1. Umpachene Falls

i climbed down rocks in a dream.
first light was gone
and it was getting close to noon,
a bird sang an ancient tune.
just as it used to do, the waterfall's voice imitated
a moon guitar.  i looked in the rippling mirror,
dreamed until midnight,
and i left my five-year-old son there.
i pushed the map
to the east--a horizon as distant
as the sky.  the jagged edges
of the moon had been gnawed sharp
by longing and sorrow.

2. World's End

it is such a long way to the end of my world.
dreams walk on the ground, then board a boat
and surge to the east. in late autumn,
huge volumes of refugee tears
flecked with foam leave imprints
on the ocean tides, and a length of flame
as swift as a foal paves a path for a chilly ferry--
so goes the dream...
a white egret
spreads its wings and flies away..
it only looks back once

3. Hartsville Mountain

at first a bird comes shrieking across the way.
something with wings brushes past
the corner of the house and that white horse
of daybreak majestically bursts into the room,
freeing the imprisoned sun.
it says, even in my dreams it hurts
to breathe. i know that
even if it could lose its wings
the sky could not bear another dream.
the daylight passing through a dark night
calls to me

4. Father

left hand pressing the window,
a moon like a chunk of ice floats
in a night full of dreams like memories
the barking of tracking dogs gets closer
and there you are, looking in the mirror
where you are already a great grandfather.
you call me in my dream by my childhood name
and embrace me under
the Tree of No Sorrows
time is right behind you, dogging your heels
you smile one last time and point to the moon
"that halo around the moon
is caused by dreaming too much.."
you stand guard at the pass
and direct me back to the present
back to these lonely leaves
that flap in the wind