Blue Horses

Inspired by Mary Oliver

Now and then,

when a human event intercedes,

what seems necessary is not necessarily so.

Betrayed by a lover, poetics seem a ramblescat,

a mere caption, phony, like, who would want to know?

In a near wilderness where Blue horses, 

out from colorful dreams, 

are messengers from another world,

their watery movements and desert patience

have brought solace and taken me on quiet rides

while the grassland is softly sensuous

and I awaken.

from: Ponder: Dreams, Memories,

and the Imagination

Unpub. MS p. 31

The Grassland Paladin

Hereford, Arizona

Winter

Alone in my gazebo at midnight, 

I’m wrapped in a blanket; there are no voices,

no wind, but the chill of the grassland is flooded

by the half-moon’s light. A few coyotes bark,

great horned owls sing their four notes

to each other from the tops  

of the utility poles along my road.

I have to stifle my inclination 

to talk to myself. I’d be an intrusion

in the order of the night,

though my neighbor’s rooster

lets loose a reminder that 

he is awake and on duty,

a paladin assuring everyone

that he is in charge 

of the grassland’s tranquility.

From: Small Places, Big Places Everywhere

Unpub MS p. 27