Somewhere in Southern Indiana

(C) R.L.K.

Rain banging away at the depot roof,
Weary wanderers watching the window
For the first hint of headlights;
It's midnight and it matters little
Where anyone is going as long as the train
Will cut the distance down to a size
That even the loneliest traveler,
Now playing one more sad song
On the harmonica, can live with.

October Morning

(C) R.L.K.      


after the storm
    tattered
              clouds drift
  over an empty field --

     so the day
        begins:
chilly & wind-
  swept,      yet

beside a
  rickety fence
         a stray sunbeam
gilds a puddle of rain

Equinox

(C) R.L.K.

a leaf    away

    out in shadow
                   now
                   how
    dark upon the hill

today    away
gone like the others    to the wind
    that blows across the hill
    that blows a leaf    away

Another Poem About Time & Reality

(C) R.L.K.

(For Theresa)

The clouds, scrambled above the treetops,

That make the landscape this particular landscape;

The rain, dripping from the porch railing,

That make this evening what it is;

So summer ends, with most of the houses in darkness

And nearly everyone asleep, but you and I, somehow,

Have lingered, awake together, by this window a while.

Early and Late

(C) R.L.K.

"I was going to say... You remember various

details. But not even all of them together

show the intention. It is as if a snapshot

of a scene had been taken, but only a

few scattered details were to be seen..."

-- Wittgenstein

Sunlight, hillside,

old man with a

hat, the leaves, fall-

ing as other

leaves have fallen

before - all that

is the case; we

live in the world

and sort things out.

Words for an Anniversary

(C) R.L.K.

(For Gloria)

Clouds part, the pale light

of a half-finished

morning pours down through

the trees, and the wind,

the old returning

wind, whispers your name

in the empty street.

Midsummer

(C) R.L.K.

morning --
after hard rain,

sunlight streams
through windows, trees

glisten / between
green leaves,

pieces
of blue sky