English teacher and published author Gerry Stork, one of LI's finest, recently returned from a sabbatical year. Having spent much of last year in New Mexico, where he wrote and participated in a series of poetry readings and workshops, he submits this fine piece:
Homecoming
I come to bed after a hectic day
of hammer & nail and kick over the pail,
dash to town to forget again
what I forgot on the last trip in;
then home to plumb the drip
become an ancient torture trip
on my head since getting back
and finding winter'd smacked
the house and left a length of split
pipe and a leak I can't fix.
After sawing out the section
and installing new,
things haven't changed.
Me and directing water where it should flow
are still foes.
Living the good life this is called.
The garden isn't in
and the vestibule, k.o.'d by sliding snow,
needs reconstruction. So
too often I forget the good
in the bust-ass of making do.
But ah! The noise sighing out of the valley
tonight is the brook full of spring
and nothing sounds as sweet
as this source, runoff by which I sleep.
Welcome Home, Gerry!