Author: cfblack
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Traversing darkness while moving toward light
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by
I sat with a friend around a fire in our yard We talked of children, the craft of writing, of basketball an ideal job, a feral cat he gave a friend and the one he still feeds on his porch We talked of possums, guinea hens, ticks, raccoons and a hawk that swooped up a…
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for Mel
Overhead fractured sunlight through bare limbs Clouds race towards sun set The text said my sister’s husband fled with clouds at noon We say we are happy for him But for those that stay to rake dry leaves in memory piles it is a sad exercise and all we can do is let them rake…
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If
On cold winter days mom would send you out to play you would watch the birds shiver on phone lines and thought maybe they gathered local gossip through their feet Hardly anyone has a landline anymore birds now shiver on cable TV lines you wonder if they prefer ESPN the Cartoon Network or cable news…
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gift
Gift of pancakes and hash Healing communion With a side of bacon Recount the madding snubs Let it out and be warmed Steaming mug of coffee Publishing can be an Endless clusterfuck 1-25-20 *title by wife
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The Samsara tree
alone a tree stands by a field of plowed ground stands against the sky stands defiant roots reaching in limbs reaching out twists in the wind alone by a field of plowed ground silhouette against billowing clouds dances in storms brawny figure by a field of plowed ground branches hang arms nailed against the sky…
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4 a.m.
In my mother’s voice a cup and bowl call from the sink “Albert, how did you go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink? Quietly, I shut the kitchen door wash the dishes and try not to wake my wife sleeping in the bedroom Making the woman in your head and the one in…
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A Woman of Bloomsbury
Rocks on the bottom of the River Ouse are stained with ink of stories unwritten You read the last page went to bed woke in the night with tears in your eyes You wish you could have saved her you wish you could save them all You stand at the kitchen window watch a woman…
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Hit the road Jack
Little Jack Horner sat in the corner didn’t use a fork and all the little girls knew he wasn’t a good boy Jack be nimble – Jack be quick Jack poked a woman with a stick never trust a politician who obsesses with his hair Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a…
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Banish the Idolum Tribe
Reanimate the aglaec-wif her son give Breseis back her robe tell her she is free There is no glory in war Write classics of our time Ambrosian warriors Beowulfs and Achilles of peace 1-20-20
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Reading Isaiah
Do sheep know a good shepherd from a bad shepherd Or follow the woolly ass in front of them And flee the yip and yap of a dog snapping at their heels? “Mount up like eagles” the view is better 1-19-20
