Improvisations

(C) R.L.K.

....
1. EARLY SUNDAY AGAIN

There is a sound like the splash of rainwater beside the fence row. This one day begins, as other days have begun. Something simply comes to be, perhaps the idea of a journey. Branches sway, suggesting a way to go. There is another sound, like laughter. The wind blows the gate open.

....
2. THE WOMAN IN BLUE DENIM IN A HOTEL LOBBY JUST BEFORE MIDNIGHT

Is it the sound of the rain that she is listening to so attentively? It is best not to guess, but rather to simply wait. After all, to come into this place out of the storm is to begin to wait. On such a night, one can hear a different music, and dream about a different shade of blue.

....
3. THE LANDING, A CERTAIN PORT

It is getting late. Dark clouds are rolling in, yet the ship remains in sunlight as it drifts, slowly, toward the shore. That, at least, is something to sing about, and there will be singing soon. Songs that tell the old stories will drift on the wind, far from this one small place.

Another Year, or Ever Onward

(C) R.L.K.

Tonight a cold
north wind slams snow
against the street-
lamps. It's hard work,
pilgrim, keeping
to the path. But
go on, button
up that thin old
coat, cross the next
bridge even though
it's longer than
the one before.

Late Trio

(c) R.L.K.

1. Haiku

A windy morning;
bare branches bend as if to
touch their own shadows.

2. Somebody's Refrain

Take that bottle of whiskey down from the shelf,
Pass it around and let's sing us a few
Of the good old songs. What can we do?
December is here and winter is going to be itself.

3. Tanka

Cold rain. The year is
winding down. You are reading
a book you have read
before. Outside, on the hill,
the pine trees bask in moonlight.

November Syllabics

(C) R.L.K.

(Autumnal)
-+-

Days of dusty sunlight
and threadbare memories.

(So Long)
-+-

Rains of yesterday
remembered today.

(Lost)
-+-

Hear the wind's ragged song!
The trees have thinned to air.

(The Neighborhood)
-+-

On these old streets
the buildings were
made for sunless
days; they are things
to be seen through
falling rain, dream-
like, yet real.

Lakeside

(C) R.L.K.

1.
Chilly afternoon;
Someone picks up a pebble
From a wave-washed shore.

2.
After the downpour
The first ray of sunlight slants
Across a tin roof.

3.
Night. Between the clouds,
A pale moon pours light down on
An empty harbor.

The Poet in the Realm of the Philosophers

(C) R.L.K.

....
We could say a symbol is like a rock
Dropped in a pool, sending out ripples
In every direction. We could speak of the need
To search for a metaphor, words of power,
Whatever it takes when confronting reality.

....
Think of it: a summer afternoon when
The rain comes, and with it the smell
Of dampness and dust that links today
With yesterdays on quiet side streets.

....
It's a world of things, and things in the world
Can slip away, or change in familiar ways,
As when a blue sky goes gray on an autumn day
While you sit on a park bench, alone, considering
The fall of the leaves, the briefness of it all.

....
There are nights cold enough for snow, yet cloudless,
When the moonlight falls into place, in an old place,
And the sound of the wind is the sound of the world.

....
Consider a day in spring: the geese
Returning, the willows swaying together,
Merging green with green, the sun
Lingering a little longer...

Prose Poem

(C) R.L.K.

Keeping in time, there’s a song we might sing, ‘Tis Autumn, season of change, of loss and of gain, a mosaic of summer and winter and spring; blue haze in the air, rustling red yellow gold leaves relinquished, afloat, afloat, falling, falling then returning to the circling winds. Now come the mists in the morning, the quiet afternoons when the brook drowses in its stony bed, the caws of crows in the dusk, the harvest moonlight and the stars’ frosty twinkle. And again, the last creakings of the swings, the thin old brooms sweeping the porches, the roadside grasses ripening with seeds, the sunlight streaming down on the asters, the orange gleam of the sugar maples, the far hilltops shimmering; rare days, days of coolness and calm.