COULD BE ~

It Is Now The Birds Settle

You would walk

Upstairs to our room

In the early evening

So warm

Undress, while looking to the woods

Lie down

Hours later

I would find you this way

Could Be

This has to be love —

she could be anywhere else

she could be under soft quilts asleep

she could be in a warm kitchen stirring

she could be in a playground watching what she loves

she could be in the garden dreaming

she could be walking the dog, petting the cat, singing with a bird

she could be by the ocean with all the day ahead

she could be in another's arms but no

she could be and is in my arms

beneath the driftwood of huge trees brought down with a flood

this little cave we've made under horizontal trees

it looks possibly dangerous and if it all collapsed

we would be crushed

and she has joined me there

while it rains

In A Cabin, In A Wood

It’s a good day —

my work boots are off

socks too

I have rolled up

5 inch cuffs

on my jeans

I’m in a short sleeve

green shirt

no belt

we cut the grass

now heavenly

barefoot

my love is wild ex-

cept for the sun dress

she’s thrown on

waiting for a rain

that never does

come

we draw buckets of

water for new plants

from the farm pond

cordwood

we cut crackles dry

in all this sun

let the satellites that

circle the earth

try to find this

—————————————

BOB ARNOLD

I'm In Love With You

Who Is In Love With Me

Longhouse 2012

 

HOW WE BUILD ~

You Reach For Lilacs

This was two years ago

And I still remember

A Thought Of You, Brings This

There is a way to look at the sunrise

Without walking to it

Again, you have taught me this

A box of wet cherries

A book closed

With your lap

And things become precious to me

A half mile meadow

Deeply mowed, a circle of crows

Settle down

The machinery is still

Each hand stays filled

Long Time Together

4 dollars I paid

For this dark scarf

Of large red roses

And love’s fortune

Is that I had you

There with me, out

On the sidewalk to

Fold it, and wear

Around your neck

How We Build

It is a day

Of sawing slab wood

Splitting

Then stacking

And be done

Tucking away insulation

Fixing windows

Sharpening every tool

The happy moment

Is that there are still

Small grasshoppers

In the slip of the meadow

That it is 28 degrees

At 7 this morning

And I wash your hair

In one bucket of

Strong spring water —

There is nothing like it

—————————————

BOB ARNOLD

I'm In Love With You

Who Is In Love With Me

Longhouse 2012

 

WALKING ~

Walking From Town Between

Midnight And 4 A.M.

I must have carried out

Every peeper in this valley

Home with me, 13 miles

The trees shiver in light rain

The moon following the

Fences following

A hillside of fog that lies down

Generously in the apple orchard

Here is where a few sheep

Suddenly break into a run

A horse pounds the night

Meeting you at the barbed wire

What is that sound between us

It is the water that has brought me back

Walking Into Rain

At the last of rain

Water patters

From the low pines

To the shed

There is a quiet

The bucket turned over

My knife left standing

On the woodpile

A blackbird perches

On a dipping branch

Feeds from the deep berries

The woods are relaxed

From the waist of the field

Find the small light of the cabin

There — the silence we thought

We would never have

Simple Dress

It was you

Who wore the simple dress

And when there were wet flowers

We gathered them

And walked slowly, you hugging

Our treasure

Two fields to the road

Walking Down To Get Water

She'll return through the pasture

I'll find her shoulders

—————————————

BOB ARNOLD

I'm In Love With You

Who Is In Love With Me

Longhouse 2012

 

ENCOMPASS ~

Time Passes Slowly

Breezy naked

Under a red

Summer dress

You will soon

Kiss me but

First point 

To four goldfinches

On a wire close enough

As if watching us

Their colors faded

From a week ago like

These autumn hills 

All That Thunder 

Wouldn’t you know — I was scything deep in the backyard around the wood’s edge and many of the flower beds, when the thunderstorm caught me flat out in the open, shoulder high with Jerusalem artichoke flowers and nowhere else to go. For a moment I ran under a tall ash tree, bundled beside a maple and its large leaf cover. Rain was coming down steady and cold. I took the scythe with me and ran for the outhouse. Kept the door open and watched the rain, the roof tip-tapping. I noticed that Sweetheart had run for the woodshed from her garden work and was standing there waiting for the thunder and rain to pass. It wasn’t working that way, instead it was settling in, darkening the sky, eclipsing the river valley. We waved to one  another. I then sat back on the bench, looked at all the faces and small posters and pictures tacked on the walls over the years. There’s Pete Seeger, there’s Dorothy Day, there’s Madonna’s large green eye peek-a-boo out of blond hair. There’s Sweetheart! she’s come with an umbrella to rescue me out of my rain cave. But instead of heading home we run up to another cottage, deeper in the woods, furious with a steel roof in the rain and fall asleep awhile in each others arm’s and all that thunder.

She Comes To Me This Way

In her stocking feet and the

Pleats of her skirt, the way

The blouse is plain and opened

At the sand of her throat and her

Face is burned with winter and

So happy, that it is only then I

Notice something more — a

Necklace of rawhide and soapstone

Pebble, and even closer, the etch of

Turquoise on the piece, which brings

Me to her eyes . . .

Encompass

Just that slight change in her expression

Warm, tender, all mine it says, changes my life

Since childhood, years before I knew her

—————————————

BOB ARNOLD

I'm In Love With You

Who Is In Love With Me

Longhouse 2012

 

GLADE ~

Glade

                                           for SEA

the woodcutter

never gets it —

while he sleeps

firewood seasons

Where the tall hemlock

crashed down in the woods

taking away its shade

now a sunshine

with only benevolence

runs along its spine

work clothes off

back into a skirt

you show me

at supper where

the log today

bruised your shin

right behind

and nearly under 

the truck we spread

the Mexican blanket

to take a nap be-

tween cutting wood

because the sunshine is there

the apple today

isn’t as tasty as

the apple yesterday

you packed for me

at lunch when we 

break from wood-

cutting and the two

chocolate kisses you

never forget to bring

the same time

we are cutting

all this wood

the tomatoes

back at home

are ripening

the ash trees by the truck

are so willowy and tall I

hate to cut them down

to dry that way through

fall, winter, spring and I

will visit them again by

summer with my saw

meaning business

I can’t help but stop

to rest and sink my

woodsmear hands

while hugging you

down inside your

overalls and now

your smile at my

touch of the 

silkiest things

without looking —

too busy with axe

chain saw, wooded ground tumble

we hear hawk, bluejay, sparrow, owl

chickadee & a few things unknown

It’s a glade we rough out from

blowndown oak and maple trees

woodcut and hand-split circle

of sunshine and scrabble

we could almost call it home

before we hiked in for a look

then drove in getting serious

with chain saw and tools

everything was just fine

(and rotting)

I said

we could make love

right on the tailgate

33 years

somehow never done

she said she would

but in the deepest green woods

someone could be watching

I can split red oak on the run

rock maple with three whacks

I dream about it now

—————————————

BOB ARNOLD

I'm In Love With You

Who Is In Love With Me

Longhouse 2012