quarantines
slow cricket chirping
gives voice to the lantern
outside the door
September 14, 2021
showy in the yard
matilija poppy
can’t abide a vase
September 12, 2021
porch light flicks on
abrupt crash in the raised beds
bolting, a deer
September 7, 2021
west wind rises
to sweep the grassy hillsides
surface of the pond
April 24, 2021
Helen Putnam Park
yesterday’s rain leaves
a sky full of stars
the unfallen
February 12, 2021
slow enough, this creek
raindrops leave rings
as small insects might
January 28, 2021
casket in this breeze
refreshing the arroyo
above cactus slopes
January 18, 2021
memorial service for Larry Clement
Oceanside
Santa Ana blows
later than ever—
cold, dry, alien
January 18, 2021
Torrey Mesa, San Diego
what color,
eucalyptus leaf?
no one honest can say
January 11, 2021
a patch of sunlight
cat dozing by my head
full of ticking clocks
January 11, 2021
birds in the rafters
rat bait along the baseboards—
loading bales of hay
January 9, 2021
Toby’s Feed Barn
Point Reyes Station
advancing shadows
in the grass beyond the sand—
first frog croaking
January 9, 2021
Chicken Ranch Beach
Inverness
with precision
calibrated by the tides
sand dollars’ flatness
January 1, 2021
Drake’s Beach
elephant seals bask
shining afternoon cliffs
shed clay in tumbles
January 1, 2021
Drake’s Beach
winter’s shortest day
low hum: bees ply the citrus
clicking: hummingbird
December 21, 2020
raindrops squat, placid
on a eucalyptus leaf
finches, a slim branch
December 12, 2020
unclogged rain gutter
unleashes a torrent
Buddha’s glistening smile
December 12, 2020
The Buddha statue’s
eyeball: Set upon it,
a drop of dew
Shiki
attending the pig
sparrows drop to the wallow
past fir trees for sale
December 5, 2020
who awakens first?
overseeing the household
the one who knows
December 3, 2020
after Kongming
filmy plastic sheath
between dry cleaning and
a world months away
November 8, 2020
purple-tinged with green
hummingbird, eucalyptus
darting, rustling, one
November 8, 2020
shing-shing the flagpole
casting my vote with the dead
wind-whipped legion
November 2, 2020
cat piss and fennel
en route to the ballot box
this town, this nation
November 2, 2020
her binoculars
Mare Serenitatis
first observation
November 1, 2020
sporting butterfly
falling leaf, three thousand years
joined by a poem
November 12, 2020
walled in by words
cooking smells below senses
tunnel free from thought
November 1, 2020
on moon-paved streets
stars find routes through town
a rose-ringed halo
October 30, 2020
no crazy band names
the Phoenix’s black marquee—
what “live” used to be
October 29, 2020
bays best for climbing
broad-based ancient, many crooks
enfold my daughters
October 25, 2020
persimmons ripen
gradient pink
pinchable newborns
October 24, 2020
empty clay basins
awaiting rain in the mist
awaiting music
October 24, 2020
means something, I guess
Mercury in retrograde
I simply feel bad
October 20, 2020
plant light in the east
to harvest at dusk—
looking back on the day
October 19, 2020
At Lisa’s and Megan’s house
bluejays giving voice
this crisp, fallow season
even the crows yield
October 16, 2020
an invitation
to sit out the pandemic
on granite steps
October 17 2020
Old Petaluma Library
pocketed acorn
sharpest point not made
of metal or stone
October 11, 2020
when the wind arrives
shadows take to the walls—
a sun-brokered peace
September 23, 2020
after three week’s wait
I raise the sash—
the grace of cool air
September 16, 2020
The smoke from the fires has finally abated
arrival of fall:
flies circle more slowly
as if at peace
September 19, 2020
fly on my ankle
when did you land?
take off?
