June 2021
Bio Note: I live and write in Bennington, VT where I enjoy forest bathing by the Appalachian Trail. I greatly admire the poets of ancient China and have recently been delving into the modernist women poets. Since 2015 I have hosted the twice-monthly podcast at www.poetryspokenhere.com. My recent books, including Green Mountain Meditations and Cold Mountain 2000: Han Shan in the City are available at www.foothillspublishing.com.
Poem for Stonehouse
You boil strong tea in your mountain hut, meditate on teachings that can’t be taught. Old buddy, old pal, you feel like a brother, like Han Shan or Yang Wan-Li. Socially inept, you turn down invitations left and right, seek pure virtue over empty fame. Head in the clouds, you say your companions are the ancients, what does that make me?
an earlier version was published in Big Scream.
American West
Driving I-40 into New Mexico,
the sky dark and strange
on the north side,
bright and sunny to the south,
right where you go down
that hill just beyond Texas
with the rest stop on the left
and the long straight interstate
stretched out forever through
the big open, barreling along
at 70 or so, the radio playing
high and mighty,
that feeling comes over you,
yes, it’ll be all right,
anything’s possible.
©2021 Charles Rossiter
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