http://slow.writerscafe.org/rutherfordbhayes The original writings of author rutherford en-us Copyright 2026 WritersCafe.org 1776017868 WritersCafe.org RSS Generator 15 http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1785257/ Human Autumn (Inspired by Loren Eiseley's  All the Strange Hours) Before the snowa last attempt to order meaningbefore a spring breaks in the rusted heart and dreams and memoriesfall apart in irreparab.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1785253/ My sleep is all wrongeven my dog can tellwhen I walk her in the neighborhood twilightshe hurries me past the houses and the birds hidden in the treestrading their evening songs.My dreams don't flow except when I'm awakeand I.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1784730/  Because we cannot talkanymoreI send you a cloudand in conversation you send one backOur talk could be anything from sleek stratus in themorningto a flotilla of billowingcumulous in the afternoonMy favorites .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1778719/ MONUMENT MAKERS Even though it was forty-five years since they made the last one.The monument makers said they could match the size of my sister's tombstoneto the others on the fa.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1778701/  When your daughter gets aflatat 10:30 on a Monday nightyou grab a flashlight and gooutto press your face intogravel and smell that cold pavementsmell.You thought you'd teach he.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1778686/ The media love an expertwho has to be known as a guru and if you're luckyyou'll move on to a more official position as Czar of one thing or another. Then there is the more sinister careerpathstarting as a str.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1730334/ We knowit's trash day evewhen drab green binspicket the streetlike neighborhood sentriestaking up curbside poststo stand watchthrough the nightuntil the trash truckssmash the dawnand violentlyrelieve themof o.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1721178/ Down a nameless streetin a forgotten part of townBehind high granite wallsand a padlocked gatelies a dusty courtyardin pale lightwith brittle brown leavesswept into a corner long ago.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1720283/ Stock straightpinstripe executivesrise upon elevators even straighter than their suits or the skyscrapers lining the avenue and overlook the parallels of the city gridfrom on high. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1718586/  Like burning suns in spacewe leave lights onwhen we're not therebecause darkness would dominatebetter to fend off mysteries of Rembrandt shadowsuntil your father saysto an empty room"what are we made of...m.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1700950/ I'm that guywho will plot a nighttime escapedodging the search lightsto scale the prison wallfor a mad frolic of freedomlaughing and careening through city streetsbut I'm also that guywho will willinglybreak back into prisonand sli.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1673075/ Australia is a countryis an islandis a continentlike a whole whale fishswimming towardthe shapely tapered figureof South Americawho looks eastat her family resemblancethe larger heavy-set sister Africa Who is seemingly indifferent to .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1673049/  I watched the big gameon the giant screen with a small mindand tiny eyes. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1652140/  There was a minor mythof a neighborhood shape-shifterI thought I knew which one of us he wasOne moonless night I invited him to a bar on the edge of townHe soon suspected my motivesand slithered awayinto the dark wee.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1652136/ In the long part of the daySlanted shadowsEscape the treesAnd roam the streetsCovert emissaries from the sunBirch and pine turnsun to shadowcoiling roots belowbinding their branchesEver tighter to the earthOver in another part of the ga.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1606328/ http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1537342/  Investors say my money should have a planshould work hard for meforge a path in the marketcompounding, diversifying, hedginginstilling confidenceto skipper that 50 foot yacht under sail toward bright horizonsst.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1532015/ http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1526672/ Not quite a poem but prose poetry http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1514581/ MISDIRECTION At sun downHe got upWent outMade a right turn For the wrong reasonsDrove downtown into an updraftdeployed to a forward positionto hear the noise in thebackroomits occupants taken aback at .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1514579/ Whymove from your townWhenyou already know theshort cuts toavoid the lightsthegirl at the coffee shop theguy at the hardware storeanda mechanic you trustWhichrestaurant has the best ChineseWhichneighbor.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1485906/ Withthe most powerful telescopeWecan finally look past the big bang IntoGod’s apartmentAndglimpse a nightstand Nextto the futon Alava lampAbirthday gift from his older sisterContainingslow motion milky bl.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1480556/  Evening light is best this time of yearGlow of yellow leaves on treesGlow of light inside homesAnd glow of the sun’s low angleBurn together In a golden hour Evening moves on Sky orange air Drains.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1476829/ Could use suggestions to improve this--especially welcome input on the ending. Thanks http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1465680/ http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1374514/ Written about eight years ago. Reposting here. