From a trip around America

Hours along the Allegheny -

Geese, six, by the shore;

The train moves on.

***

Icicles off rocks,

The Allegheny disappears

Into its origins.

***

"Siver Meteor"

To Miami, carry me

Away to the sea.

***

"It looks like you're

Locking up a Harley Davidson,

For God's sakes."

***

Waders with vistas

Of mangrove isles, the sea

A sheen shimmering silver.

***

Mangrove shades float horizons.

Shore bird shallows - day's dome

Zeniths a sun.

***

Turtle grass flats...

Each silver flake of sunlight

Cast off finite wavelets.

***

Above the flat sea

Clouds arc round a zenith sun

As low white spores.

***

Mangrove dashes on

A bar of ocean, silver-flaked,

Birds touch down on.

***

Winds in palms. Tiers

Of solo cumulus, rose-violet,

Rove over sea.

***

The smoothness of small boats

On water willing with

A dip of oar to go.

( for Chuck)

***

Spindrift lines of white

Where wind intersweeps the sea;

Fish welling below.

***

Rocking train, racheting wheels

To rails, while sleepers

Slump about, dozing.

***

If on this trip

I met only you,

It was worthy.

( for Sandra)

***

Three swans in flight,

The Hudson a sweep of sea

Fomenting in mountains.

***

Ice flows blowing north

With wind, although the river

Freights for sea southward.

***

Bays frozen to jade

Marbled white, crimp

The inner seas of Canada.

***

Turrets, towers, gables

Loft Montreal to the sky

Even with skyscrapers by.

***

Submerge myself in

Montreal. Have coffee

In a foreign nation.

***

Pay for seconds

In Canadian coin:

Count by English quietly.

***

Soft and gentle, French

Can be inconsequential melody,

Cafe-side.

***

Plastic parasols buggies

In Montreal - no garish

Neon lights.

***

These rails stretch

To the West Coast. My train aligns

The length in three days.

***

Chicagoans may share

Mozart at the Culture Center.

It's for free.

***

The moon reflects on ice

This horizon that knew

Buffalo by millions.

***

Over the verge -

White snow, white sky:

Phantom buffalo herds oncoming.

***

Spokane, Washington

Train terminal. Train stopped.

Lights out. People whisper.

***

St. Lawrence, Columbia,

Hudson pour. Two women

Hug for photos.

***

Mount Hood, like Mount Fuji,

Rises and deepens on

The Columbia, train-side.

***

Eugene's daffodils bloom.

People gather, apart,

In the public library.

***

Maté, cocoa, sasparilla

And vanilla: Aztec

Sunrise tea. Drink.

***

Have some tantric mushroom

Gravy or blueberry-apple

Compote, please.

***

"Our eggs are uncaged,

Hormone and antibiotic free."

The chickens?

***

Oaks engreened by moss,

Mists come down the cliffs.

Beehives, white, edge forest.

***

Cascades, most mighty mountains:

Cascades ethereal in mist

Plunge off.

***

Soothe me for those dead,

Oh owl, for those next to go.

Watch over us.

***

The kiss of waves,

A seal submerges,

Spindrift time so turbulent.

***

Ferocious turbulence,

Ocean surge, take down

Ships, throw bodies shoreward.

***

Atlantic, Pacific,

Partitions of a whole

Mightier than consciousness.

***

Gull, grounded by a sea

Made of God and Rachel Carson,

Curling on.

***

The train gaining speed

And direction, the distance

Spreading out behind.

— Stan Renfro

Feb/March 2009