(from the song: I should have sent roses)
I don’t know where to start
This cage ‘round my heart
Locked up what I’d meant to say
Or I felt all along the way
Just wondering how come
I couldn’t take your breath away
Lyrics and Music by Elton John, Bernie Taupin and Leon Russell, from the album, The Union, 2010
“Magic’s never what you expect it to be, but it’s often what you need.”
Charles de Lint, from the novel, Moonlight and Vines
the call of a cardinal
a tea kettle wistle
siren sounds echoing in the river valley
Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell
the roar of a motorcycle
this sentence: “I’d like it extra hot, please.”
a young girl humming
an old woman crying
blaring horn of a barge at midnight
happiness needs to be tended,
cared for, coerced and cajoled–
it needs bright sunshine and soft moonshine–
happiness will sometimes hide,
go undercover, silent and dark–
but it will bloom again,
under the right temperature,
under the right love–
it blooms again
i have this thought often–
this feeling of wanting to engrave images
in my mind, etch it into my heart,
burn it into my eyes
and it makes me feel, all at once,
at peace and content, saddened and hopeless–
strange, the range of thoughts and emotions
that a green field can inspire
a slice of late spring or early summer–
the fog thick,
the air thin,
a quiet, hushed, steamy blanket of sleep
embraces the river,
the mountain,
and my morning gaze
the marsh holds its secrets
in shades of green
and slivers seen
of bullfrogs and herons
and red-winged black birds there in
that mysterious, almost sensual world
of whispers, of sighs, of hidden life unfurled
lay your head down,
lay it on my shoulder and let me heal you
with my touch
and my warmth
and the soft, fading light
of the dawning dusk
her gaze looked downward,
serene and peaceful–
surrounded by empty vessels
ready to be filled,
to be admired,
to be cared for and loved
i saw a small hawk being sky-bombed by a
smaller black bird and it occurred to me that
maybe i know how it feels to be both
spanishwoods 