ADVICE TO GRADUATES
Fling open the shutters.
Pull up the blinds.
Look out the window
With wide open minds.
Reach for the stars.
Worship the moon.
Banish the darkness
From shadowy rooms.
Harness the sun
To flourish and grow.
We live but an hour
And then comes the snow.
REFLECTIONS
The lambent sun burnishes Cannon’s cliffs
As we draw near Franconia Notch and then
The rock slide screes are sparkling as if
A Titan’s eyes are focusing on them.
Past the verdant vacant ski slopes, Echo
Lake, the “Old Man-Reimagined” park,
Over the top of the notch we gladly go
To reach our destination before dark.
Would that all our trails might emerge into light
And not be dangerous or fraught with gloom.
Let all our journeys be to mountain heights
Ever toward the heavens, not the tombs.
Then might our little lives be richly blessed
Unfettered by fear and warmed with happiness.
ONE FOR THE AUDIENCE
More credit should be given
To brooders, to mother hens.
Surely the gates of heaven
Must be open to them
Whose warm breasts shepherd the young.
And those should be commended
To whom the song is sung,
Who put their hands together
And give their welcome tongue.
Appreciation is due
To all receptive ears,
The openhearted who
Say yes to balladeers
And sponsor new careers.
A TOAST TO NORWAY
Land of fjords and mighty glaciers
Waterfalls and lonely farms
You exceed our expectations
You have strangely winsome charms.
From the ice age still emerging
Northern lights fluoresce your skies.
Dog sleds cross your frozen valleys
Reindeer drink from holes in ice.
Skiers trek beside your railways
Down the slopes and through the woods
Hut to hut and town to town
Snow-connected neighborhoods.
In the summer’s ceaseless light
Gardens burgeon, crops erupt.
Sheep and goats and cattle graze
Widely on your mountain tops
Sentinel farms on fjords and highlands
Villages with stave church steeples
Glass-towered cities, bullet trains
Nordic blond athletic people:
Cognizant of all your virtues
We of southern climes salute you.
THE NORWEGIAN WAY
Norwegians seek a way of life
With moderate ease for all
Secure from poverty and strife,
Painless, enjoyable.
Tail-gating is against the law
As is immoderate speed.
Mishaps are few and far
Between and trips serene.
All buy their homes, cabins and boats.
They ski and camp and sail.
Norway’s the best place to grow old
Live the good life all the way.
NORWEGIAN TROLL TUNNELS
You see their statues everywhere
Those weird Norwegian trolls.
Big-eyed, big-bellied and big-eared
They’ve popped up from their holes.
Perhaps that’s why on every road
And under every hill
So many tunnels have been bored
With more in progress still.
And even ships will soon descend
Beneath the hills and sea
To sooner reach their journey’s end
From gales and blizzards free.
Safety and comfort are the goals
Norwegians most esteem.
Convenience is why they tunnel roads
And drive with moderate speed.
BEACONS
(For Judith, with apologies for poetic liberties taken)
Each night as on our bed we lay
I saw three lights across the bay,
Three glimmers on the darkening sea
That seemed to call and beckon me,
And as we settled into sleep
They seemed a silent watch to keep.
Now that dear cot no longer sits
Atop the fast eroding cliff.
Only the low rock wall and gate
And a flagpole mark our nesting place.
Victorian, loosely built and frail,
It was not destined for repair.
But still each night alone I dream
Of three clear beams across the sea.
IN MEMORIAM
We saw what it was to labor with love
Everywhere his hands had worked.
He girded us with cedar logs
And sheltered us with sturdy trusses.
He paved a path around the pond
And cleared a loop trail through the brush.
Hie gardens fed us healthy food.
Colorful blooms were harmonious.
Patient, quiet, steadfast and good,
A listener whom we could trust,
At ease in the role of fatherhood,
Not the type to make a fuss,
He was taken from us all too soon.
How we wish he were still with us.
NEW BEGINNINGS
Unpruned, forsythia explodes
Golden shafts in tangled glory
Glistening with April’s raindrops.
They catch our eye and then we see
A pink profusion, a panoply
Of petals bedecking cherry trees.
Daffodils also have suddenly sprung
Up. Their white and yellow trumpets
Herald the tulips soon to come.
Hyacinths too are blossoming blue
And in the woods hepaticas strew
Vines of pale lilac ground cover.
Spring is busting out all over.