Dearest Sovereign
In the heat of July
we are jealous of each other
we are bored with our practice
we are angry at the neighbors
our kitchens are messy
our businesses fail
we drink out of spite
and frustration is our only thought
You live quietly in the canyon,
sit down to dinner on the porch
and devour our despair
-Summer 1978
As he did
Alone
by a muddy river bank
in Gypsum, Colorado
with a body of red flames,
hollow and sensuous,
moist and unreal
The day runs on
like the river
Morning is gone
Afternoon is underway
Is there something I can do
as he did
to sooth the suffering of beings?
– April 1987
Spring
Spring has always broken my heart
with too much sunshine
and flowers too sweet under skies
that are too blue
Would that you had left in the fall
The spring hurts so much already
-April 1987
All the spring nights
New moon/dark night
sweet flower-scented breeze
rings the chimes
The same sad song in the wind
as all the spring nights
we served you in the garden
What is it that we thought would last?
What is left that we still don’t know will end?
-April 28, 1987
These charred bones
(On seeing your skull relic)
These charred bones
gruesome and sacred
held your smiling face
and vibrated with the tones
of your soprano singing
While life still haunts us,
while we remain undead,
may we carry on
under your weight
now released to the wind
and heavy as the clear blue sky
-Summer 1987
