WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

Snapshot Poems 2005

July 6, 2005

Snapshot 06 July 02005

It is the time of the dark moon, and thick,heavy days. This grey morning, swarming with swallows, gives way to a blue noon.The hem and sleeves of my favorite lavender shirt are tattered and thin. It hasa fashionable hole at the shoulder, where the seam has relented to the insistentpull of time. It is the… Continue reading

Photos 2005, Snapshot Poems 2005

photograph, poem, poetry
June 29, 2005

Snapshot 29 June 02005

I dream of children I have known, womennow; fickle, graceful, demanding. A strangerconsoles me. This house is encased in fog. It is like a shell, this house. It encloses mefrom winter. Summer washes through likewater, waves of scent and passing. Science tells me my mind is made other than yours.Set us the same destination and… Continue reading

Photos 2005, Snapshot Poems 2005

lily, photograph, poem, poetry, Snapshot Poem
May 11, 2005

Snapshot 11 May 02005

Because I do not write, tulips fillwith rain. I lose track of the moon.The air is damp and heavy with spring.Cloud-white parakeet gently cleans the face of her blue mate. Overnightcottonwoods leaf out and this morningpale blossoms grace the ash trees.This orchid stubbornly continues to bloom. On Friday, that unluckythirteenth, my fifty-seventh birthdayfalls. The black… Continue reading

Photos 2005, Snapshot Poems 2005

flower, orchid, photograph, poem, poetry, snapshot
May 5, 2005

Snapshot 05/05/05

Because I do not write, ink dries in the pen. The moon hides its face in rain. Tulips fade. Dreams scatter into frailty, they putter along on canes. Cupboards empty and shopping leaves me exhausted on the chaise. The dogs complain. A neighbor clears the rain gutters. A small child shovels puddles with a dust… Continue reading

Photos 2005, Snapshot Poems 2005

photograph, poem, poetry
April 20, 2005

Snapshot 20 April 02005

MP3 File I receive a visitation in the night from John Paul. He is throwing off his white robes. He is tap-dancing in ruby shoes. These mornings are cold, the color of steel. Fresh snow in the mountains, little petaled suns in the flowerbeds. Friends ghost up from history, emerging through mist like special effects.… Continue reading

Audio Post, Snapshot Poems 2005

poem, poetry, Snapshot Poem

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

Snapshot 06 July 02005

Snapshot 29 June 02005

Snapshot 11 May 02005

Snapshot 05/05/05

Snapshot 20 April 02005