Spike The Chicken Writes Again
MY RECENT POSTS
- Growth
November 05, 2012 08:58PM - Growth
November 05, 2012 08:58PM - Orion Weeps
October 17, 2012 03:12AM - Boundaries
October 09, 2012 10:58AM - Waiting
October 05, 2012 03:46AM
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “I love this.”
November 19, 2012 07:31PM - “Sky -- you always make
my day!”
November 08, 2012 01:01PM - “Try getting a late fee
at Jack London Park!”
October 17, 2012 03:20AM - “Thanks, Sky.
Welcome
Jay.”
October 09, 2012 07:56PM - “I am flattered, Sky.
Let's talk of this
offline.”
October 05, 2012 02:07PM
Spike The Chicken's Links
- MY LINKS
- No links in this category.
Late Frost
I wake to helicopters whirling roar.
Rush to the door.
Late frost.
Worst kind.
Should it settle on my neighbors' waking vines
Or my budding lemons, or the blooming avocado
We've finally left uncovered after many days of sun
It can kill.
No warning had we read
We were promised rain inst/… Read full post »
Turtle People
In the spring
When luscious, golden poppies fill the fields
And long green grasses ripple in the wind
The turtle, nature's best defended creature,
Makes what seems a suicidal gesture.
Somewhere in the night, I think
Something clicks inside the turtle's mind
… Read full post »
My Mother's Voice
Think of sunrise
Spring blooms
Winter snows
Nightfall
Thunderclaps
Pounding rain
Keeping secrets under wraps
Morning birds
Summer air
Things you know and always knew
Always there
Have always been
If somehow not
The world will end
How to See A Tree Dance
April 5, 2011
This is a secret
Only the little pear
And I, so far, know it
I just learned it
Yesterday afternoon
It goes like this:
Wait until the knife bright
Four o'clock shaft of light
Has sunk behind the pines
Then, no cameras, please
Tiptoe through the garden
Walk slowly toward the river
Think of other thin… Read full post »
Naming Things
April 4, 2011
Somehow, it matters that I know the names of stars
And recognize the kinds of birds by name
And greet each flower, maybe not in Latin
But by how it's known and what it's called.
To know a name is like to pull a string
Connecting us together, myself, the thing
And making something real… Read full post »
The Joy of Waking
April 3, 2011
In this black morning
The stars are pinhole bright
The Great Horned Owl on the east-side hill
Whoo-whoo's at the dying night
And as the arc of stars sinks toward the western skies
The songbirds, crows, and even jays
Rise in their nests and sing.
And what are they so thrilled about?
A whole new… Read full post »
Spring Morning
April 2, 2011
Dark sky, cool mist, a breeze
Lots to say
But I just sneeze.
Dreams and Seasons Passing
April 1, 2011
On the walk, as we talked of death
We passed an empty house
Where lived, till recently, a noted citizen.
An older man, a friend,
Who fought the City's plans
Whenever they offended his ideals
Of aesthetics or of civic right.
He sometimes won, but mostly not, as these things go.
He originated fr… Read full post »
On Mercury: An Existential Ditty
March 31, 2011
The photos show such innocence
Just plains and craters, much like the rest
So why the drag, the slog, the thoughts delayed
When Mercury goes retrograde?
Today has come, but I'm not in it.
My mind is on another planet.
I'm in England in the hills.
Or in a lambing barn in Wales.
I'm on a turquois… Read full post »
Cuts
March 30, 2011
Figures on a paper passed around
Neat columns, pretty colors
Zigzaggy sharp designs
Lots of red
Faces frowning, silent and composed
Sounds of shuffling paper
Muttered phrases:
"People costs," and
"Making up the losses,"
From the bosses, questions and more
Questions.
Then, as quick as fishes
The… Read full post »
Between the Witching Hour and Dawn
March 29, 2011
In this pause between the days
Antares holds the sky in place.
Higher up and to the east,
The bright Altair, the Eagle's eye
Spins its light among the rest
The crescent moon is climbing the horizon.
