Rubble: The Properties of Dust: Love Poems

Friday, December 01, 2017

The Properties of Dust: Love Poems

Crepuscular Rays. Eleven Mile Overlook. Deschutes National Forest. Oregon. August 18, 2012.

All my poems are love poems
scribbled on damp,
whiskey stained paper
in one dive bar or another

On cocktail napkins
or coasters, pulled
from underneath my third glass,

Floating in a lost hour
found somewhere on
the long drive towards
my empty home.

And I should be there
or there or there
again, but I stop again
on the way home,

Climbing slippery stone steps to
the top of the castle-like tower,
smelling the rain, feeling
the cold winter kiss

Blown by the constant freezing wind
to my skin.

Under the tower, a dead volcano
thrusts us up, exposed, into the storm
but I pull that soggy napkin
from my pocket anyway

And I try to write another verse
before my paper is ruined
by the weather.

Rocky Butte. Portland, Oregon. c.2008

The Properties of Dust

The Properties of Dust was a small book I put together in 2005 for a desktop publishing class at Portland State University. Many of these pieces were written specifically for the book project, and the rest date back to as early as 1990. The pieces were accompanied by a photo or two in the original book, but, in most cases, I am using different, more recent, photos with this series of posts.

The Properties of Dust

Watching a Woman From Across the Room

Moonrise