GAUNTLET OF BAITED HOOKS
Ann Piet Anderson (apa)
Francis Fike (ff)
Marchiene Vroon Rienstra (mvr)
In Memory: George Ralph (1934-1997)
In the first snowfall,
High geese southward bound, calling.
Woodflame in fireplace.
ff
Freezing waves toss chunks of ice
Into miniature mountains.
mvr
Dripping icicles.
Fishermen retrieve shanties;
January thaw.
apa
Through gauntlet of baited hooks,
Steelhead upriver surging.
ff
Past the sparkling sand
Rippling wavelights glittering
On the moonflamed lake.
ff
Wind and combers sweep the beach
Wet sand castles disappear.
apa
Ducks dot the water;
Sunlit snowflakes fill the air,
Veiling blue sky's face.
mvr
Two mated loons swimming by.
Longing for a form that fades.
ff
Across spiderwebs,
Aging lovers, arms entwined.
Shadows crossing path.
apa
Perching on a budding branch
A cardinal feeds his mate.
mvr
Is this crimson snow?
No: the freshfallen flowers
From the redbud tree.
ff
Summer fields of wild poppies.
Watching monarchs playing tag.
apa
A pale new moon blooms
In a dark meadow of stars.
Two children pick them.
mvr
The sudden rainshower bends
A rainbow over the hills.
ff
Sparks of brilliant white
Streak across the evening sky.
November's fireball.
apa
A cold gray December day;
A single yellow rosebud.
mvr
Under the ice-veneer
Encrusting the mountain brook,
Bubbling waterflow.
ff
A line of golden headlights
Through a radiant whirl of white.
mvr
Night sky, shining light
Rising far from human source-
Pulsing Aurora.
apa
Recumbent on a soft dune
Watching the heavenly dance.
mvr
As she walks by surf,
Grey gulls rise and scatter,
Settling behind her.
ff
Up above the morning mists,
Dew-covered pine needles shine.
apa
Last leaves swirl downward
Leaving branches bare and cold,
Blanketing my love.
mvr
Snowflakes add a second coat
Over the leafmeal primer.
ff
Clouds cross the Big Lake,
Another layer coming.
Flurries fly softly.
apa
Afloat beyond frozen beach
Wintering white swans gather.
ff
Lake waters moving!
Freed from winter's cold prison
Whitecaps leaping free.
mvr
Gusts of freezing wind try to
Reach through the window for warmth. apa
She startles awake.
Opening eyes fill with moon
Pouring through framed glass.
mvr
No dream: haloed by doorlight,
He . . . and she no more alone.
ff
A cry of relief,
Familiar scent and shadow,
Joyful reunion.
apa
Atop a distant iceberg
Two tiny figures embrace.
mvr
Clenched catkins unclasp-
At streamside, pussywillows
Airing their grey fur.
ff
A fuzzy head scans the sky,
Sees a rabbit in full moon.
apa
White dogwood blossoms
Fly by windows of a train
Speeding into spring.
mvr
Snow clings to ditches, but hills
Are green, rivulets running.
ff
FROM A COLLABORATION:
Douglas Barbour
Sheila E. Murphy
Part I
sturm und
wrangling
with that angel always
staring
back upon the piling ruin
playthings, molten
mild toward
the inter-
locking senses
visual in-
tact
'its your own flicker'
'ring'
around the
after what lost con
nect i only wanted to know
how to see it not save it
plash / salt / ticker /
voluble encroachment
tulip one, tulip two,
a speck of dew at that,
some solo wires
some solo fires thicker
than or wider
wings spread to
raise the ante
'in front of' the sun
what signs float in the empyrean
celeste, her name-
seamed mild
blue eggshell
sans foreground
of stranded sun
over a wing afield
afar or falling
to sea med or black
meld or block that light
'translucent' & so wide
the notes hang still above
waves washing ultramarine
as if / as in a colour seamed
young ring chipped small
haze blue's entrancing
migrant light
in tones as wide
intoned
informed
in foam as white
retreats the night
hostile blueblack now
a single star's chipper gleam
sews a dark possibility
treats nacht as stoic
empt- ever to be glanced upon
entirely potent
in its absent
gleam as
buried [lance]
where / temperature / was
sketched into / frost cloth's
preclusionary warming
trance [meanwhile]
a qualitative light brushed
health's own sacrament
channeled that bright
20/20 breath's
balm blame
not the sacral sight
white shapes the air
behind those disappearing legs
[entonces] migratory venture
while appearing [still]
the sense of sight repairs
what has been missed:
logs on the fire now dwindling
shapes as strewn things . . .
