DEADSPACE POETRY

Here, special moments captured in verse
spring to life for better or worse
This section appears with allusions so bold
only if enough advertising fails to get sold

Crepescule

by Richard Anderson

On the mountain -

The rains of the day have gone,
and the clouds and mist infest the tops of the tallest trees.
The sun is somewhere else now, only a tail of it remains.
It is that time of day between dogs and wolves.
That time when only enough light exists to see faintly.
The last bit of which is about to vanish with the day so the day can become the night.

The bats and hawk can see - but only for a moment more.
The rest - the peace - the end - the calm.
It is the measure of the day - and it is the day's best part.

Life is measured at its end - and the end of each of our days gives us that same opportunity for measure.

In its twilight, the day's dreams begin -

On the mountain.

Cloudcroft, New Mexico 2 August 1994
Copyright 1996 Richard Anderson

This Place

By Richard Anderson

We came to this place to stay a week.
We came to rest and sleep in silence -
to roam the high mountain trails, and be at peace.
Our boys learned of rocks, and bugs and simple things.
They learned of rain falling in long valleys -
of animals living underground, and of trees
that returned to the earth when they die.
They learned of these things - and we learned from them.
This is a singular place.
A place that is good for me and my flesh and blood.

This place is where the sky and ground touch.
The rain is quiet here,
perhaps because it does not fall very far - soft rain.
The progress of nature continues at this place,
unaware of our presence.
We are merely onlookers into a better world.
The owners of this place have found a tiny hole in the sky
through which God looks and smiles.

This place is good for my very soul.

29 June 1993 Cloudcroft, New Mexico
Copyright 1996 Richard Anderson

Richard Anderson was born in the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the mid fifties. He has a Masters Degree in Geology from Eastern Kentucky University, and is now a Senior Market Analyst with Schlumberger in Houston. He lives in Houston with his family and writes about the things he knows best.