Poems

Gateway Nature
a painting by Joseph Raffael
is a life size watercolor
of a dense cluster of trees
& undergrowth vaguely familiar
but unrecognized until now.
Sparkles of fall color draw
one into an interweaving
of stems, trunks, limbs, and leaves,
that reflects an inexplicable perfection
& joy expands like heat
to embrace a loving
presence one rarely feels.

-Phil Weidman

Entry, entrance
Spiritworld
entrancement, en
chantment


charmed amphitheatre: sound
stalk in cradled foliage (sun


sourceful) source
of blue water, frozen
glaze
blaze of hazard


inner realm where
unicorn leaps in suave
entrechat, satyrs
loll


in tapestry. Entry, introit, isle
of Cythere explored by white-


cleavaged ladies en
sorcelled by leashed
marmosets,
perpetual perfumed


gentlemen
of ruffled collar
bemused
by petals in star-


burst, stellar clusters where sun
shine settles. Heart's Wood:noon


fire embracing
brown vine/white
rock,em
bowerment mid


summer cherries
spring daffodils, rose-
textured
calyx virginally


vulvean. Eolian mode:
Here
Visitor recline
on diversflowered


forestfloor, lean in golden shadow,
stalksound of harp and harp


sichord, caprice
of marmoset
and wood
thrush, perk


of all small
feathery things: Spirit
Entry
harbored within


Self's dark
leafage, in
fidel Spirit, in
finite Merging Margins


sentry, seraphy


Winds.

--Stanley Nelson