In this still forest,
we listen to the river,
my dog smiles and walks.

The dull day-to-day,
casual with my heartache —
its shifting edges.

October rosehips,
over our path in the woods,
a nest here last spring.

My house is open,
my mind freer each day,
welcoming to all.

All that’s remembered,
these days without each other,
things only you knew.

In good memory,
your voice, your face, your intent—
I’ll keep what I can.

This shield has been marked,
and this shield is made of marks—
both joy and sorrow.

Soft, endless asters,
the bees are mad for them now—
and I’m mad for both.

It feels like magic,
the sun, the air in our lungs—
October asters.

Fenced-in sunflowers,
stumbling over each other—
first October day.

Broke open by him,
Wendell Berry, his windows,
seeing peace through them.

An apparition,
I still recognize her face—
hair tied at the neck.

I’m gathering strength,
made out of sand and driftwood,
roaring all night long.

Saving my nature
from the dark given-up days
for this pure moment.

Clouds fall in the lake—
a poem read like a spell
takes me to its edge.

Darkness comes on quick,
the woods in mid-September,
crickets sing all day.

These small needful things
under the September moon,
summer still singing.

Soft moss on the trees,
goldenrod haze shapes the light—
it’s open-hearted.

Waking from a dream,
where you were you but not you—
I'm me all along.

Imagined mountains,
greened with trees and lit by sun,
shadows come out blue.