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Best Poems From
LONNIE B. HODGE
(1953)
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1.
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CATHEDRAL
Below open spires of red rock
the deer rinses dead skin
from his shriveled antlers,
then hobbles away, browsing,
through buckskin grass,
color gone worthless in the fall sun.
He has turned broadside to me,
but he is safe. I have no weapons
but memory. Our last hunt here,
my father had to stop
every few feet to beg for air.
I went on to pray for the miracle
that would flush from the low cedars,
and run straight for my father,
who pulled the trigger
without taking aim.
It is a miraculous love
that commends a toothless man,
kneeling before a bloody animal,
laughing, gasping, laughing.
for Joe Hodge
1921-1988
Lonnie B. Hodge
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2.
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SOUNDTRACK
SOUNDTRACK
When the agitated syncopy
Of your thready heartbeats
Stop to amass a clap of thunder
Over a crashing surf
And you fight The waves
With Cuchulains sword
When your body betrays you
And depression is an umbrella
In the hot sun of lament
When ravenous silence
Is acrid steam from a bitter oceans crest
Or when you think you are
One simple syllable
Shy of a symphony
Remember the lullabies of the past
Conduct them into the present
Lay awash in the fragile swell of hesitancy
Compose reconciliation
Have faith in the God of the metronome
The will of the tides
The gift or accident of nature
That gave you ears for
And a comradery with
The murmurs, sobs, roiling
And wicked playfulness of the ocean
And the weather it dares to rebuke
Lonnie B. Hodge
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3.
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TEACHING
want to be
witches knees and elbows:
roots just barely visible
enough above ground
to stumble into a child's
imagination forever.
I want to be
the breeze in the aspens,
barely loud enough
to waken the leaves
but not quiet the birds.
I want to be
the loneliness
in the center
of a Japanese pine seed,
dropped from some kid's pocket
in the Colorado Sand Dunes,
and have everyone wondering
how it is I came to be there.
Lonnie B. Hodge
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