Drydock (and other poems) published in 2014 by Blue Cubicle Press

Sample Poem from Drydock (and other poems)

THE STANFIELDS

Like many other families of the time,
my mother’s English ancestors were named 
for the work they performed, clearing stones
and boulders from the neighboring fields
so the local farmers—landowners—could
plant their crops.
 
Years ago my cousin Raymond traced
the Stanfields back to the Norman invasion
of 1066, but as I clear our upper acre to plant
a small family vineyard this morning,
little, it seems, has changed. The sun rises
over a tapestry of farms. At the bottom
of the hill a rooster crows, which wakes
the dogs, who start barking.
 
And as the ghosts of my ancestors
gather in the shade of a nearby maple
to light their pipes and comment on my
progress, I unearth stone after stubborn stone
with a mattock, a shovel, and my hands.
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