It Begins

I photographed this stream at Cloudland Canyon State Park near Trenton, Georgia in the mid-1990s with 35mm color slide film. North Light Imaging of Chattanooga, Tennessee digitized the image.

Three poems from my new book It’s Just a Phase appear in this issue. Links to the book launch and other coming appearances follow the poems.

Walking the Labyrinth
October 2013

The path of the soul is not linear.
It spirals like the turns of this maze,
outlined with bricks on their sides.
Like time, it circles back
passes by starting points.

I turn left, one hundred eighty degrees.
It's not exactly the way I came, this path
to the center, where there is no Minotaur.
My dragons are all in my heart,
slain or otherwise.

The first wall outlines a square
which no paths cross.
Is this square sacred ground,
reserved for shaman, priestess,
and holy man?

If I stepped inside where
no tracks appear, would I
transport to another place or time,
reappear burned to ash
by sacred Geometry?

A friend asked a transit driver
in Nashville's less sacred geometry,
Is this my stop? Her simple reply,
“Either sit back down or get off the bus.”

For the Last Carolina Parakeet

I imagine the loneliness of your aviary 
there at the Cincinnati Zoo where your 
predecessor, the last Passenger Pigeon 
flew off to oblivion just a few years earlier. 
One voice is not a choir.

You were part of a social species, 
descending by the thousands, 
on fields to consume cockleburs, 
or orchards for luscious fruits. 
One voice is not a choir. 

Some labelled you a pest 
and pursued with shotguns. 
Audubon noticed your species 
in decline even in his bygone days.
One voice is not a choir.

No welcoming song of your fellows 
greeted your waning days. Does your
skin adorn a museum, just as your 
ancestors’ feathers adorned lady’s hats? 
On voice is not a choir.

It saddens me to think my adopted home
of Tennessee once knew the calls and colors 
of a native parrot. One scientist titled 
an article about your kin, “Forever Gone.”
No voices remain in the choir. 

It Begins

Some-one coaxes you to serve on a committee,
fill a term on a board of directors,
become an officer or take this job.

You spend your hope and enthusiasm on the project
like a nebula pouring matter into a black hole.

The chain tightens, binds you to your idea
as it becomes a separate universe
with a gravitational pull so strong you can’t leave.
Like B.B. King, you start to sing,
“The Thrill is Gone.”

Your colleagues look at you strangely,
wondering why they brought you on board.
But you keep working like a piston in an engine,
as your quest to reach the transformative moment
seems a will-o-the-wisp, a desert mirage.

You see your colleagues resist change until
the organization is a putrid scent in your nostrils.

You would trade your treasure for a vacation
or a float trip on a river, but you settle for
a walk in the park and a few roadside blackberries.

You give up, walk away, and count yourself lucky
to get out so cheaply. When a friend casually
mentions the project, you want to scream.

Personal Appearances

I have finished a zine titled Spirit Birds and sent it to a local publisher for consideration. The zine includes poetry and prose pieces about Sandhill Cranes. If accepted, it will dovetail nicely with the release of my poetry collection, It’s Just a Phase.

The poetry collection will launch at Clear Story Arts here in Chattanooga on November 1, thanks to Walnut Street Publishing. The printer has received the final copy and the presale will begin soon.

On October 19, I will have a poetry reading at Reve Coffee and Books in Hixson, Tennessee at 2:00 PM. I will read from Healing and Conflict and We Are Water, my two self-published poetry and color photography books. I will also read a few poems from It’s Just a Phase and presale information will be available.

At 6:30 on October 19, I will present my storytelling show at Audubon Acres. Information is available on the Chattanooga Audubon Society website.

Road Trip

On February 22, I will have a book signing at the Crazy Book Lady in Acworth, Georgia from noon until 4 PM. Copies of It’s Just a Phase will be available for purchase.

I will look for other reading and signing opportunities over the coming months.