September 19, 2020
pale blue tridents
eucalyptus flower
never considered
September 19, 2020
cast ashore awake
at random hours—
comforting, the clock
September 16, 2020
grape leaves rust while
lemon blossoms don’t yet bud—
the side of the house
September 12, 2020
terns probe the sand
seagulls scan the horizon—
two forms of patience
September 13, 2020
Dillon Beach
she rubs my back
her old hands firm again
with unforgetting
September 13, 2020
I can’t reconcile
the rack of scenic postcards
with the pall outside
September 10, 2020
Copperfield’s Books, Petaluma
you say no reason
when already established
what the reason is
September 8, 2020
crimson sun casts light
into an overcast dawn—
midday approaches
at midday, still dawn
the sun’s wan crimson lightcast
bathes birds in pity
this planet is mine?
into a stillborn dawn still
the crimson sun casts
September 8, 2020
California wildfires raging unchecked
a fall down the stairs
my wife rolls a joint, brings ice
urges me to sit
September 6, 2020
two compassion tests
drift in through the kitchen door
daring me to fail
September 5, 2020
journal, no, timesheet—
no time to finish it then
now before things fade
September 5, 2020
consciously set down:
a world of simple gestures
humble, beautiful
September 4, 2020
a stalk of fennel
in the bathroom, eyes closed
I soak in summer fields
September 1, 2020
five barnacle shells
attached to the mussel
cast up by the tide
August 30, 2020
lying on my side:
the good leg is a pillow
for the injured one
August 30, 2020
with the house sealed shut
the towels quickly sour—
but don’t smell of smoke
August 29, 2020
sand in the bathtub
my daughters back from the beach
rinse, but not quite yet
August 29, 2020
closed office window
nothing moves, nothing ages
and I am long dead
August 28, 2020
my farts aren’t human
what order gives rise to them?
some beast’s or demon’s
August 25, 2020
dusk fools me to think
the day’s acrid smoke
is somehow less
August 25, 2020
egrets in twos, threes
follow the river’s course north
a wingbeat or two
August 24, 2020
Petaluma River
when a skirting leaf
along the periphery
can pass for a rat
August 24, 2020
headlights through Marin
yet the cyclists keep riding
smoky dusk at noon
August 21, 2020
not a stray hair
or basal cell scab, my head
glistening at last
August 9, 2020
snow on the mountain
talcum powder drifting down
at the edge of touch
August 9, 2020
she shares a poem
of a shadow waiting for
a form to claim it
August 9, 2020
the black wasp banging
against the pane has no idea
I want to save it
August 16, 2020
rose sky, drifting ash
children play indoors today—
shelter, shelter, shelt-
August 19, 2020
Petaluma
the artichoke seeds
drift to the back yard, children
chasing fairies
August 14, 2020
even in summer
Point Reyes’ weathered wood sidings
betray the winter
August 14, 2020
my firm, clumsy grasp:
moth, how much dust can you lose
and still take wing?
August 13, 2020
vast pink lady bulbs
in the same place for decades
yield such slender stalks
August 13, 2020
rubbing its forelegs
as if to anticipate
food on the table
August 13, 2020
eucalyptus row
commands the ridgeline beneath
a milk glass sky
August 9, 2020
Two Rock
stretches of fennel
then Queen Anne’s lace, just as tall
along Spring Hill Road
August 9, 2020
Two Rock
the opposite shore
of the narrow bay: green clefts
of oak part the low brown hills
August 9, 2020
Inverness
Chicken Ranch Beach
you were a flower
until you took off, white moth
restless after all
August 7, 2020
Petaluma River
a faint crescent moon
marks a favorite passage
for want of a pen
August 5, 2020
crepuscular glow
from the lit palo santo
the rim of the world
August 5, 2020
thicket of fennel
taller than my head: I walk
in a pollen rain
August 2, 2020
Berkeley Marina
not seeing the key
that skittered across the floor
then stepping on it
July 29, 2020
so it’s possible
to wipe away a shadow
without knowing it
August 1, 2020
the last light of day
finds a path between buildings
to linger on trees
July 31, 2020
fog rolling eastward
dawdles over Nicasio
yet still beats me home
July 31, 2020
the cinemaplex
posters have mostly turned white
unchanging seasons
July 29, 2020
gently fluttering
as the nighttime breeze enters:
a blind’s single slat
July 28, 2020
Thank you for hearing,
reads the card. Great idea!
I send it, and hear.
