Miniature Forest for State Parade Float

We made a representation of Connecticut in miniature for Jackson's wagon for the school parade. We focused on Stonington, but also visible is the USS Nautilus, which you can visit at the Submarine Museum in Groton.

Iron Tunnel - Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, Berkeley

Part of the large and lovely vegetable garden founded by Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard project at MLK Middle School.

Zoom-in San Francisco

View from the Oakland Firestorm Memorial. San Francisco looks otherworldly in the haze and fog.

Bottle Rocket in the Park

water + air pressure = whoosh!

Patterns in Nature

Rehearsal Space

welcome to rehearsal space
invitation only
a square a circle
a basic sound unit
made skewed
by those who skew
and we've all seen
what there is to be seen
but know there's
always more
welcome to rehearsal space
did someone lock the door?


Poem #21 - NaPoWriMo

Water and Light

If I'd never met you
I'd still miss you


Poem #18 - NaPoWriMo

Dinosaur Skeleton - Burke Museum, Seattle, Washington

I was in liquid, salten and blue
I was the monster that lives in your mind
I had a call that nobody knew
only the monsters of my own kind
I am a mobile, dangling on the ceiling
I am a portend of my doom
I don't know what you may be feeling
I am the dinosaur, alone in the room


Burke Museum, Seattle, WA

Poem #17 - NaPoWriMo

Latourell Falls - Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

when the world ends
I come here


Poem #16 - NaPoWriMo

Lan Su Chinese Garden - Portland, Oregon

I take my son to the Lan Su Garden
on a city block in Portland
we frame our views
through multiple windows
watery leafy bridges surround
mountains the size of my son
this doesn't have to be here, I think
yet here it is


Poem #15 - NaPoWriMo

Mt. Diablo State Park - Summit Trail

poison oak and stones
never hindered us on our
accidental hike


Poem #14 - NaPoWriMo

Dome Movie Theater, Pleasant Hill, California

the Dome Theater
will be torn down to make way
for Dick's Sporting Goods
46 years of movies
matter less than mall culture

The Snow King

the Snow King emerged
from his homeland, cold and gray
I discovered him
sitting at my friend's table
sunlight lighting up his face



This is my first tanka. Here's a good review of Amelia Fielden's book of tankas, Baubles, Bangles & Beads.

Poem #12 - NaPoWriMo

The Opposite of Crow

The opposite of crow
is snow.

Snow is quiet.
Crow's a riot.

Snow falls down.
Crow pecks the ground.

Crow alights
to nest and fight

snow beneath
its clawy feet.


Poem #11 - NaPoWriMo

Plastic

plastic
everything
around me is plastic
I try to recycle it all
futile

Images from the "Plastics Unwrapped" exhibit at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture—Washington State's oldest museum (founded in 1885).

Poem #10 - NaPoWriMo

Wahkeena Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

Last time we were here
the kids were little
watching the foam
rush through the rocks

Five years is
half a life-time
in kid years


Poem #9 - NaPoWriMo

Driving by Oregon's Tiny Towns

We drove by Merrill,
  missing the potato festival
not knowing it's the birthplace
  of Scrooge McDuck

We drove by Chiloquin
  home of the longest miniature
railway system in the world
  with trains to straddle and ride

We drove by Butteville
  now considered a ghost town
though it once had a ferry
  and nearly 300 people live there

We drove by Rivergrove
  which we didn't realize
was a town, with its subtle signage
  and unfinished subdivision


Poem #8 - NaPoWriMo

Columbia River Gorge at Sunset

Birds hang in the air
mapping the tops of trees
noting the shining puddles
where food lies waiting

We are shifting distractions


Poem #7 - NaPoWriMo

Multnomah Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

Falling water
hurtles down
like weighty wind
shooshing and
vooming
sending weather
all around
It is happening
always happening
It is happening
right now

Poem #6 - NaPoWriMo