In late March

snow on branches

and what did I expect

branches blooming?

- arem

Thank the night

for showing you her full moon.

Thank the morning, the late afternoon,

for the long shadow

that makes you tall as your dreams.

Thank the schemes of twilight,

the novel and ancient ideas of streetlights

revealed in their glowing cones,

thank the bones of your ancestors

for the little you.

Thank the dewy flower,

the clock in the tower,

for not taking this moment.

Thank the sea for blue.

- Ralph Murre

to the equinox

and always

the great wheel turns

but slowly

- arem

Sunlight and Old Ice

What have I got to say about this image of the long-resting bay getting ready to cast off her heavy winter quilt, about the way the sun flirts with her, will gently kiss her moist body when she awakens? Nothing. Sometimes words, or at least, my abilities to use words, add nothing at all.

~ RM

DOWNSTREAM

On the Passed Time River

that winds through here,

near the point where it burbles

over Lost Day Rocks

and just before the Don't-Give-Up Falls;

the lazy floating,

the grayed head barely raised

to regard a west-slipping sun,

the faint cry from shore,

the rising mists of the maelstrom ahead,

the No-Going-Back Rapids,

the frail craft almost awash

in too late, too late.

The regrettable lack of a paddle.

- Ralph Murre