Steve Toth’s Poetry

Natural Poet

Mayflies don’t even
have a mouth
They have to write their poems
in the air
until their wings wear out
& they die exhausted
Rocks speak very slowly
Their poems are hard
to read in one lifetime

Every creation gives
creation another chance
to work
Let’s meet where the seeds
go to die
& the sprouts come
to be born
Let’s read the poems
the Earth writes
to the Sun

There’s no poem
without a poet
or poet without a poem
Don’t breath a word
of this to the silence
but there’s a poem
that even now
is reading our thoughts
& writing us
into itself

Wild Places

The fawn hides in silence
already she’s learned
how to freeze
Wild places in the heart
are where we
fall in love

Dad was buried in his paper
Mom was cooking
on her stove alone
That kestrel isn’t hovering
just to take
my mind off things
Things we set in motion
in order to get
caught up in them

When things were wilder
there was more time
We need to live
in a world so vast
it doesn’t need us
Wild places in the head
are where we
hide our poetry