Bev Tappan

Poems

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: FREAK SHOW

    Why do we sit in our circus seats

    Watching a shaggy yellow-haired ape

    Swagger and strut his pompous stuff?

    Hear all the dissonant noise he makes!

    Does he mean us harm?  Is that a stick

    Of dynamite or is it sugar cane?

    And is that a cigarette lighter

    His other hand points and waves

    At us?  Why don’t we boo and hiss

    Until they drag him off the stage?

    We like to play with fire.  We love

    To tempt the bull, wave the red cape,

    Run our outdated nuclear reactors,

    Ignore the winds of a blackening hurricane.

      

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: SPRING FEVER

    SPRING FEVER

     

    What a beneficent day this is:

    Sumer is icumen in,

    Lilacs at the door now bloom,

    Our time for flowering has come.

    Toss the cumbrous coats aside.

    Light and lithesome is our style.

    We’ll be darkly cloaked no more.

    Warmth has reached our northern shores.

    From our caverns we’ll emerge,

    For frolicking we feel the urge.

    Setting out plants and pulling weeds

    With gardening fervor we are seized

    Old bones step out with vigor and vim

    And all the world is young again.

     

     

     

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: CUTTING THE CORD

    CUTTING THE CORD

    At the age of twelve, why did I

    Decide it was time to be baptized?

    In our church, full immersion was the rite.

    I never experienced an epiphany,

    No inner voices spoke to me,

    My nights were calm: no vision dreams.

    It was a fairly embarrassing sight

    To be draped in a tent-like gown of white:

    A dunked and dripping young acolyte.

    But it seemed like a step toward maturity,

    Like a high school diploma, a college degree:

    An escape from parental authority.

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: THE STAFF OF LIFE

    THE STAFF OF LIFE

    My daughter has carved a stout hiking staff

    For me to carry along Elysian trails.

    She thinks that on that journey I will have

    A need to warn sky bears to stay away.

    We carried bear sticks once in Glacier Park

    And bear bells tinkled merrily as we walked

    Back when the ice fields still were white and hard.

    That they would disappear we never thought.

    The river of time runs either slow or fast

    Depending on the season and the flood.

    How much I’d give to live again the past

    And I’d not change it even if I could.

     

     

     

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: KEEPING SCORE

    KEEPING SCORE

    My grandpa taught me to play cribbage.

    “Two points for His Nibs,” he’d say

    And if I’d wrongly count some cards

    He’d take those points away.

    He’d carve the turkey in the pantry

    The spaniel at his feet.

    Some bits of skin and gristle he’d

    Let fall for Tippy to eat.

    My grandpa smoked a fat cigar.

    They said he liked to drink

    Take up with women in the bars:

    It gave me cause to think.

    My calm and literate grandma never

    Spoke of his defects.

    Like her I’ll give him a measure of credit

    But not my full respect.


    “

     

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: WINTER’S ON THE WANE

    I thought I heard a cardinal speak

    But how could that possibly be?

    The temps are in the twenties

    And the parking lot is icy.

    Every shrub is rimed with silver

    Snow has coated every tree.

    How does any bird find shelter

    Where uncover any seed?

    Still I know it’s not much longer

    Till he’ll claim his nesting site

    And be callng out to warn the

    Other cardinals of his rights

    Then entice a tawny female

    To co-sponsor their new tribe.

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: SNOW COVER

    Snow Cover

     

    The falling snow’s benevolent.

    It blankets all our sins,

    Bestows a clean environment

    In which we can begin

    To walk with tar-free tread,

    To rid the air of soot,

    To leave no trash that spreads

    Like excrement in the woods,

    A whiteboard on which we can write

    With a pen in invisible ink,

    A foretaste of heaven’s delight

    Or so we would like to think

    Til the wind begins to blow,

    Dissipates the cloak of snow.

     

     

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: COLD WEATHER FRIENDS

    COLD WEATHER FRIENDS

    The juncos are back.

    It feels like winter.

    They’re sheltering in

    The bushy blue spruce

    Where finches have nested

    In balmier weather.

    They won’t fly south

    In retreat from the cold

    But keep on the move

    Seeking out seeds

    In sizable flocks

    Giving us hope

    Bringing us cheer

    For another new year.

     

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: ECLIPSE MOMENT

    ECLIPSE MOMENT

    (A Sonnet for Mark and Sarah)

    We watched the moon consume the sun,

    Its ebony circle slowly dim

    The light, but darkness did not come

    Until the black blot reached the rim

    Where only a halo of shine leaked out

    And pale pink bled on every horizon.

    It was then we felt the fearsome clout

    Of nothingness to put our eyes on:

    No crickets chirped, the birds were still.

    All energy, spirit seemed to leave us.

    Our batteries were drained of will

    Luna, moon goddess, of life bereaved us.

    How we all cheered when light returned.

    The sun our gratitude had earned.

     

     

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: KING KONG

    KING KONG

     

    A killer ape is loose

    On the Capitol steps.

    He pounds his chest and hoots

    Enigmatical threats

    As yet no one dares to cage

    This hysterical beast

    Who seems determined to wage

    Full scale war in the East.

    We are mesmerized by his show

    Of hyperbolic menace,

    Too lacking in foresight to know

    We may later do penance

    When millions of lives are consumed

    In nuclear blasts

    And our habitat is ruined

    By radiant aftermath.

     

     

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: “JUST SPRING” IN NORTHERN MAINE

    “JUST SPRING” IN NORTHERN MAINE

     

    Mid -May we’ve paddled north down the Allegash.

    Some snow still lies in mounds on the shaded banks

    Though bobolinks will lilt in the Ranger’s patch

    Near where we’ll pitch our tents at Long Lake camp.

    A tiny bear cub paces on a fallen tree

    Mewling for his no doubt nearby dam.

    Ahead a heron flaps up frenziedly

    Thinking to flee in needless panic from

    Our curious but unmolesting gaze.

    Among the reeds two moose lift dripping heads

    To watch us while they chomp on watery hay.

    Behind them a sly muskrat keeps to the edge.

    The evening brings a misty rain and then

     A rainbow arches at the river’s bend.

     

     

     

     

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: A PARTING WORD

    A PARTING WORD

    (In Memory of JB)

    At first the heart does not remark

    The passing of another friend.

    The aging brain makes routine note

    That all good things must come to an end.

    The list of those who’ve gone beyond

    Outnumbers now those who remain.

    But then the funeral brings to mind

    A cache of memories bitter sweet:

    Saturday evening cheese and wine

    Trail clearing bouts with fallen trees

    The underlined article under the door

    With questions: What do you think of this?

    Do you agree? And furthermore

    What do you think the answer is?

    And then the heart begins to crack.

    That kindred spirit will not be back.