Ashes to Ashes and All in Good Time

If there were a god to capitulate to,
Or a lingam on which to hang flowers,
If there were a tree to propitiate,
Or a prayer wheel that sent down the powers

If there were a chant or an oak grove,
Or a cave where a shaman sold favors,
A chorten to circumambulate,
Or a Druid who granted waivers-

If only we could interpret the sense
Of oracular sybilline trances,
Tomorrow and yesterday, henceforth and whence,
We would graciously take our chances.

If the buffalo stood to be sacrificed
With the red tika dust on their faces,
Or one hundred thousand prostrations made,
One could find the appropriate spaces.

Then ashes to ashes and all in good time
With a continental drift,
How east and west and north and south
Could end their four-way rift.

^

Biography

Published columns and reviews in The Wood River Journal (Hailey, ID) and The Rocky Mountain Review (Salt Lake City, UT), et al., in my youth, but in the past year I began to submit poems for publication. Publication credits for poems include Miller's Pond (both online and in The Miller's Pond 2002 Annual), and The Rogue Scholars Collective; and BigCityLit for a review of the 2002 West Chester Conference. I have given readings in New York (including The Harry Smith Memorial at St. Mark's Church and the Cedar Tavern), San Francisco, and Kathmandu, Nepal, among other places. I received grants from Giorno Poetry Systems in 2000 and 2002; was a finalist in the Eratosphere Poet Contest 2001; received a First Place Prize from the Nuyorican Poets Ball in 1997, and am on staff at The Alsop Review online (www.alsopreview.com). I have worked as an editor and writer for numerous publications.