ONCE IN VERMONT ~

Sun Up

I get up with

The birds who

Get up with me

Show Me

I don’t walk this

Early morning, frost

On the mowing, but you do —

And when you return

I’m sitting by the

Cookstove warm as you bend

To shiver my neck a kiss —

Show me what I missed

Bow

Please don’t take it

For granted this first

Light on the hillside

Bare crop ledges and

A little fresh snow —

Some mornings there I

Would warm myself before

Cutting wood, listen to

Bluejays cry someone was

About and they wanted

You to know the someone

Was you standing in the

Woods warming freely and

It could go on forever

Egg

Morning light of falling snow

We went outside and did our work

Shoveled out dog huts

Opened a trail to the chicken shed

Busted ice from water buckets

I was sweeping off long metal sheets

Over the woodpile when you said

— see how this feels — and in your

Gloved hand you held the flesh of

A warm egg to my icy cheek

__________________________________________

This collection was published in 1999 by Gnomon in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Jonathan Greene and Dobree Adams are the brains behind Pa. Both of these

stalwarts worked through many of my previous books, chapbooks, booklets and

came up with a sizable collection that was guided into place with cover commentary by

Hayden Carruth, Janine Pommy Vega, Cid Corman, and Ian Hamilton Finlay 

and I love them all. The front cover photograph is of our garden in Vermont

 and the stone hut I built for our son Carson on the year of his birth.
I will be showcasing all the book over the many weeks (Mondays) ahead.