2 Poems

Winter Prayer

Let the winters here become cold again, beset with
Cold winds and bitter storms.

Let a blustery artic wind come blowing through
The streets and into the alleyways, not missing
A nook or corner and let it chill the hell out
Of everything and everyone to the bone, making
Us all shiver and stand in awe of its piercing power.

Let the snow cover and blanket everything
In the city and let the skies be full of slow
Moving billowing clouds, so that when night
Arrives, a steel blue sky speckled with stars
Can come peeping through, amking a man look
And think of nothing but that for awhile.

Let these cold winters make him think of only
The cold, giving birth to a thankfulness for
What he has: his warm clothing, the coziness
Of a warm house, his family and friends and his
Work.

And then let it snow some more so that he
Can walk along the quiet lamp lit streets amidst
The little houses and trees sprouting ice blossoms.

Brooklyn, February 1999

Portraits of Movement in Grace For Wendell Berry & Gary Snyder

In the tidal flats little pools
with clumps of grasses and straw
provide habitat for the great egret.
He rythmically steps across the pond,
neck in harmonious bobbing with each step,
plunging his head into the water, fishing,
never pausing in his stride
looking from side to side, and up
for his mate.

Coming out of the water
as if a string were ever so slowly
pulling him up,
wings spread going higher and higher
peeling off to one side flying at her,
circling each other in the changing currents,
plumes erect, necks stretched to the sky
Mating dance.

then disappearing into the smaller trees
on the other side of the pool
from where she came.

Seeming satisfied veering
then back then down
to feed in another part of the flat,
body horizontal wings fully spread
only a head visible.
A little higher than the water level
he seems to stop becomes vertical
as he adjusts his aerodynamics.
Now suspended over slightly rippling surface
neck stretched up wings bent halfway
legs totally
extended and
down
as slowly as he rose
with not a movement in the water
as if he found two holes for himself,
with wings now relaxed alongside his body.
a symmmetry of up and down complete.

Three performances with no radar
no engine failures.
The Price:
A short drive to an out of the way beach
the use of a little fossil fuel
a short walk along a paved path
and then over some sandy terrain
getting chilled a little
smelling some air thatÕs not too pleasant.

Bargain in the spring.

Plum Beach, Brooklyn; early spring 1999

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