A Quiet Understanding


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

                       ... between us / a quiet understanding

                      


Photographer unknown

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

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

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Leaf by Leaf


                                                       leaf
                                                             by        
                                                       leaf
                                                      my
                                                      life
                                                        goes
                                                     by





Photograph: Andres Canal

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

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

Saturday, August 15, 2020

Early Morning

                                                  early morning

                                                  barefoot in wet grass 

                                                  I wait for the lilies to open




Photograph: Anne Silver

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Leaf Shadows

                                                              
                                                               leaf shadows on the kitchen floor

                                                               the freedom in choosing not to wonder
 



Photograph: Howard Dale

Monday, August 10, 2020

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

Sunday, August 9, 2020

Lilacs

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




Photograph: Anna Marcell

Thursday, August 6, 2020

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

Monday, August 3, 2020

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

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Foxglove

                          ... winded
                                              / I lean into the fence line 

                                                                                                  ... my footsteps lost in foxglove




Photograph: Fiona Louise Larkins

Friday, July 3, 2020

Across the Evening Sky

                                                                              ... across the evening sky / red winged blackbird

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





Photograph by Sarah Gallaun

Friday, June 26, 2020

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

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

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

Sunday, May 3, 2020

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

Monday, April 6, 2020

After


                                        that day has come around again

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





Photograph by Sophie Fontaine

Thursday, March 26, 2020

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

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Apples


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

                                           sunlit grass against bare legs





Art: Olga Grigorieva-Klimova

Monday, March 2, 2020

Storm in the Canyon

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





Painting: Ed Mell

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

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

Saturday, February 22, 2020

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

Friday, February 14, 2020

On the Riverbank

                                                                 alone on the riverbank


                                                                 moonlight

                                                                 falling


                                                                 on

                                                                 her
  
                                                                 breast
                                                                  

                                                                 a white swan in late autumn





Image: Jeanie Tomanek

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Rattling in the Wind

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





Photo: Leila Fores