September 19

An unexpected gift:

This moment's peace in evening sunshine

On a lake-bound slip of land

While ducks quack, then take flight before me.

September 16

Saying farewell to you, again, today,

Graying friends from college, poet friends, gather.

You're the first of us to go.

Now, outside, this tree

Turns early toward winter.

September 16

Jacket weather

Faces a touch glum

Our town rocketed, back and forth,

This time of year between the Meditarranean

And northern Canada

September 14, evening

Every Wednesday evening,

As I walk past the Kenosha

(Italian restaurant below, doorway flanked with flowers),

I imagine living there, urban,

Cosmopolitan

Walking up to my flat on the edge of downtown

September 14

This morning's chill

(Sapling maples tinged with red)

Makes it clear:

Summer is ending

September 12

Homeward bound on the bus,

Downdown plaza

Lampposts hung with salmon-hued petunias

Balmy air - it seems

Possible for summer to last forever.

September 11

Worship today is solemn --

We recall horrors

Of ten years before - chaos, bodies falling --

Except - near me at the right,

And farther over to the left,

Babies gurgle, snuffle, speak out --

A counterpoint of new life

September 10

No better way, this bright, warm,

Mid-day in early fall

To celebrate our anniversary

Than these neighborhood

Yard sales

September 9

Morning sun glints

On the spiderweb strands

Outside my third-floor window

Life abounding, high and low,

All around me

September 8

Pretending this is Europe:

Perfect afternoon, coffee shop for lunch,

Fountain shooting high, splashing,

Misting into rainbows

September 5

Early September, long weekend ending,

We tilt into Autumn

Slant sunlight in the evening

Brilliant sky, chill in the air 

September 1

Summer's last exhalation - -

Hot, moist, air - -

All around campus,

Broken furniture piled near the streets

While freshman fill the quad,

Eager-faced, eating bag lunches