Elysium

I think of you dancing

across a forest floor,

an ancient forest

filtering morning light

and the high-pointed notes

of hidden birds.

I think of you gliding

through this sea of green

forest flowing

with mosses and ferns,

your bare, star-stemmed body,

all cream and rose,

mirroring the grace

and joy of a doe

as you move swiftly

over the fragrant earth,

so free, so flush

with life and loveliness.

Punta Bete

the Yucatan Coast

Mexico

February 2003

Enveloped

                     for a rare friend & master imagist Richard Kehl on his 72nd birthday

Enveloped by women

with gourds, and grace;

bared breasts, freckles,

oranges. Geishas

making faces. Wings

and ladders; long legs and

napes. By hundreds of hands

~ one holding a heart.

By whales and butterflies,

elephants and zeppelins; cafés

flowing with artists manqué.

Rain-soaked Parisian streets,

sepia-soaked Dutch canals.

Rilke poems. Planets

and sutras; lovers

and leading men.

Men in turbans playing flutes;

men attempting flight;

men aroused; in hats,

in flames. By floating objects,

rocks and teapots; stars shooting

and falling. Kissing, romancing.

Enveloped by a carouselling

constellation of ideas

and images, history

and fantasy, beauty

and memory.

That imprint the senses,

and all the places

we live and roam,

east coast to west.

Continents vast

and varied, found

and lost. United

kingdoms, European

capitals; the addresses

of our dreams

and desires.

Enveloped

by the flying eye

and alchemy

of a magician

from Mexico, 

Missouri.

New York City

September 2008 

Earl’s Eyes

                 for Earl Burgett on his 83rd birthday

Blue as blue hydrangeas,

they’ve seen the world

at war and peace;

mountains and the men

who moved them;

children and grandchildren

come and childhood go;

thousands of moons

full and waxing,

suns rising; faces of all kinds

and cultures smiling.

They’ve opened widely

in love and closed shyly

in kisses; cried for a lifetime

of joys and sorrows,

of sentiments and great moments

of exuberance. And the more

they see and let and light inside,

the more we see, through those

luminous, endless blue eyes,

of you.

East Hampton,

New York

October 2007

Holding Your Breath

You hold your breath,

have held your breath

for a thousand feet,

a thousand years down,

through black and blue

waters, blizzards, glaciers,

barnacles, harpooners.

Still surviving, still returning

to the surface.

at anchor off The Brothers

Frederick Sound

SE Alaska

July 2009

Andras tis Tzias  /  Man of Tzia

                   for Stelios Papageorgiou

Man of marble.

Pure. Simple. Humble.

Man of sapphire sea

and endless sun,

oak, umber earth,

ancient stars.

Man of honey

and wild thyme,

syrtos and ballos;

happiness, timelessness.

Living man of Kea

melded with the spirit

of Crete. Heartful,

soulful, memorable

man.

Korissia, Kea

The Cyclades

Greece

August 2012

The Nose-in-the-Box

Wind the tiny crank 

on the side

of the facebox 

and you hear Magic

Flute music.

Keep winding 

and at Papageno's

first birdcall ~

the fifth, piped note ~

out pops

The Nose, 

Le Nez,

Il Naso.

In ample,

graceful

and colorful 

aquilinity.

First it sniffs.

Then it sneezes.

Next, it wrinkles.

And then,

it takes 

a deep inhale

and points,

weathervanely,

sans-souci-ly,

into the wind.

Morristown,

New Jersey

December 2016

Toward the Lavender Hour

                   for Louis & Suzanne

You, Picasso aigu

in your summer straw

shading blue eyes and

sailor stripes, juggling

a bubble of cold wine.

Your long demoiselle

sheathed in black,

head full of blond

oak leaves; hydrangea eyes;

begonia lips

blossoming a kiss.

The fragrant hedges

bumbling with morning

memories of bees;

now lushed

with evening sun

and soon a layer

of lavender light.

Here under the swishing of

clouds soft over the lawns,

and the fields singing

with redwings and pizzicatos

from the darkening boughs.

Where an eyeful of moon

will peer in to see us

savoring the night.

out on the East End

Bridgehampton,

New York

July 1998

from The Speed of Sight