123014

from behind
the baobab
I see him
there now
at the bank, river
lapping at his fangs
eyes hungering
to fix
on intruders

I see no reason
to stop
avoiding
the tiger

whose only obsession
is to
banish me from
my jungle

into that abstemious urn of androidal hollowness

where the defunct
drag about

seeing only
aftermath of deluge
not puddles for paper boats

the embers of inferno
not elusive illumination

(c) 2014 Fred Whitehead

122814

engaging a
reflection
seen through
sheets of frosted
glass

you

find yourself as unexpected
species grown
dense in
layers of experiences

fingers cramped from
unstringing structure

attempting to
unlearn
learned impairments

searching
for the last quiet place

(c) 2014 Fred Whitehead

wake, live, repeat

let today be the day
the sun decides to shift in the sky
if nothing else
but to throw new shadows
to hide my damage

not that I care so much
how cogs progress
through their
operation, mind you
but because
things have been
a bit off
anyway

today might just
as well be the one
that goes haywire
in a cosmic sense

the way it is, you see
is that
birdsongs sound
like tubular bells to me
the wind – a theremin
I can’t recall
important events
names evade me
more than a little effort
needed to throw
that first leg off the bed

there is comfort in the sound
of familiar colors
I listen for them
as I reach for
the lamp
trying to remember
what day it is

(c) 2014 Fred Whitehead

122414

122414

some dark somewhere
treasures may lay waiting

all that is for us
is to keep
looking over the gunwale,
the sea listening to
our sighs,
one island
after another
sliding by

(c) 2014 Fred Whitehead

voluminous

a pressed leaf somewhere
in one of these hundred books
once an afternoon

window or windows
or a hole where window was
looking for an out

looking out the hole
there booking past the window
one for someone once

(c) 2014 Fred Whitehead

evolving

hasn’t enough been
said about
loosing our smallest finger
to it

yet
not so much
concerning
our inner eye

or
regaining
the ability
for aural recognition

(c) 2014 Fred Whitehead

released

having exited before the curtain

to emerge at
an entrance to an
endless plane

stranged by experience
and
left
to plot coordinates
of speculation,
to measure,
in droplets,
heaviness of decision

where echo of ovation,
(a winged whispers twin)
somewhere over a shoulder

signals
a birds release

no desire left for
tracking flight
as dawn hints at
a cresting

she will rise to find her
place in formation
on a heading to
some hidden
nesting ground

beyond ivory shawled mountains
that encircle
the valley
of self

(c) 2014 Fred Whitehead

121614

it is not
for a train
that I am waiting
but
of a thing
lunar

and I wait
for the weight
of its pull

the change of it
and of it

it is
this change
constant as
desperateers fight
to
contain ripples of
satellites that persevere
without
such
effort

(c) 2014 Fred Whitehead

a blog interview

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/buffalopoets/2014/12/16/conversation-and-poetry-with-fred-whitehead

121214

when the mellowing
of seasons
placed on my step
conversations we had

I thought to
weave a fence of
willow
a
living lattice
along the gardens edge

some place to lean
a shovel
or hang a shirt
as I tend to your favorite
things

behind that green partition
you should have been
here to see

I set rows
drive poles into earth
spread straw
around mounds

a box made for
containing calm
a temple to nurture
that little thing
of you
left in me

(c) 2014 Fred Whitehead