Spring is in the air and dog crap is thawing

So, just back from a run to the Big D.... Drove down to Big Rapids and spent the night with Leona, then to Detroit. Loaded up boxes and packed the car. Breakfast with Elise on Wednesday morning. That was fun. We haven't seen each other since Beth's wedding. Midmorning I headed back north into the last vestiges of winter. As of now the official snow fall for Houghton County is at 295 inchs.

Here are a couple of poems from the Vertin Studio.

VICTORY

blood of the humiliated
dries on the bullet pocked wall

scent of gunpowder and spices
linger in the shattered room

in the hazy free sky
the last dreams vanish


6 O'CLOCK NEWS

the universe is drunk
and I stagger with it


ALONE AGAIN

in my dream
you cry out
"Plunder Me!"
and I would
oh, I would

*
even the sight
of these humpt hills
make me horny

*

I do not like
the rising sun

in its glare
the dream of you
fades

*

in the cafe
the waitress's hands
are your hands
and I almost
grab them

*

in this world
I want my begging bowl
to be filled
with you

Enough. It was good to see Leona again. Tomorrow Zach and I will meet her in Escanaba and she will take him over to The Cities to visit Beth and Dave and Kristyn. I will come back to Calumet to clean the house. She and Zach will come back here on Monday. So we will be together for the week. YES!

Snow

After a weekend in the 50's winter has returned. Snow and blowing snow. Perhaps a foot or more by tomorrow.

summer flowers
so far away in this
blowing snow

oh, to be young
and flirt
raven in love
bobs his head
rustles his feathers
she watchs
waggles her wings
and he mounts



blowing snow
i clean the driveway
so i can clean it
again


this longing for spring
blown away in the snowy wind

no traveling today
the roads buried in snow
i'll stay home
drink hot tea
dream of you


this bitter wind
brings heavy snow
and thoughts
of warmer days
holding you


yesterday the raven
cried out for love from his
lonely branch
today i wait for your call
from the silent phone


These are just free writes done here.
The snow is so bad it isn't worth the mile drive up to the Vertin Studio. I will have to go out and shovel soon or else the dachshund will have to blow is way to go to the bathroom.
Tonight I'll send some work off to Erosha.
The raven stories are from yesterday. It was springish, in the 50's, and Zach and I had gone to Marquette to pick up Kristyn from the bus station. We had time so we went out to Presque Isle and heard this eerie echoing call. No idea until we saw the Raven in the pine that hung out over the cliffs above Superior.
We figured it was a mating call and later saw a pair of ravens on the bath. He bobbed his head and ruffled his feathers in front of her. Suddenly she bowed and fluttered her wings and he mounted her. Raven love! In public. Shameless exhibitionists. Ha!

winter storm
i remind myself that
all things will pass
but, outside the snow falls
and drifts against the house



visiting the whore
he tries to buy back the love
he lost when she left


Enough for now. Peace!

Been awhile.

Lest you think I am suffering from a WB here are some more
poems. I think in February I probably wrote over a hundred.
But, now I have to edit, re-write, and toss them. I have two poems that have just gone up on Tamphyr Mountain Poetry. www.tmpoetry.com If you would like to check them out. Ken Gurney has done a good job with keeping TMP as an ongoing publication.

Thinking of spring, here is a tanka.

the lure arcs out
across the still water
a dragonfly
hovers a moment
above the ripples



hiking
i walk into my own
silence


From Banks and Open Fields

snow blows across the highway
nearly whiting out the future

the snowbanks are high, tall
barriers that can't hold winter back

still, the sky is blue, split by
the white trail of a jet

We have not had a major storm this winter, yet, over 250 inchs of snow has fallen. So, I write a lot of winter poems. Many of February's poems were written at my studio in the Vertin Building. www.vertingallery.com I am not making any money, but I am writing.

trout and potatoes
sizzle in the cast iron pan
overhead,
a thousand stars

Probably enough for tonight. I will try to post more often.