Poetry

first day of the month sleet rain in buckets wind to knock out your teeth showers of ice then the snow snatches the house water in the basement cold shocking the windows even the christmas lights wonder what happened now in the morning you scrape the car unlock the left front door with a hair […]

My Father Dreams My father is dying. His hands shake. Despite their involuntary vibrations, he tries to wipe “the sticky” from his chin, a joke we share from when I was the child. In death he is not deceived, but at times he slips into a place you or I perceive as dream. For him […]

november proverb well I do believepie are triangledand a turkey with one leggets more to the gobblethan a three sided square © John Knoepfle 2004

Poem Buried within a Time Capsuleto Be Unearthed Spring 2097 Citizens, what did you find when awakened this morning? Your sky as blue as ours, a few sparrows rustling among lime-green leaves of April maples? All people fed and housed and free? This would be the great blessing — though a still greater surprise. — […]

writing from the hospital the erratic heart off center slightly unbalanced yes and that is like the rest of the world this is so strange the heart wandering alone everything so quiet © John Knoepfle 2004

Literary Organs Not all canaries sing when first brought home. Each morning over coffee my wife plays a tape for Kimo, hoping he will learn. Roulades and trills spill from the speaker as a trained bird from another time and place, singing above a Hammond organ’s drone, counterpoints a tired La Paloma. Confused at first […]

now and winter coming on rain all day today heavy downpours bad day for street people and this on all hallows too what happened yesterday well there was a bad flight had us sucking in our bellies but the pilot corrected his engine and we survived perhaps like the nation pray god we come along […]

For the Love of a Rose Garden Yellow maple-leaves cart-wheeled Pursued by shadows of autumn light across the sloping lawns. And there! Red iridescence swayed.   Following an inflamed heart My eyes found Jantzen Girl, a single blossom, Among the rosehips of Fragrant Memory, Carefree Beauty, and Pleasure Floribunda. Gently, Holding his arm She found […]

notebook poem #5 and now november what was decided has been decided pray for the dead © John Knoepfle 2004

The Falling of the Year Autumn. sweet sad quiet. evoking memories Captured sunlight falls to earth in leaf-shapes Summer sheds her clothes for sleep A season’s bounty cached in earthern mounds in shelved glass, in zero cold We copy creatures of the saving-kind Leaf-smoke echoes elder days when fragrant hearthfires warmed away the chill of […]

notebook poem #4 we make the best of what we can given how grave the times are all the pumpkins are smiling © John Knoepfle 2004

notebook poem #3 bush league patriotism artificial flags engimatic breeze © John Knoepfle 2004