The Spiritual Nature of Anticipation

anxious, a-
spiring

to be heard,
as an

embryo's heart-
beat, hard

to grasp,
to see

the next leaf
over-

head breaking
away,

to Fall.

(First published in Poetry Salzburg Review #9, Spring 2006.)

Bring 'em Back Alive (1884-1950)

Hey, Frank

Buck, why don't you
just get up-

wind of that
specimen

blue and white pied spring
meadow riddled with red

bursts of poppy

anemones and bright
bleeding

tawny tiger lilies
yellow dandy

lions

coming back to life?

His Reticence

--for Eleni

Rain has been falling
All night, love,

So softly
I wanted to tell you,

I wanted to tell you
Forgive me,

You were sleeping so
Peacefully.

Disclosure

"I would love to be a word in a Zambaras poem."
--William Michaelian

Lovely being

a word in a poem
enclosed in a bottle

opened by one
you love.

Widow at Window; Witness

Photo taken in Kastoria, Northern Greece, 1974; poem written 34 years later--even if I hadn't taken the photograph, the image of this old woman looking wistfully out her window down at the foot traffic passing below her window would have remained indelibly in my memory.