at once the migraine censure
disappears [at will]
sensual at night stares
at what shifting possibilities
the embers fading
slip into the mind
as voice desired husk
leveled into surfaces
sans color smoke, though,
in a night way taking
free places into custody
to know them only silently
stepping lightly through
or across such cancelled
sights & sounds a single leaf
floating stretches
time, the reach of moon
lighting paths across the river &
some silver posse lined
to locate in the fallow trim
a blessing wherewithal
speech
chanced upon per
the directional endeavoring
across and in and through
that way this way
gone into the world of
beyond & through or over
as the wheel turns
or the arrow offers
truth above the treeline
vast / a word of limitless
long wide blue environment /
a word tainted by
crust [alas] that blocks
kinesis in around through
these lines
so walking saw those environs
the other day at
one melt (ed) e.g.
it meant expansion
ice broken & lines
bent toward the ley of the land
expanding means of weighing
transportation, runes stand
still to temper fleeting lithe scapes
seamlessly, improved
by the domain
of their recovery
du main / 'the ayre' which weighed
& shooed away by
lifts above both runes
& ruins fleeing
above (across) a sown
(sewn) blue blazon
chemistry / in fact / flecks
cheshire golden in the time passed
swiftly around sanctions
uncontrolled damage (dommage)
until the till and many
boundaries retract (such blue)
as fades to black or ultra
marine marooned
or kept behind such walls as
raise the roofbeams of solid
cloud to whirl the lift of
loss of globe's glissade
lobe's impasse equals drama
quelled, if touch is all there is
to changing trees with scribble
on embarking,
so the journey is
from far enough away
SO HARD TO UNFASTEN
Maggie Chula
Jean Jorgensen
a few leaves still cling
old couple walks arm in arm
down an icy path
nights shorten, the steady drip
of sap in the bucket
she works the soil
a long, pink worm slides
around a seedling
those fishnet stockings
so hard to unfasten -
his first garter belt
polished stones
tide rolling out. . . rolling in
reluctantly
she eases off her diamond
all-- or nothing
August, 1990 - Jan./2001
MORE GLOW
Cherie Hunter Day
David Rice
calcified coil
as it tumbles in the surf
my mind considers
death as a full halt
with more motion afterwards
each pebble's ripples
widen across the water
then disappear
the wind is our ancestor
whitecaps our past and future
after sunset
the last remaining warmth seeps
from granite boulders
a lizard slows its heartbeat
our alliance with the stars
lets us imagine
an eternity of wishes
the cold rocks of moonlight
keep me grounded
in our short half-life
at ground zero
alpha, beta, gamma decay
unguarded moments
when we sense love's fallout
continuously streaming
exposed
to a blinding flash
of the sublime
we use the time we're given
to search for more glow
INTO THE MAW TO START OVER
Cindy Guentherman
Dave Bachelor
jobless again
he looks up to see
a striped cat
move through darker shadows
into taller grass
slowly
into the maw of the night
little boy
creeps down the hallway
to the bathroom
first light
touches both at once -
the discarded empty bottle
ears of the collie
asleep on the step
affair over
outlines of weeds
choking the neglected ditch
far away
crows cry
tonight's stars
lost in cloud haze
still she makes her wish
counts the ways
to start over
old man dreaming
her touch, perfume
on the stream's surface
green scum
barely moves
NEGLECTED
Marlene Mountain
Carlos Colón
neglected some of my favorite pals as i try to sort thru long-agos
newspaper article crumbling in my hands
not in the moment rake leaves as they fall or when all have
fallen
illegal procedure autumn link with a football reference
'the term for the compiler of a saijiki?' analyzer retentive?
