For Michael March
1947 - 2025

A Work in Progress
32

(better known to Donal as peachie le nic) 

                                                

a flagstone path    moss in places     lichen

well made for constant traversal beside our home

ten wheelbarrow loads to the herb garden

three beds replenished with black wormy loam

down the slope of the hill to the dogwood tree

where the path steepens and forks three ways

takes you near, far, and faraway from thee

into other domains each wilder, may

you safely return who go that way now

there’s work to be done out on the border

or, if you venture without knowing how

into tangled tumbledown disorder

outside the gate on our property’s edge

beyond the prickles of our holly hedge

Dick Russell

Copyright © February 18, 2020

Thinking of a Dear Friend

By Chang Chi, Tang Dynasty

Last year

you led your soldiers out from the city

I watched for your return

but you did not come

there has been no news of the campaign

you just vanished

beyond the walls

I was going to commemorate you in the temple

but I can’t believe you are dead

I know so little

less even than your horse

he may now honor your standard

he may now graze by your crumpled tent

we will be apart forever

like life and death

what can I do?

except grieve for you

wrench my gaze from the far sky

Translated by David Sen, Dick Russell

 Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                          2025

A Blank White Page - for Pierre Joris (1947-2025)

A Work in Progress
31

A blank page invites written words to bring

purpose to the page next to each other

ruled lines park words where they’re easily found

by the eye or by fingers if embossed

braille on stiff paper touched by fingertips

either way by sight or by touch words matter

A blank page invites written words that won’t

disappear so try your best choose wisely 

knowing words scanned by AI for sentiment

may incur an unfavorable weighting

if read from a certain perspective

intolerant of other perspectives

A blank page invites words that profess

love puts value on forms of expression

value puts price on some product or service

that resist that disdain that drool a trail

like a snail headed up the windowpane

for no reason than to rise always words rise

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                        2025

Leah’s Trunk

A Work in Progress
30

Cord wood split and stacked while green

in May while waiting for news from town

Leah’s hair tied up in a yellow scarf

the color of fresh hewn alder

wood smoke scenting sunlight

sunlight ageing alder

finches perched on thistles

spreading thistledown

Donal was advised to avoid green suits

in business if you want to make them buy

dress for success with dark suit and tie

don’t wear clothes from which buyers will shy

northern harriers hunting a marsh

redwing blackbirds nesting in cattails

cutthroat trout in the shallow stream

a kingfisher by the pond near the beach

longer days warmer weather

emergent bumble bees

daffodils hyacinths

house finches warbling

well-seasoned wood

a year quickly past

Leah’s cabin now vacant

Still no news from town

We bought a trunk from Leah

for she was traveling light

leaving to live with an artist

down the coast and out of state

a capacious blue trunk

for toys and winter clothes

a platform for a doll’s house

for tea parties for scones

then came news that Boeing would buy

a seven-million-dollar list price deal 

for a Cray Research Cray-1

with full commission being quite a sum

wood smoke scenting sunlight

sunlight ageing alder

finches perched on thistles

spreading thistledown

after a dry spell it rained

plants that weathered well thrived

sudden growth seemed obvious

as if Persephone unbuttoned her blouse

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                     2025

Origins

A Work in Progress
29

I’ll close my eyes on a rainy day and choose a sun drenched cricket field edged by shade trees where leather meets willow and there’s watercress not far and a brook where a nymph lives that should a cricketer come in search of a hard hit ball he might spy it at the bottom of a deep pool that should he reach in to grasp would be too far for an arm to reach and she’d soon have him in her grasp

While fronds ripple in the splash

And find young Donal on his little bike riding pell-mell into the park through the wrought iron gates to fling himself down on the grass inside and hide behind his bike from the police car stopped outside the gates he’d just whizzed in front of risking scratch of paint

Sing to me muse as once you sang 

tell of Penelope in a nightie telling her son

he never slept, Odysseus, he never slept

with pajama bottoms on

So, Donal’s mother told him one day his father slept

but he had died. He felt unhugged afraid of touch 

flinching from contact with her skin

his mother's love had not outlasted him

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                     2025