FLIGHT PLAN |
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Photograph by Bob Gentry 8/5/99
A Thought for Today
I've never envied the dead, I love making decisions and
mistakes.
The regular daily Flight Plan will be
suspended for a few weeks while I'm away helping Webmaster Ken Blackie work out the design
and content of our upcoming STANYAN HOUSE web site. I hope you'll continue landing here
ever day though because Jay Hagan and Melinda Smith have chosen two poems from a different
one of my books for every day that I'm gone.
So, something new will be here every morning. The Thought for Today and the Notable
Birthdays will continue. See you soon.
Love, Rod
Three poems from "In Someone's
Shadow."
January 18
I've put these few things down
to help remind me of a year
when love was plentiful as table wine
and warm as Mr. Kelly's back
when he lies next to me at night
grumbling at imaginary fleas.
I've set the corner posts in only.
The fence will be a different one
than what it really was
but it will be the best
that wishing thoughts can build.
When I've memorized the words
I'll go out looking once again.
Later,
lying close in someone's shadow
I'll call back all the times
you danced off from the bedroom
in
your underwear
and brought back mugs of coffee,
the way a Bible temptress
might have brought back baskets of fine fruit
for Solomon.
You always thought me sleeping.
No.
I woke up first,
just to see you stumbling
from the bedroom half-awake
blind eyes searching for the kitchen.
Just to be awake when you awakened me.
May 5
The sky
is the forehead of the morning
passing the sun along the day,
distributing the clouds
that move above us
and ride with us till nightfall.
And your eyes
are the bottom of the day
set on fire by words,
made to move by sighs
and the rustling of the trees.
We'll go to the hills then,
take our time.
Climb until we find one
closest to the sky.
I'll spread a blanket on the ground
and make a picnic of your body.
You'll face the sky and count the clouds
and when the counting stops
I'll take you home again,
down a dozen hills under a hundred skies.
I know the ground is not yet green all over
but trust me.
I'll find the greenest hill of all
and your red dress will be the single flower
that grows against the grass.
Me and the day
we care for you
without the rivalry of common lovers
and we'll be careful as the rain,
gentle as the clouds.
- Chosen by MS |
