TEETER TOTTER MOURNING

"All poets are manic depressive." ~Donald Hall

fall deaths tripped a switch, then

too busy, too excited, inspired

too many easy poems

quieter now, is melancholy

descending, again? at my age?

but in fragrant spring

for the first time?

in the past dread winter

would bring me low, almost below

ground--this is, as wallace stevens

had it, a new knowledge of reality

the neighboring leafless red

bud trees fill me with hope

i clip by hand the flattened weed

grasses skipped by my soundless bird

inviting reel mower and i feel well

copyright © 2017 by patrick o'hayer