October 2017
Omen
Omen
Walking through the woods
in search of solace
in need of comfort –
too many friends are stricken
the threats of age loom large
there is no cure
you lose all muscle movement
and yet your mind stays clear
to suffer through
in full awareness
or else your brain surrenders
erases more and more
of who you are
full of tangled twisting neurons
like gnarly branches
black against the sky.
How can one bear the knowledge
the ineluctable decline
encroaching on all sides?
Above my head an owl
glides through the trees
a giant shadow
massive yet silent
graceful and solemn
coasting home.
January 2017
Meditation at Year’s End
Meditation at Year’s End
(with a nod to William Butler Yeats)
Poling along an uneven path
and grateful for my walking sticks,
a bit off-balance,
out of breath,
I ponder what to write;
what message can I send
on this year’s greeting card?
Against a pallid heaven
the leafless branches etch
a dark and twisted pattern:
twilight nears.
Could this be the time,
foretold of old,
when some rough beast
comes slouching to be born?
The slaughter of the innocents,
the reigns of anarchy
and of false gods
appear the order of the day.
Where are the wise men,
where their gifts,
the proclamation:
peace…
November 2016
Milkweed
We are honored to publish this poem by Dorian Brooks. It has just been awarded first prize in the 2016 Arlington (Massachusetts) Poetry Contest by well-known poet Susan Donnelly. Dorian has published the poetry volumes A Pause in the Light and The Wren's Cry.
Milkweed
“Do you love your life?”
my friend asked. And if
we hadn’t been walking
through September fields
with cobalt skies
sifting gold around us,
and if I hadn’t just
pulled a milkweed pod
from its stalk,
split the ripe pouch
and run my finger over
the little silken fish-scales –
each brown seed
ready to fly –
…October 2016
Eilenriede
Eilenriede
(our woodsy park in Hannover)
The green today
is dark and solid;
its massive walls surround my path
block out the light
and mute
contrasting colors.
On either side
I barely see
a tree trunk standing out,
no branches
marking patterns
behind a screen of leaves.
I raise my eyes
and hope to find
a slice of blue above,
or shaft of sun
streak down
to part
the darkling wood.
I stand awhile and ponder,
well past the middle
of my life, still
waiting for enlightenment.
(October 2016)
September 2016
THE EVENING NEWS!!! A RANT
THE EVENING NEWS!!!
A RANT
As a rule we like to watch the PBS Evening News. We have come to rely on Judy Woodruff’s perfectly pitched tone and narrative of the day's events, whether tragic, worrisome or – occasionally – cheering. And the informative, sensitively delivered reports and interviews of Jeffrey Brown and the rest of the crew help us digest the often complex material as easily as our tv dinners. But once in a while we stumble into a network version of the nightly news, and the difference is, well, like night and day.
For some years now we’ve complained, along with most…