From Mystery Cave
“Nature includes too muchand art can’t include enough.”A. R. Ammons, “An Improvisation for the Stately Dwelling” Prairie grass glows golden,the …
Author Archives: Ronald E. Shields
Say a Little Prayer
Intricate decisions dissolve,indecisions lead deeper into the labyrinth.Poor passing facts long for the grace of accuracy, When I am threadbare,anything …
Two From Mystery Cave
Walking in the SurfThe tide on the beach is slow, quiet,this whisper of water on sand,no one speaks like the …
Snowfall
Snow is still fallingfrom the enclosing sky.Trees hang over fenceslike rodeo clowns. Under columns of jack pines,a fox listensfor telltale …
A Moment During Sunset
An ObservationRife with the evidence and promise of nature,the air is infused with resin and leaf rot.Light splashes a brazen …
Prayers from Mystery Cave State Park
Praying for PoemsThe words come like answers to prayer flags,or to the prayer on the lips of the old womanas …
Evening at the Lake
Below the slow squall of twilightwater shimmers like mercury.Two dogs reel in the lapping surf,my father pretends to chase them. …
From Mystery Cave
WalkingIt is winter, I am alone on the path.This hard Earth meets each stride with the sting of cold rejection,my …
Dust Bowl
After James Wright It is bare mournful ground.The deep roots are gone.Houses, barns, wagons, hay rakessit empty, hushed, bleached by …
Evening
The night sounds, your voice returning naked, crickets folded into the wall.Fields retreat to their dark creases.Light through the window …
Poetry on the run 