Comes Twilight and the Owls (Four-Poems)

1) Towards spring in the City
(a St. Paul, Minnesota Poem)


Where the Mississippi River nears the pier,
when spring is near, the water is loud and high;
and all the winter birds, come back, against
the morning sky….

Also, there the tireless ice melts, heaps, upon heaps
against the river banks; flows down to
Saint Louis, and then onto New Orleans
(and then, out into the Gulf).

But close at hand, the city wakes (St. Paul)
from the refuges of the winter’s deep;
no longer will the city hibernate, a
large unrest, for spring.

Ten-thousand voices can one hear
moving faster than a deer, as
spring nears, and nears, and nears,
until they can say, “…spring is here!”

#2214 2-3-2008

2) Comes Twilight and the Owls


Comes twilight and the owls,
prowling like cats
upon limb-fanged branches
of trees…;
willing slaves, to the night:
sleek as the fiends,
they are—these
small eyed offspring
of twilight.


#2215 2-3-2008



3) The Day for Dying

And so we live life, the best we can
between weakness and strength,
night and daylight!
Awaken by the morning birds—
to sleep by the evening stars,
and in-between we dread the day
the day to come…
the day for dying!


#2212/ 2-3-2008


4) Mother’s Saint Teresa

There’s more news to tell you, Mom
but I think I said enough—whoops
perhaps not, let me add,
I put a statue of Saint Teresa
alongside your urn (here in Lima).
I had picked it up, if you recall,
in Santiago, Chile, in 2002,
at her grave site.
I had two of them, if I remember,
I gave you one, when I returned
from that trip, and here, here now
is the other….

11/2007 (#2216)


5) Haiku for Peacekeeping

You need big—sharp-teeth
With diplomacy, to win
A war without a battle…!

No: 2100 (12-15-2007)
Dedicated to Dr. Rodriguez Mackay