How pale is wish, and hope,
in light of pain and sweet surprise.
How useless is want,
at the glorious tremor of a need.
Going Home — August 10, 2015
[ 486 ]
Drawings
When I say is, of course I mean seems.
Canvas 1,239 — August 12, 2019
[ 478 ]
Canvas 1,239
Canvas 1,238 — August 11, 2019
If I am what I eat, I would rather be a bowl of ripe berries than a plate of spiced beef.
If I am what I think, I would rather be a waterfall than a flag or a border.
If I am what I believe, I would rather be free than blind reason and order.
[ 477 ]
Canvas 1,238 — If I Am
Canvas 1,093 — Climbing Mt. Lassen
All our then and all our now, caught up in a butterfly migration. August 7, 2019 [ 473 ]
If this is a perfect world, then I,
being part of this world, am perfect too.
If this is not a perfect world,
then I must be an imperfect judge.
If this world is a ball of light in a reader’s hand,
or a pound of fine chocolate,
then I am a sweetly rising sun,
an intensely living man.
Canvas 958 — July 8, 2017
[ 457 ]
Canto — Canvas 958
This old battlefield is more than a place.
It is a face. It is grace.
Canvas 1,237 — July 13, 2019
No One Asks the Soldiers
When they’re dead,
they all look so familiar.
Songs and Letters, March 20, 2008
[ 449 ]
Canvas 1,237 — No One Asks the Soldiers
The Circle Is Small
Do I see what I think I see and hear what I think I hear, or are these towhees my thoughts, suddenly taking form and substance? The friendly birds arrive from nowhere while I’m watering the geraniums. Just a few feet away, the male hops from the moss into the birdbath and starts splashing; the female sings from the birch above. And what of the geraniums themselves, and the moss, […]
Canvas 1,236 — June 23, 2019
Why Noah Drank
He still heard them
scratching,
pleading,
beating
on the ark.
Songs and Letters, June 18, 2008
[ 430 ]
Canvas 1,236 — Why Noah Drank
A soft lead pencil, a fingertip — the brush a mind,
the mind a memory, memory a fallen flower.
Canvas 565 — June 28, 2015
[ 429 ]
Canvas 565
We do not know what we will be called upon to do.
And it is not unusual at all that we do not know we are doing it.
Canvas 537 — February 19, 2015
[ 428 ]
William Michaelian 