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J T Milford


The World You Have Given Us Called Life

A long stillness
The sun rises to another great day of joy
war laughter and murder then
a brief shower of happiness disease and dread
Since we all receive sunshine and rain alike
is not all this as it should be?
Dark atrocities gentle kindness

An apprehensive silence
What's going on? 
There are cars insects Internet galaxies trees 
people guns’ sickness waterfalls bombs flowers 
Yet in our often bewilderment is there really
 something beyond a feeling of foreboding?

A certain stillness
The children of Terezin who never saw another
butterfly saw a reality that prepared them
 in this life and for their tragic leaving
 Can you hear their singing?

But suppose
There is a coexisting radiant reality
that we may not always recognize
whose words we can feel when hearing
the children’s star streaked voices
for those voices may somehow free us
from our pervasive anxiety?

Today look
The sunlight is reflecting off a coursing
rain fed stream
​

This Gift

Early morning
A windblown spring
sun sparkles my neighbor's
wild cherry tree silver, gold.
Awed by the unusual light
I pause.

Moments later the tree and the sun
change positions causing the view
to forever disappear
from our time and space.

How fortunate to be given
this gift of transient beauty.
A brief flowering of elegance
beyond my ordinary life.
​

Early Fall

The decision has arrived
A leaf begins to fall
After a season of work and art
Through a circular path of cold air
Sometimes attracting light
Other times shade but always down
How green the long summer days
After an early expansive arrival
Now this once and only time has ended
The leaf blows over the countryside
Blowing where it blows
Becoming the earth
​

Out on the Bay
               ~After Two Barcarolles
​                   
by Ned Rorem

In a boat rowing over low surf    
Under an immense sunlit sky
Rising up gentle swells 
To see the sparkling light
Then down into the spray

Rising up gentle swells
Then down into the spray
In a boat slowly rocking
I row over deep blue-green waters
Hoping to go from here to there
To take my inland soul
Out on the bay for dreaming
 ​

Aubade
        ~for Jo Balistreri

May the flowers
of your soul open
to receive the gift
of morning light

That gives life
to everything
the sky lapis blue
and the forever
light of you

Poet's note: I wrote this poem to celebrate Jo Balistreri, her poetry and her help and support given me over the years we have been e-mail friends. Many of my poems would not have come to fruition without her insightful comments and suggestions. Reading her books and selected poems she sent to me has shown what emotion she brings to her beautiful poetry.
​

Blue Jays

              “Once you have been there,
                you’re there forever”
                                         ~Mary Oliver

Have you ever heard the sound of Blue Jays
just before a spring thunderstorm?
their loud raucous cawing tells me

a storm is near
falling pressure and the far off sound
of a train whistle confirms the
the impending rain
a low distant whistle that signals
be careful something is coming
 
In this May moment from another time
the day stands still, yet time does not
 
I am in the first grade classroom
looking out the big windows
an instant, though it happened
over seventy years ago
and the Jays have long been sleeping
their remains reclaimed by the earth
this sound and image come
in least expected times

and as always, I am there
 ​

The Garden Party

There is something about spring that says fleeting?
Yet again dazzling spring is everywhere 
With the return of shimmering light
The chairs are white umbrellas green 
Mandeville red white and pink 
All veiled in early green
Hibiscus and roses are impatient to
To show their subdued night colors
The patio lights a mysterious gathering
Of distant stars a party of floating dreams

We are all outdoors drinking Sauvignon Blanc
Under a rising moon that brings 
A diffused stream of milky liquid light
With soft conversations about today tomorrow 
The girl with green lips and Manuel De Falla
Here we are a fleeting party of friends
Suddenly Barb says
How beautiful the rising moon
On this early spring night
A night that captures us with its dark luminosity
That will always keep our hearts close
​
Picture


J T Milford's Profile

                   Touching


While out walking after my winter storms
have finally begun to subside

A blue and yellow flower
quietly touches my sight

With soft petaled feeling offered
and I not yet understanding return her gaze

In some mysterious way I knew then that
my summer would again bloom

As will fields of red yellow pink and lavender
in blazing sunlight

As the days slowly grow the petals leave
that in an early time somewhere

We may again touch
 as wild ones always do
​

This Moment

It was noon and as I walked through
the door home from work
the sweet smell of cape jasmine
followed me inside

Outside everything was bright with bloom
crepe myrtle, roses and hibiscus
for time was near the solstice
The light was ablaze not like
the July white hot glare
but a more serene light

On the radio an orchestra was playing
bright summer music in ¾ time

Today at noon as from nowhere
a play of light and flowers brings back
this forgotten moment from another era
For what is unseen and long out of touch
now suddenly presents itself to me
I wonder why this scene
returned so late in my life?

For soon it will be night and if possible
I will fly out beyond the deep stars
to explore a place not remembered
and will bring with me this moment
from the earth’s library of flowers,
music and light as my connection
​

Dream Pond

Sitting on the marshy bank
with maiden cane and hyacinths
I watch a yellow leaf float
in aimless circles
of stillness,
a summer-like stillness
feel a sudden wind
that moves ripples
across the water
near a willow,
a brown-green willow
 
and without apparent cause, it stops
 
As I gaze across the pond
I am overtaken by a dream
that the marsh pond is still
when death is near
with feelings of lost joy
and loneliness
a wild sort of reverie
with cormorants, marsh marigold  
and dark woods
the dream star
that sits in the eye of the pond's light
signals the possibility

of an early lament
certain darkness
a tunnel of light
 
Now the failing light awakens me,
as darkness slowly falls upon the marsh pond
in a sudden sweep of wind
the willow surrenders its leaves
down to the earth, a sad weeping earth

 
and without apparent cause, it stops

A Yellow Bush

In a time of loneliness and regrets
the dreary descending darkness
on this rainy afternoon 
presses down my fragile life
 
It seems light once gone will never
again return leaving only extended night
Yet out beyond the house stands a yellow bush
catching the solitary moments of last glow
on this time without time when the sun's 
zenith is in the Tropic of Capricorn
 
As I watch the last fading afterglow   
it seems that for a brief time my life 
on this spinning planet is free with
no desires anticipations or possessions
Life illuminated by cascading sparks
of deep stars descending
from an infinite peace
 
In this still time my gaze moves
to a place without boundaries
For this once I can see out beyond
the far distant horizon to pure space
​

Sea Stars

Today the surf appears
as it has all week long 
like flashing fishes
starred scaled and
edged with silver
as the low running sun 
reflects the sparkling
Gulf waters on to the beach
​
Every day from the sand dunes  
I see this play of sea light and surf
and slowly my whole being 
is flooded with a numinous kinship 
with this other  part of our world
that changes my life in ways
I cannot yet understand
​
For this daily illumination exposed long 
submerged feelings that have always
​been hidden deep below

A Sudden Joy

A sudden joy appears
like a low running sea swell
that completely engulfs  me
The catalyst a momentary glint of bright sun
reflected through morning pine needles
All movement is stilled -- and for a time
I am blinded by this solitary bliss
and carried away to an enchanted
place without moments
Then, as before, elapsed time begins
I again move within the ordinary
This sudden joy disappears as it came

leaving me unaccountably sad
​

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***

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