5 Imagist Poems

Wild strawberries bloom
along the steep sides
of a forgotten railroad.

Poison ivy threatens.

Furry foxtails and wispy ferns
sway in the breeze;
thriving on the blackness of the cinders.

Rotting ties,
Loosened spikes,
Quiet winds,
Forgotten railroad.

I sit on the footbridge
and dangle my feet
in the cool relief of the water.

Sparkling and bouncing,
it’s on a journey to the sea.

Pebbles and crawdaddies
tumble over one another.

Minnows and tadpoles
dart in its mirrored reflections.

Mossy coolness on slippery rocks
are stepping-stones to the other side.

How I love wading in the iciness of a country creek.

Burned and gutted,
the remains of the bombed building
cry with the captured wind
and shelter
a
single
blue
violet.

The wheat bent with the wind
in waves like the ocean,
rippling and rolling in huge breakers.
Watching, I became entranced
with the movement of it.
Running in the grass beside it,
I built sand castles from dreams
and found seashells of wishes.
Then the wind stopped;
and the oceans,
and the sand,
and the shells,
and the dreams
slipped away.

Wispy, swaying maypole
Dancing in the wind,
Dripping leaf tears.