Caps for baby

 Though granny was blind

She could knit a baby cap

in no time 

Granny could see clearly

love lifting those eye lids 

toward baby

I have heard

 I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves

Combing the white hair of the waves blown back

When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

from the love song of J Alfred Prufrock

TS Elliot

Scenes

 The scene beckons

John Clare Stokes

Most scenes we have to glean

And hope to make of it something

Most scenes they prefer to remain hidden

Few into their beauty bidden 

Most scenes are missed in our passing

Into our devices our eyes casting

Most scenes to me are waking dreams 

And I lift praise as all about 

Heaven and nature sings

Heaven and nature sings

Grave Digger

 Grave digger

Johnclarestokes 

He sits drinking 

Dark roast like

There is nothing better to do

They say the rain is coming

the clouds of mid blue

seem to bear witness to 

contradiction 

and he contemplates 

where the graves go

how deep the angled hole

It just doesn’t seem time 

but the dark roast is gone

Time to find the craftsman 

spade with the lifetime 

warranty and commence

To bury

for he’s a grave digger

Linwood 2023

 No Good

John Clare Stokes

Dear Lin Wood 

This is no good

The alien lines are long 

Lin Wood

We can’t even afford wood

Soon food

The gas range is silent

Bullets too few

Lin Wood

You said you

Have the evidence

to restore the

orange one

Lin Wood

We can’t keep on

Lin Wood

The familiar

 I hear the familiar

Johnclarestokes 

How long does one dwell in the presence

Of those gone on

Seems they haven’t left us

In all the familiar places

We see the coffee made just so

The same eggs and grits off the menu

We inexplicably pull the visor down

Even upon the cloudy day

“It’s going to rain, see, the cows 

are laying down” 

Make the same familiar comments

“It seems they are on a trip”, she’d say,

as we passed the Dicks place.

We would go along, never tell

No, they both have died. 

The trip is where we’d rather reside.

Too weak notice

 Sisyphus Quits

john Clare stokes

We haven't even made Mother's Day

And already Sisyphus is humming

Auld lang syne

Quitting in the middle of merry May

Refusing another incline to climb.

Off your behind demands rock man

I think it's gonna take a long time

I'm not the man they think I am

Oh no,a bolder man find

Sisyphus gives his too weak notice.

A presence

 "We sense a human presence...yet no specific person...he seems a really suppressed guy....that must be what this stuff is all about....breathtaking feats of prestidigitation....you almost expect a toothy de Kooning woman to emerge....

Little Windy inspiration

 As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope. 

~ Ursula K. LeGuin (Painting by N. C. Wyeth)

Sons

 Beneath the May moon

I sit beneath the moon so often

Praying for Landon and Jordon

Thanking God for having two sons

And having known my grandson.

Near to the heart

 It’s all but impossible 

To look right at you

Without you being here

It doesn’t keep me from

Thinking of you 

When once you were near

Kite Flying

 Kite flying

The morning was windy and I was

expectant

watching the sky for the child

to run past fast

Kite in tow

Scissor tail undulating

lifting on string

playing out

laughter with wonder

as the kite 

high and out of sight

catches a thermal to

take flight.