corny to the max maize maze shaped like louisiana
no need for alarm clock today a roach lands on my face
one blanket two blanket three blanket night
haiku commandments and then there were none
grimy gingrich a face big enough for two
full moon along with the champagne we share a yawn
after little josh leaves back to my own chaos
custodychainofcustodychainofcustodychainofcustodychainofcustody
females degraded again our beautiful lips 'garbage' etc
looking for inspiration no further than my own back yard
windless
chimes
i tried to give away compliments but they kept returning
traditionalist his poem running smoothly on all 17 cylinders
interesting ball game ruined by motor-mouth announcers
california feelings live from her 7.1 derailed dining car
phone
floyd he names himself after hurricanes
the billionaire the ego with 'a stable of stunning
girlfriends'
camel's hair brush on the record needle
wrens at the window sill for what's left in the peanut butter
jar
license plate eye test: A 5 5 1 5 1
not enough brain-dead donors well take stuff from the drunk
drivers
funeral casket evaporating tears
trial as an adult a boy with first grade understandings the
cold
four generations from shackles to shackles
ancestors on the web a line of native blood diminishes to
1/256th
crack in the mirror dip of the carpenter's tool belt
low whine garbage disposal gagging on a dish towel
rattled not in my 'garden of earthly delights'
frost on the rose petals shaken baby syndrome
all those chinese males no females to love
leafless yard among the bare trees an empty rake stuck in the
ground
'sole legal authority' the alien elian almost home
Notes:
14m chris ofili 'the people who are attacking this painting are
attacking
their own interpretation, not mine.'
17c robert major
21m the howard kurtz in a stable of non-stunning boy yakkers on 'cnn'
24c if your vision is fuzzy enough, the license plate reads ASSISI
September 2, 1999 - January 5, 2000
ANOTHER DANCE
Naia
Marjorie Buettner
you were never mine
nor could you say I was yours
still there was a time
your desire eclipsed mine
living under its shadow
as night first settles
in the darkness of half sleep
I fall into it
as I once fell into you
knowing and yet not knowing
how these ancient stars
sail from the midnight sky to
dock at this dream's shore
where nothing is familiar
but everything is the same
with dawn's first stirrings
the rhythm of our dance slows
into waking day
yet I know in deep silence
there will be another dance
ROUND AND ROUND
Zane Parks
Jeanne Cassler
Carlos Colón
first warm day
the ceiling fan sweeps
cobwebs
zp
round and round the lake
the skier's bright swimsuit
jc
flowering redbud—
under heart-shaped leaves
we shed our
clothes
cc
her corsage pressed flat
even before the scrapbook
zp
caught on camera
the startled cub runs back
to his
mother
jc
grandpa's backwoods tales
mingle with the pipe smoke cc
full moon
a new ball of yarn
from the knitting
basket cc
fainting in the nurse's arms
as the needle
enters
zp
foggy night
a white-tailed deer
just before the
crash
jc
rainwater refills
a rusty
hubcap
cc
mackerel sky
fishers argue whose bigger
one got
away
zp
one voice louder than the rest
in the apartment
upstairs
jc
TEN TANRENGA
Carol Purington
Larry Kimmel
night voices -
rowboats rock
on black water
trying to write down the dream
without waking up
__________________
in the black night
the shanty's yellow window -
creak of moorings
somewhere far away
with no address
___________________
with the fish in its beak
the heron flies
to the farther bank
the water steadies into blue
into daydream
___________________
empty afternoon . . .
the teacher says I must not
divide by 0
between hopscotch and geometry
I draw a blank
____________________
eclairs and coffee
till moonlight
winter lightning
startled into silence
by farewell words
______________________
knowing it will
have to last for a long long while
the farewell kiss
wishing fast
but the star fades out
_______________________
in the black
of night the gurgle
of rivulets
by flashlight
to the lambing barn
______________________
March wind
an oak leaf scuttles along
the curbstone
chocolate cream pie
for a case of the blues
______________________
all right!
somebody's got a lot
of explaining to do
a scarlet tulip
in the vegetable garden
______________________
YELLOW WORDS
Werner Reichhold
Jane Reichhold
A year of straw
air lifts July higher
to yellow words
sentence passed upon the field
from the road two are walking
is it printed
their wagon's wheels press
lines into the clay
natural nature forms
language of a honeycomb
he who harvests
does not require
sweet memory
did finished doing
saved summer in apples
not the knot
in the hayrope seeds
sprouting
come in the name of green
grass feeding from twisted roots
this rain
the cloudy skies have cleared
tourists from the beach
is there more mouth to drink
warm visions in a tent
a fever
the wound becomes
hot and dry
joke walks away and returns
to a body of patience
a cat's name
goes out on the night air
brings him home
sentence of fast reactions
a mouse in its teeth
is now ceased
the brightness of an eye
where did it go?