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1359169/ They’re demolishing the brick colonialThe one on the double corner lot That stood for 75 yearsFor two generations of one family. They’re cutting down that 150 year-old mapleThe one that stands in corner of the doubl.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1354089/ Mineral striationsof green, red and browncompressed into a sleek shapeminding its own business since the Precambrian Erapresent for the movement of glaciersacross the landscapeunknown to meuntil twenty summers agowhen I pocketed that formation of history and artand took it home to hold as a .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1346285/ Everyone should have a backyard at least once in lifeYou can dig to ChinaPlay badmintonTend to your hydrangeas Pitch a tent and camp out with your best friendMow a lawnSun bathe with a cool drinkand if you wait long enoughwatch the stars and galaxies reveal themselvesYou can rake leaves and send t.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1343656/ To the untrained eyeit was nothing But when I heard they found the lost citycovered in the sands of the high desertI thought ofthe last inhabitanton his last night inside the the city wallsand how he walked away from its crumbling ruinsinto the morning sun turning the city into a.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1341920/ No one is left in my home townMy people are gone.  But my memories are there right where I left themresiding in streets, schools, and fields.I could revive the spirit of the placebut what would that matter now?My route is now reversedwhat was once a destination became the home town  and th.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1326040/ Night and awake in bedI hear voices outsideVoices of 14 years-oldsThe same voices that belonged to me thirty years agoThe time when you never feel so carefree, so cool, so immortalEverything in life before youAnd you barely recognize thisThe 14 year-olds fill their senses with deep hues of the north.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1323755/ Winter arrives as deathbut when winter departs does it die?That patch of snow the last onethe scab left over from winter’s fightArriving at nightas flurries and fanfareIt disappears in the daysilently shrunken by the sunI was against itbut now I’m for itbecause I realize it’s the u.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1323740/ Longleaf pines conspire to strike the road with slatted shadows An off kilter picket fencepointing to the setting sun. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1313398/ What happens the day afterOdysseus returns homeTen years of warTen years of odysseyDid he wake up make coffeelook at Penelope and askWhat now? http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1313394/ Theme 1: Dream DeliveryHe worked at the dream storemaking deliveriesIf you’re expecting a deliverydon’t ever give a Post Office Box.Theme 2:  Defective Dream DefenseI put a helmet over my headto keep dreams outbut the helmet was realityand the dreams were notThe dreams got in. &nbsp.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1313389/ You wake up
to the dreamy sunlit sky
frothed with cumulus clouds
riding the winds
but behind the 
controls of an airplane with no one aboard http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1310750/ Lawyers 
will always
use their
 favorite phraseto dispense wise counsel
even when 
you ask
if you should drive 
the dynamite truck
      into the minefield 
     during the meteor showerThey will say
.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1310727/ You're left 
with one sweaty hand
grasping one
dry root
protruding from the crazy cliff
but you take no comfort 
that this is Nebraska http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1310720/ The Board room is full
but the gulag is empty
The lecture hall is dark
But the stadium has a capacity crowd
The Church is vacant
but the casino packs ‘em in by the bus load
The family farm is left to the tillage of robot tractors
but the burger chain s.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1310715/ When you can't find beauty from the train windowin the passing scenery 
of derelict buildings 
with black eyes 
on a slate gray February evening.Do you find you can make beauty substitutions?The rusting steel of a northern New Jersey salvage yard by twilight never lo.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1310707/ Past, present, and future walk into a bar...it was tense. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1308756/ Third of Three Road Poems http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1304629/ Two of Three Road Poems http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1304628/ One of three road poems http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1304627/ Clattering flocksof leaves dance down the pavement angry and fearfulof the wind’s wild rushWhite noise whoosh building into crescendosof excitement--more leaves to shake!Dead brown drysmoke smellwraps aroundmy cortexforever and ever http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1272053/ Every daymakes a differencebut inside the darkened libraryI lost that knowledge http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1272050/ A suspectmonkwaits in an alleyfor a messagethat doesnot come http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1272048/ Grab a headlampand find a line of descentinto the labyrinth ofURLsmore dead ends than enlightened narrativeIt's lonely down herewith the(mis)informationno sign of meaninglisten...Something morepowerful and imperviousto darknessa solohuman voice http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/rutherfordbhayes/1272046/