Autumn in Vermont
The afternoon landscape is burning
into blushing dusk:
bonfires of saffron,
orange rind, lemon peel,
red flannel.
When night drapes houses
and hills with shapes,
a mellow moon
perches
on Green Mountains,
then rises to a silver spot.
The morning world arrives,
under water blue sky,
applauded by thousands of
birch leaves fluttering
gold and green
on Gun Hill.
Waitsfield,
Vermont
October 1997
from The Speed of Sight
Where Blue Meets Blue
Ephemeral,
still, indelible,
the water color
that lights out
from the surface
of this broad-day Bay,
into the iris
of my ocean-going eye;
that for a while
becomes
more brilliantly blue,
as if enchanted
or refracting
a blue more rare
and pure.
As I sit back
on a sun-rayed terrace
on a wind-raked terrace
on a hill
high above the source,
high above the view.
Nonsuch Bay
Bermuda
March 2013
Colores Primarios | Primary Colors
Burnt-orange bird
on pine tree
on plaster cloud
on azure sky
Punta Bete
The Yucatán
Mexico
February 2002
A Brush of Yellow
A brush of yellow.
A hatch of red.
A wash of blue.
Goldfinch,
blackbird,
heron.
Near-sunset.
Around the pond.
All soft ~ air,
wings, light;
song.
on Kitchell Pond
Loantaka Brook
Morristown,
New Jersey
May 2017