natural carved on wooden masks
and no more noise in ivory
he shot he said
an elephant in Africa
later it was a lie
did shade a lip
on a faded Polaroid
which was
deeper down the river
a beach for nymphs
is imported from Hollywood
and portable palm trees
variable selves
testing inner voices
I talk to ring doves
and the forest answers
green, gold and russet
they swing
branches on the sky
lines of a paraphrase
will-o-the-wisps in the swamp
leading the way to quicksand
offer and swallowed
the lighthouse meridian
a flame
him she cried pointing left
the judge blinked blankly
liver transplant
we eat the onions
so it smells less
with I-beams and trusses
foreign workers repair the bridge
and on both hills
straps of rain
the cloud falling apart
without trying to go around
the spider straightway makes a circle
oil spreads on water
the calming influence
of one rainbow
a long-billed dowitcher
her flights to sprinkled eggs
sentence ending fast
the renga nearly done
at lunch time
made red more red on salmon
overlapping tongue
against a twig
the past and future folded
in a bud
...shading earth and me
the moon within nine months
Started: April 7, 1993 /Finished: April 11, 1993
EVENING SUN
Alexis K. Rotella
Marlene L'Abbe Rudginsky
Evening
sun
melting.
Honey over
warm toast.
Persian violets
scenting
the bath.
Goldfish flowing in
and out of her hand.
Yellow butterfly
leaving
the day lily.
Origami kimono
in her collage.
Caffe latte
at the
Whirligig Cafe.
No room
for Rumi.
Neighbor's
leaf blower -
his mantra?
LAZY on
a license plate.
A whole morning
spent
at DMV.
Flight attendant weeding
her flower patch.
A big wind
has come
to prune the trees.
A bird repeating
"Virginia Virginia."
Jellyfish
inside
the paper weight.
Sunday dim sum
discontinued.
Surprise party -
no one
shows.
New boss
in a tight mask.
Tonto
and Kimosabi
head for the hills.
Cezanne's blue
under the hedge.
Woman weeping
under
the willow.
Llama eating
Cheerios.
Yakkety Yak -
the sermon
never ends.
Adam and Eve
sculpted in ice.
My Sin perfume
on a breeze
from the South.
Sand painting
swept away.
The illness
gone deeper -
January snow.
The mime's
invisible yoyo.
A cello
in the motorcycle
side car.
Happy hour -
everyone frowning.
Clown
walking
with a limp.
Stars faded
from the flag.
Early autumn -
Hollywood Boulevard
in morning light.
French poodle
in the driver's seat.
Seals
barking
at dawn.
A hula hoop
runs the red light.
July 12, 200l Arnold, Maryland
THE LEAF DANCED
Virginia Woolf, with unchanged parts of text from her book, The Waves
Werner Reichhold
the leaf danced
in the hedge without anyone
to blow it
VW
rotary and sideways
hurricane's eye
WR
secret territories
lit by pendant currents
red on one side
VW
our fleet is steaming westward
swallowed by sundown
WR
at first so moonwhite
radiant
where no foot has been
VW
ocean terrace
rush of a salty tongue
WR
peeling the skin
thumb and one finger open
flesh of half a peach
WR
lovers lying shamelessly
mouth to mouth on the burned grass
VW
a couple
dividing itself
into three
WR
bright arrows of sensation
shoot either side
VW
lips on the rock
the tideline feeds
pink anemone
WR
I saw fields rolling in waves
of color beneath me
dropping
VW
Medusa into coral's
aquatic tree
WR
we found one word
one only for the moon
VW
deep down the well
ripples on the mirror
undulate her hair
WR
my true self breaks off
from my assumed
VW
how long
a night can last
petals to open
WR
I cannot move without
dislodging the weight of centuries
VW
I need someone
who's mind falls like a chopper
on a block
VW
pointing where they met before
place beyond another star
WR
I shall be lifted
higher than anyone of you
on the backs of seasons
VW
celestial motion
the smell of juices sweetens
WR
the firelight
brook of some round apple
on the curtain
VW
unidentified twinkle
sunglasses for your gaze
WR
we are silhouettes
hollow phantoms moving mistily
without background
VW
a stone's blinking
beam of a tiger eye
WR
I can imagine
nothing beyond the circle
of my body
VW
fiber sprouting
lovers in a bow
WR
flowers only
the cowbird and the moonlight
colored may
VW
deep cut blouse
the oval necklace widens
WR
blue boarding time
the jacket with the captain's
golden wing
WR
we are forever ourselves
with unknown quantities
VW
returning
with the daughter's son
grandpa's smile
WR
the world that had been shriveled
rounds itself
VW
flipping a flower
over his shoulder
to someone else
WR
I'll shade my eyes with a book
to hide one tear
VW
allowed by sundown
WR
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