I Can Dance,

I can dance,

not on flat floors planed and polished,

but fine in fallen forests ice demolished.

not at clubs where bass beats drone,

but in capers cross creeks rock by stone.

not with guiltless girls or wicked wenches,

but in reels with rivers when it rains inches.

not a polite polka or a winding waltz,

but in jigs and jaunts up snow vested vaults.

not a twirling twist or shirking shag,

but a fleet foot fox-trot technical toe drag.

not to irksome instruments or vain vocals,

but in animation to loquacious animal locals.

not in soft soled slips or oxford hard heels,

but I can dance deftly, reflection reveals.

Appalachian

Done rumbling,

  soon asleep,

  cold creatures

  breathe mumbling.

Wrinkled deep

  crag preachers

  hulk humbling.

Ancient steep

  stone features

  slow tumbling,

  downward creep.

My teachers

  are crumbling.

Resolve, A Backpacker's Refrain

Though my soles are sore

I’ll not think it a chore

Though my heels feel hewn

I’ll hoof it to a tune

Though my shins seem shattered

I’ll not say it mattered

Though my knees still kneel

I will not appeal

Though my thighs are threshed

I will wake refreshed

Though my back is bent

I will not relent

Though my shoulders sure smolder

I’ll trek till they’re colder

Though my pulse may pound

I will savor the sound

Though my meals are meager

I will not beleaguer

Though my friends may falter

I’ll not be a defaulter

Though my strides shuffle stone

I will stroll on alone

Unrequited

I love her without reserve, committed.

I’ve gladly bowed to her will, submitted.

Yet she would see me drowned despite,

or left lying lame in a shivering night.

She lends no hand when I am crawling,

she stares stonily at my ugly bawling.

My tears pool at her feet unheeded,

she is unmoved, though I have pleaded.

Without forgiveness for my blundering,

exquisite Nature has left me wondering

How to reconcile respect with disdain,

and where to turn when love means pain?

Catamite Catamounts

I fear one creature in this land,

A fear that’s real and makes hairs stand.

I’d not soon hassle brushback hogs,

Been spooked before by feral dogs,

I have distaste of serpents too,

And thank that black bear often shoo.

I’m not ashamed at all to say

I fear the cougar night and day.

Supposedly they are not here,

But talk to woodsmen and you’ll hear

Of signs aplenty to be sure,

For they are near just as before.

A cat they say you will not see,

I’d rather not, it seems to me.

I fear I’d go without a fight,

Stricken to awe by the sheer might

Of a master schooled in silence,

From a kitten versed in violence.

And though they haunt deep in shadow,

I once saw tracks set straight in snow.

I’d trekked alone that winter day,

Up Grandpap toward crag McCrae.

But when I saw fresh feline prints

I thought of nothing save defense.

Quite seldom have I been so bared.

A naked child, yet I was spared.

I felt both fear and great respect

My blood still chills to recollect.

Land of the Free

Land of the free:
Global incarceration king.
In cell blocks sea to C,
You can hear it ring.

Building prisons furiously,
While their choirs sing
Of forgiveness, so spuriously;
Contradiction is their thing.

Maximum sentence screamers,
Oh, look how they're scared:
Their opulence in streamers,
Their lies and cheats be bared.

Surely they are dreamers,
The wealthy who are spared.
Always their false demeanors
Betray they've never cared.

Fear Not

“This land is protected,” 

So we are told.                       

 But I have inspected,   

             

And found it infected                

Where I often strolled. 

“This land is protected.”   

        

That notion is rejected. 

Laws have controlled,              

But I have inspected.               

Waste is often directed            

By those who patrolled

This land. “It’s protected.”       

It leaves me dejected,              

Noting were dozers rolled.       

But I have inspected 

               

Sanctuaries disrespected;         

Priceless places sold.               

“This land isn’t protected,        

            For I have inspected.”






           

A Brief History of a River

It began with a drop,

Likely from an icicle

It soon became a trickle

                       

Joined like-minded rivulets

Began to whisper epithets

Seemed to speak of revolution

All while becoming institution

Wrinkled and wore the crust

Drew out detritus and dust

Furrowed fields of mountains

Found fury in rapid fountains

Soothed the jagged young rocks

Smoothed the thirst of our flocks

Bore wary travelers on its back

A friend to those with the knack

Met the foolish with abhorrence

Lent them wisdom by its torrents

Below rolling hills it slowed

Its frightful fervor mellowed

Wound idly through the plains

Brought news of upstream rains

Released the soil bound and sworn

Engendered a harvest to be born

Flooded full, swollen brown

Rolling still trough to crown

It carried on; on and down.

Purgatorio

Faith and doubt
Have left me blind,
For when I have one
The other will mind.

Faith and doubt
Have left me bound,
For some knots loosen
As others grow sound.

Faith and doubt
Have left me deaf:
Their devotees shout
With every breath.

 Faith and doubt
Have left me mute,
Reluctant to choose
In a circular dispute.

 Faith and doubt
Have left me dumb.
When taken together,
They yield zero sum.

 Faith and doubt.
My guts says neither
Is worthy of trust.
Skeptic? Believer?

Bubbles Burst Bulldozing Budgets.

As bureaucrats began battle baying,

Debt degraded, deluded, decaying

Blunderers bluffed the bleating blind.

Whither would this warfare wind?

Filers filled with fury spilled.

Stampers stammered, styluses stilled

Loaners lowly longly groaned.

Invested listeners internally intoned.

Politics pandered to panicked pleads.

Conservatives clung to crumbling creeds.

Licentious liberals libeled restraint.

Querulous quacks were quickly quieted.

Argument augmented advanced ailment,

Deepening depressing dollar derailment.

 

Leaving?

I wish to live out there,
Under the trees.
But do I dare?

Would mighty wilderness
Break me to my knees?
I wish to live out there.

Or might nature caress,
Satiate, and please?
But do I dare?

Mountains: my address.
I could cast away keys!
I wish to live out there.

Tempting to regress
And disappear with ease.
But do I dare?

Life without duress,
Under the trees.
I wish to live out there.
But do I dare?

"Progress"

Rolling ridges  
Rushing falls
Deadfall bridges
Wooded halls

 
Water on rock
Thunder of May
Wary birds mock
Hunters seek prey

Moss of old
Ancient empire
Blossoms unfold
Virtue in mire

Man approaches
Spark to tender
Smoke encroaches
Flaming splendor

Laid to waste
Concrete disgrace

Breath of wind
Time may mend