Coyote, i
saw you through
the trees today,
framed by lovely
leaves; a way
of being born
in living ray
assay assay a-
breathing bounty
god of May
i am not sorry
you_startled
me_startled
_We
This poem was born of a chance encounter with a coyote in the woods near my home. I have had multiple run-ins with this coyote, but this time was particularly peaceful. I had spent about 30 minutes sitting on a rock on a hillside off the beaten trail and ol' coyote wandered my way. I didn't hear him approach and all of a sudden he was perhaps 15 feet away through the underbrush. The low lying, thorny bushes that separated us were thick and lush and while he didn't tarry he did seem to acknowledge that we could both enjoy the midday, spring sun together (briefly).
she drapes across his
soulscape like the snow
silent; settling
softening the sharp
and jaded bough to
accentuate a rock
here and
a crevasse there
while light,
flurries tease,
the remainder
I wandered through the snow and was struck by how nicely it had fallen upon the woods. I didn't grow up with snow so every time it sticks around me I try to spend some time in it. I'm fascinated by how snow feels like a character or an opinion that the world assumes every once in a while. The same place, the same path, but with an attitude that expresses something completely different than even just the hour before. I've noticed that people do this with each other too. We bring out and highlight and mute and soften and harden all these different aspects of each other. Sometimes it's on purpose, sometimes it's not, but it's always happening.