My Words are Fences, Echo Falls (2019)

She walks in beauty like the night

I hate that line

Because its true

And its not mine

And yet it fails, and falls so short

Of every movement, every note

How many poems must I write

To capture it, to get it right?

Because

Sometimes

Its languid, bright

The flickers of a candle's light

All shadows, moving gracefully

Revealing just enough to see

And other times a running stream

A joyous jumping singing thing

And I can hear the nymphs and Fawns

And all Titania's ancient songs

But what of thunder? loud and brash

her anger, lightning, fire and lash

Or blackest sorrow

Endless Depths

So quiet

Haunting

Stolen breath

Or stumbling, drunken, twirling round

Wild careening, reeling ground

Dionysian revelry

Her breath and laughter

The calling sea

Still more in each of these I find

the signature of the divine

The symphony of love and loss

The shining stars, a bed of moss

She walks in beauty like the night

And yet

So true

No night could dream compare to you