Inherent Danger

Looking out, it could be any other dawn

but for the frozeness I see and feel.

I am seeing spring grass beneath

the snow, recalling the rains of March.

There is a sense of what is missing 

is what I want though without

the blasphemy of not being where I am

in the only time I have.  Such sacrilege

is dangerous, as if I'm omnipotent

when I have only here and now -- that phrase

a koan of eternity, like the blood and breath

of the divine flowing through you and me.

It is a dawn like any other . . . almost

but for the deep cold, the urgent desire

it creates to hear and see the thunderstorms

of spring, birds landing in trees, their songs

mixing memories and dreams, how one

season longs for another before it's over.

How dangerous it is to be human.

-Byron Hoot

https://www.facebook.com/hootnhowlpoetry/

Winter Sequence

Winter Sequence

                1

I saw nine deer on a hillside,

as if in a still-life painting,

move as if a murmuration

of starlings.

                2

One bird the day before,

two yesterday on roads

 I drive regularly.

A change is coming.

             3

I drive on tire tracks 

in the snow on the road

that takes me home

as if the snowplow can do nothing.

             4

The tracks in the snow

before my porch. . . 

deer, coyote, feral cat

nighttime visits.

             5

I am in the dark waiting

for sunrise.  A daily ritual.

It’s taken the place of prayer –

an answer always comes.

            6

I wish I could read the tracks

across my heart as easily

as the tracks in the snow –

winter’s gift.

             7

I am seeing ghosts almost

as easily as I see shadows.

One often blending into 

the other – dreams, memories, desires.

               8

I consider the best way

to keep warm in winter.

My heart scoffs, says,

“Don’t forget me."

-Byron Hoot

https://www.facebook.com/hootnhowlpoetry/

Photograph by Greg Clary

Photograph by Greg Clary 2020