July 27, 2020
to Marc Friedland
black cows, granite slabs
huddle together at noon
beneath a lone oak
July 26, 2020
Two Rock
I would kiss your foot
from under the covers, if
your soles weren’t so dirty
July 26, 2020
thick red dragonflies
not the familiar blue ones
darting around here
July 26, 2020
in one ear, secrets
in the other, betrayals
tell me, which is which?
July 21, 2020
creekbed at night
poison oak holds its distance
yet who takes this path?
July 21, 2020
summer fruits ripen
in such rapid succession!
we watch, motionless
July 21, 2020
berries mostly dry
those that remain, so compact!
late drought year harvest
July 21, 2020
Crane Creek
the new sunflower
no prouder banner hoisted
uncontested ground
July 18, 2020
my wife and daughter
still asleep in the gray light
side by side, smiling
July 18, 2020
dead apricot tree
now blossoming with finches
twigs and branches sway
July 17, 2020
rising from a nap
a few steps in one sandal
then—ah!— the other
July 17, 2020
blurred sidewalk shadow
looking down, see all the buds!
then up, withered leaves
July 17, 2020
the first morning dove
to announce itself in months
points to my absence
July 17, 2020
on waking
a garlic flower
amidst all the zinnias
catching morning sun
July 17, 2020
no wrong way to slice
a lemon but a sad way
recutting segments
July 16, 2020
Most from walking, many from the garden,
but yes, a fair number from the kitchen also
flight of geese descends
towards the water’s surface
one plane, another
July 16, 2020
Petaluma River
in the fig orchard
I will meet my memory
warm earth, stolen fruit
July 15, 2020
on occasion, a memory
can strike with the immediacy
of a direct experience
dirt becomes aware
of the porcelain I scrub
daughters come and go
July 15, 2020
in the rope hammock
swaying gently as a leaf
only this one limb
the mighty limb sighs
through the hammock’s taut rope
swaying, I listen
July 12, 2020
broken globes litter
the ground, dark with oozing juice
not one volunteer
July 5, 2020
the sink always drains—
dissolved psyllium husks, chai—
wait until morning
July 12, 2020
they search for the moon
in the window between them
tonight it obliged
July 4, 2020
midnight on New Year’s
the noise erupts, then subsides.
The Fourth of July.
July 4, 2020
in the interval
between blasts and crackles
a single cricket
July 4, 2020
the cricket’s rhythm
the firecrackers’ random bursts
Margot, hear through them!
July 4, 2020
face at the curtain
every time the screen door creaks.
Sixty years ago.
July 2, 2020
my mother
a few untucked stars
linger in the east, casting
both light and silence
July 2, 2020
try not to contrast
this afternoon’s dry, sweet scent
with the winter damp
July 1, 2020
Petaluma
figs dried to charcoals
scattered across the rooftop
by the feasting crows
Petaluma
July 1, 2020
to keep them quiet
we give them pens and the sheets
we’ve been writing on
Petaluma
June 28, 2020
the girls clamor for attention during our afternoon poetry gathering
fine dry summer dirt
takes to the air in a cloud—
dustpan full of leaves
Petaluma
June 28, 2020
preparing the back yard for our visitors
in quarantine, poems
about the garden crowd out
all but the June wind
Petaluma
June 28, 2020
soft gray morning light
someday we’ll go together
the wind reminds me
Petaluma
June 24, 2020
coins strewn on the shelf
behind, a row of books
teacup awaits pouring
Petaluma
June 23, 2020
toys around the yard
scent of cow shit from the west
so restless, this wind
Petaluma
June 23, 2020
a constellation
arrayed among the branches
all the yellow suns
Petaluma
June 13, 2020
for Marissa on her birthday
unripe plums, dozens,
scattered across the driveway
by a gusting wind
Petaluma
June 5, 2020
a conversation
beneath the eucalyptus
at the wind’s request
Petaluma
June 5, 2020
spider sitting still
this past month, how many years
must I remain here?
June 2, 2020
Petaluma
white moths fluttering
above the stream bed to hear
how it catches rain
May 18, 2020
Petaluma
one tree catches rain
more loudly than the rest
and now, another
May 18, 2020
Petaluma
past dusk, one last bee
attends the rosemary
by choice, by chance
September 4, 2016
Petaluma
okay, so it’s from before
