four from the woods

one: woods lyric

every thing

contains its own spirit

pebbles, pinecones, people,

something amorphous

that precedes all nouns & names

sitting in the woods

all soft and neutral

I could be

Totoro

two. wood maker

before you forget about

the mask of shame leaching away at your face,

turn instead to the one unfinished

the mask carved from your ancestral tree

and patterned like your many mothers moving

finish it before you forget it's hanging from your neck always

finish it before your face is the mask of the moment again

it's never finished, but in your hands you can

don it whenever you please,

and adjust it when needed

it's such a relief

to look through a mask

and not see shame

three. woods quarry

I'm at the face of the rockies

above its foothill plateaus

hiking across an abandoned quarry

trail cleared from shattered stone

the soul is a weird thing!

the center of all poles

an actor, a hilarious friend

fooling me with masks and roles

the desert horizon, so blank and round

shadows blooming at sunset hour

I watch the palette drain of gold

and argue with greater powers

four. red woods

two days later and

sundown came early

the noon sun red

as the Rising Sun

over the hills

a blackening blaze

ash, ash

and omens

–October 24, 2020