HEDGE BINDWEED
                                  Jeanne Shannon 

le liseron    wild morning glory 

a blue that stops the mind   

flower of Montezuma’s gardens   

seeks disturbed ground, prairies and wet meadows    

hedge-bell, bearbind    clockwise entwines photinia,

piñon, pear    aggressor whose language is humility

blooms at daybreak in funnels of purple or magenta  

flowers turn shy in noon’s assertive light and close

at dark     this language the transience of life

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TICKSEED SUNFLOWER
                     Jeanne Shannon  

Perennial in aridity and smoked light.  

Rayed flowers exude bright yellow, 

the color of communication.  Black 

seeds resembling ticks and chinch 

bugs.  Sprinkled like peppercorns in 

fields and open places. Leaves 

opposite (entire or lobed).  Craves 

sandy soil and July’s crackled heat.

Blooms a long time, cut flowers in a 

cobalt vase.

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SAN DIEGO SUMMER AFTERNOON,
SONGS FROM THE FORTIES PLAYING
                                 Jeanne Shannon

SEPTEMBER, AND STRAWBERRY LEAVES
REDDEN AROUND THE EDGES
                      Jeanne Shannon

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BACH ON AN AUTUMN EVENING,  
A FOREST IN NEW MEXICO  
                     Jeanne Shannon

 Gilt songs of baroque angels
 above this streamy landscape

      Oaks preening their twelve-lobed leaves,
a sky lentiginous with stars

How the white moon dissolves, dissolves

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CANDELA
                     Jeanne Shannon

                        in fact:

                        spring light
                        is pouring black tulips from a pitcher

 
                        the Virgin:

                        stands in the walnut tree
                        cool as a charmed quark

                        rose trees bow down
                        it is burning noon

 
                        says to me:

                        behold
                        gold angels
                        landing in the cherry leaves

                        extract
                        the radium of the word

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