Blue Dahlias
A hoe, a spade, a rake – what more do I need?
Gardening is an instrument of grace.
Ordinary delights grow here – barren wort,
bugbane, fountain grass, meadow rue.
And maybe, one day, blue dahlias –
something rare, unheard of.
Why build a fancy house when you desire a cottage?
Travel doesn’t satisfy craving. Craving for what?
Dervishes whirl around their hearts,
burn like a torch. This too is prayer.
Gardener Teapots
Sept. 12, 2001
This morning the sun rises alizarin crimson
juice pressed from the madder root.
I take my favourite porcelain mug
stencilled with an English country garden
and while the water boils,
add a pinch of Russian Caravan
to the tiny pot with the cracked lid.
Gardener teapots
red,yellow, blue bone
china made in Russia
under Peter the Great
were lugged by camel caravans
over the Silk Road to Pakistan.
Waiting for the tea to steep, I hear
the Great Blue Heron’s kraak
as it lumbers into flight
birds in the air, fish in the sea,
and the world did not end yesterday in New York.
When the pots broke,
menders salvaged the jagged bits,
bound them with the copper lugs
and sealed the cracks with tar
so they could again brew tea.
No Trade-Ins Allowed
I bought, you bought a:
Tsimshian mask of a human
transforming into an eagle
The winter we accused our son of
using drugs, he reproached us
for having possessions
Thai Buddha with mother-of-pearl eyes
He shaved his head and in monk’s dress
meditated among the wild rhododendrons
Oxford red leather Bible that
lacked ingredients tasty for worms
Euphoric, he communed with God, blamed us
for not sending him to church as a child
Wool rug from Beijing
ancient coins woven dead centre
He sold his gold chain and the ring
engraved with his Chinese name
but that didn’t drive away his demons
Gilt carving of soldiers on horseback
from a home ransacked by Red Guards
One night in a back alley, he wrestled
his father to the ground, stole his wallet
Balinese kris, its bloody history
embodied in the blade
He ripped off the hilt and pawned
an ebony lion with ruby eyes
Floppy clown dressed in red hearts
from close to home
After he was diagnosed we tried
to make a deal with God
Sky-Calling
for Ron
The albatross has a wingspan twice as wide as you are tall
and hollow bones so light
she barely moves her wings in flight, those long thin wings
hinges to fold like an origami bird
though she stumbles on earth with big webbed feet –
a gooney in floppy shoes.
Every winter she circumnavigates Antarctica, buffeted by icy currents
and Katabatic winds,
lands on the ocean to feed and rest – though how she sleeps
in avalanches of water
is a mystery to me. Once a year she returns to breed
on the Tairoa cliffs,
flapping her wings in a hullabaloo, craning her neck to the sky
and screeching for her mate
until he comes and sits by her side, as if to say,
I need you. I’ll always need you.