Deer Are So Polite

Deer are gathered at a meeting
The first meeting of the spring
In the thawing cornfield.
Little ones are bored
They play and leap while
Adults discuss basic things.
Deer are so polite
No voices are raised
As they calmly chew the herbage
As they sniff the warming air.
Geese are flying overhead
"We're back" they call
To all below.
"We're back" because
The winter is past.
Robins are on the lawn
Picking at the turning worms.

The Seat Of The Soul

A long time ago, a lifetime ago

I began a search for the seat of the soul

I was not alone. My soul guided me.

Observing the open chest, the open skull, the pulsating heart and brain

I was awed by the glorious work of the Creator

But I did not find the seat of the soul.

Elbow deep in viscera. Hands on the beating heart.

Guiding the newborn into the air for the first time.

I searched. My soul stood by silently.

The path is a zig-zag path. The life is the path.

The path is alive, my soul said, look and learn.

Buried in books I searched for the answer.

In prayer, in ritual I searched for the answer.

Working, teaching, singing, touching, healing I searched for meaning.

My soul stood by me and prodded me along the path.

Where in the body is the seat of the soul?

The soul is not in the body, my soul whispered softly, keep searching

When you have found it, you have found it.

A Day In October

                  A Day In October

It was autumn, a shiny day like today
It was not the last day, but the last day I remember you clearly.
We were walking to the Parade Grounds
I had on a new jacket.
My hands, like yours were in the pockets,
Thumbs looped over the edges.
You told me not to do that, that Mommy didn't like it when I did
Things that weren't ladylike.
I took my hands out of the pockets.
I still looked like you.
We walked alike. We had the same gait
A funny half-step, step.
When I would get new shoes with leather soles
I would love to hear that sound on the pavement
Clippety-clop, clippety-clop
I'm a big girl.

Early in the morning at home while I was still in bed

I'd hear you.

Your slippers, clippety-clop in the hall.

I felt safe.

When you died, I could still hear them.

I waited to see you turn the corner, to see

If it was some mistake, that you

Weren't really gone.

Now that I am older than you were

When you died, I catch myself listening

For your footsteps in the hall

But they are my own.

                                              The Odd-Fellows Cemetery

We are a civilized people
We bury our dead
And lay stones upon them
To keep down their heads.

In the sealed apartments
The sleepers move through time
Losing their integrity
And turning into lime.

The angels sit upon the stones
To keep them in their places
Some are very heavy
But some have many graces.

Some have built great monuments
So they may move about
Within hermetic chambers
Which prevent their getting out.

In the sealed apartments
The sleepers move through time
Losing their integrity
And turning into lime.

The earth keeps spinning, silently
We fear the things we cannot see
We try to keep them bound and yet
The tighter they're bound, the freer they get.