WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

Snapshot Poems 2005

December 12, 2005

Winter Monday

A waft of garlic seeps into this sunroom from my neighbor’s kitchen. Chickadees and nuthatches flit up and down up and down from the limbs of the lilac tree. Sun spots dingy snow. The budgies watch from their cage without longing. Continue reading

Photos 2005, Snapshot Poems 2005

garden, photograph, poem, poetry, snow, winter
December 7, 2005

Snapshot 07 December 02005

The pond is frozen over, fountain bubbling beneath a crown of thick ice. A friend brings food and a red poinsettia. She tells me bluebirds have returned to the river. This garden is a dance of sparrows, chickadees, finches, juncos ~ and each day, a visit from the hawk. I shop for long underwear and… Continue reading

Haibun, Snapshot Poems 2005

Haibun
November 23, 2005

Snapshot 23 November 02005

Night Fog As the air becomes visible all that we think of as real blurs and fades, recedes into greyness. There is only this moment, one step in any direction. Frost delicate and cold on every branch and leaf — deathly ornament. Morning brings a thin and stingy snowsifting the fog away. Three crows fly… Continue reading

Photos 2005, Snapshot Poems 2005

dandelion, fog, frost, photograph, poem, poetry
November 16, 2005

Snapshot 16 November 02005

Sometimes the skyis a van Gogh sky. OnceI saw a dragon there.Yesterday in Thailandthe people sent lanternsup into the night skywith all their sinsand sadness. Whatis my share of the sinsof our leaders? Is therea lantern for that? Tonightthe moon is full and the skyis thick with snow; falling starsfor all the burning children. Continue reading

Snapshot Poems 2005

poem, poetry, Snapshot Poem
November 2, 2005

The Day of the Dead 1 November 02005

This morning I woke to the smell of winter,thinking of you searching for hope. Where are you looking? In the bodies of women who are strangers to you. In rice fields and temples; in classrooms and markets; in the dangerous sea. Though this valley is bare, the mountains hide in a thin veil of snow.… Continue reading

Photos 2005, Snapshot Poems 2005

photograph, poem, poetry

Ancestral (Artificial )Intelligence

I do not use AI to write. For me, writing is how I think, and I prefer to do it myself. If/when I post anything here that I suspect or know to be AI generated, I will tell you.

I have changed this from Artificial to Ancestral, after Abi Awomosu @ Substack. This medium was made with human history, human thought. All of it, bright and dark. It is ancestral.

Poems

Please do not assume that I am the speaker/ subject of my poems.

In these times of creative nonfiction and fictionalized memoirs, I think of the poem itself as true fiction: it is most likely not factual, but it must be true.

It is likely to be — it is best if it is — a truth I did not know before I wrote, and may not understand even then.

A poem is my way of discovering (dis-covering) what I feel; sometimes, what I think — but it is not necessarily biographical.

Snapshot Poems 2005

Winter Monday

Snapshot 07 December 02005

Snapshot 23 November 02005

Snapshot 16 November 02005

The Day of the Dead 1 November 02005