now and zen...

1
A shallow crick flows
Between eroded earth walls
The sound of summer.

2
The spots of the fawn
Flutter and take to the sky
As white butterflies.

3
A cricket calls out
Across the Cuyahoga
The birth of autumn.

4
Sleep salamander
Underneath the harvest moon
Wake now as a newt!

5
A carp dives beneath
The water’s rippled surface
Where the orange leaf fell.

6
The phalaris grass
Bows its heavy head and prays
For the first hard frost.

7
Rising from the field
This white tide blacks out the sun
A sea of snow geese.

8
The hungry dog howls
The song of a full cold moon
To dead cicadas.

9
Still it lingers here
The smell of horses and hay
In this empty barn.

10
The frozen prairie
This small South Dakota town
Now I’m a stranger.