Here and now, in my one piece
Of this this vast place
Beneath the stars, the Mother face… Read full post »
The Memory Room
March 26, 2011
I thought it would be a place for games
Cross words, quizzes, exercises
A kind of mental gym, where those who were
Let's put it, getting on, could work on things
Like quick recall of history, dates and names.
Thinking of my mother, sound of mind but ninety,
I stopped by for a tour.
The Activit… Read full post »
The Mystery of Joy
March 27, 2011
On my wall, immortal in a frame
On ponies wild and fierce, all manes and feathers flying
A band of warrior Indians gallops shouting to the skies
Blind to any modern notion of despair
They charge ecstatic toward the mist of their extinction.
Outside my house, in this dripping morning, in a… Read full post »
In Other Cultures They Would Dance
Poverty and Wealth: Two Views
March 25, 2011
Freddie the cat finds happiness
anywhere, on rugs, with bits of string
Just roll him around with a slippered foot, ah, that's his favorite
thing.
Confined to the house, with an issue of health, he eats only one
kind of food.
His grey coat shines, his mood is… Read full post »
Balance and Flow
March 24, 2011
The moon sits in the heart of Scorpio this hour
What can that mean? Nothing, something, possibility of pain
Judgment, grief, some biting feeling I can't begin to know
Or maybe it's a sorrow too faded to remember or explain
A taste, a scent, a trace that could be sweet or sour
A place,… Read full post »
Who Plays My Flute
March 23, 2011
When the master puts the flute up to his lips and blows
The room expands with such a thrilling sound
You'd say it was impossible
Such music could form around mere human breath
Or that fingers could move so knowingly on the keys.
And as you listen, totally impressed, you know, just know,… Read full post »
The Bridge
March 22, 2011
I see it now,
A wooden bridge
A car-width wide
It's length extending out of sight
From where I was
To where I thought
I'd want to be
No railings guarded either side
As far as I could see
The thing was unreliable
And headed for
Collapse
The stanchions underneath
It seemed to me, were cut
And did not… Read full post »
Renewal
March 21, 2011
Over and over again, the spirit moves
Through tired souls and lights
The way, and clears a path with yet
Another ray of hope, another day
To see and be in utter thrall
To this new page
Of the endlessly engaging
Ever unfolding drama
Of us all.
You'd think God would get tired of us
Over and… Read full post »
When Words Are Inadequate to the Task
March 20, 2011
If I had one thing to say
Right now, just one, today
On this first spring morning of twenty eleven
With the Super Moon fading, unseen, into heaven
And all the colors of the Valley soaked in rain
And today being Sunday, and no deadlines to complain
About, and the man in bed who… Read full post »
Variable Cloudiness, Possibility of Rain
March 19, 2011
And isn't that a good thing?
Rain, that is. The hiss of it.
The happy patter of it. The pounding,
Cleansing power of it, the way it hits
This westernmost edge of it all
And brings down hillsides and browns up streams
And turns the grass into sodden shredded wheat
And gives this poor old… Read full post »
In a Moment of Darkness
March 18, 2011
Quick: name three things
That show the world
Is getting better.
Tick, tick
Tick.
Oh well. Try this:
Name one thing you know
(Or else imagine that you know)
That you can do about
Whatever it is
Today.
Okay.
I'll go with that
For now.
Being Irish
Morning, Rain
March 16, 2011
The night is chill, big wind, more rain.
The wind chimes clang and in the swale
The peepers sing, and in the room
The clock keeps ticking, counting time.
Another morning
As my mother used to say
In which to excel.
She did that very well.
The consummate professional.
Still, "I never think about i… Read full post »
Tide of Sorrow
March 15, 2011
Funny thing I noticed yesterday
Everyone I spoke to seemed depressed
One attorney gave dictation from her couch
Secretaries muttered something's wrong
But what? They said. So far, at least, they all admitted,
Life was fine. California sunshine. So far, nothing changed.
It's just that… Read full post »
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