Building a Fire for the Medicine Man

I throw a few leaves in the fire pit
add a cluster of twigs
stuff in a napkin
stir the ashes and
light a match to the confusion.

A puff of smoke from the leaves
a branch catches, crackles
and goes out.

Horse asks, "What are you doing?"
"Making a fool of myself," I answer.
"Just wondering," he says.

Green Pastures

I push water
I keep the cowpies out of the corrugation
I spread it out
run it up hill if I can

There's an art to irrigation
and the cows eat the grass
always moving to greener pastures
and then
there's the delicing, tagging, dehorning
shots, shine and a shave

Lost in Tongass Woods

Which way?
got turned around
drizzle, muskeg and devil's club
mountains on four sides

Let's see
I came over the rise
knelt and backed up
turned and sat down
adjusted my gear
got up
and...

Fear I'm in Death's maw
when I hear a shout
and see the beam of a torch
Dale at the trail head
with a bag of trailmix

I'm gobbling it up
when he tells me he added candle butts
in case we need to start a fire
but they're gone

All one taste

Nima's First Sweat

New Zealand
To the Continental Divide
At the edge of the firepit

Vincent tells this warrior
To sit in front, and Nima sits
As close he can sit

The scar tissue of an old wound
The scar tissue of his past
Blisters in the babbled prayers

Ute and Maori know
In the beginning
Something breaks

Discovery

Come to this.
How to know?

I trusted.

I dreamed a bit,
but I'm a stranger
even to myself.

Where do I go from here?
A new will is born,

A place smaller than the heart
but bigger than the world.

^

Biography

Richard Denner was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and presently resides near Sebastopol,
California. His Collected Poems: 1961-2000 was
released last year by Comrades Press. You are invited to visit his website:
http://www.dpress.net