Cairn Poems | Examples

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Of Cairns and Kivas

Of Cairns and Kivas

The cairn went together without effort -
each stone calling out to be next 
to take a seamless place among the others, 
and when they were all in place,
each making their willing sacrifice,
they were one; a monument,
an offering place
.
Surely you noticed

The kiva was another thing entirely -
designed for ancient rituals’
I merely borrowed it for a while. 

It was a quiet dark shelter with no corners, 
no place for unwelcome spirits to hide -
I re-arranged the fire rocks slightly
and made the prayers rather quickly.
as Mesquite flames began to produce billows of pungent smoke.

As I crawled out to leave,
I watched black smoke spiral high into an azure sky.
Surely the escaping black ribbon could be seen for miles. 

Perhaps you were faced in a different direction. 

Cairns and kivas -
reminders of my barren inability to cause
even a tiny reaction in the Universe.

Motionality

if I could but reach 
        a little bit further,

the Baltic winds, the Irish Sea,
not even the Atlantic

could my need for misgivings divide

what a trespass to be whole! 
let no thing restore my soul

not swells of madness,
        nor gladness proliferating
in form of second chances 
stockpiled in veneration of the return

let not my feet
ingratiate the hums beneath 
the home-lit flooring

after peaking Tetnuldi 
        or even Cairn Gorm. 

because what is peace 
but the absence of being driven? 

let sleep be my portion 
        of that place, and life 
in motion be its own recompense

Friendly Fred Followed Me Home

I am sorry but you cannot come the elderly musician said.
He liked the little cairn terrier dog, nicknamed him Friendly Fred.
Friendly Fred kept following over a rickety bridge and well beyond.
He kept him but had to get rid of his wife, of whom he was no longer fond.

Beside Behind Water and Fire

In the hot A-Ga-Ming night
My wife and I skip the July 4th fireworks
At the sandbar down south on long Torch Lake

Start our own shoreline fire

Count the red electrified dorsal fins
Of the motorboat salmon swimming upstream
Migrating home from the explosions in the sky

20, 50, 80 a hundred 200 in an hour
Rainbow tsunami

Our dock leans rickety to the covenant

Lake soothes its wrinkles when the madness is over
Our souls sit back in decrescendo

Take a deep breath

To the cows mooing
Pastures away on Cairn Highway
Like foghorns from the lighthouse perched on the moon

While picking machines convulse in the cherry orchards
Tree by tree to trampolines
Whining mosquitoes if our ears were the hills

Moon slips behind the blueberry clouds

Campfire snaps its fingers for attention

A cricket chirps just outside our circle of radiant rocks
I planted decades ago

Every year he’s here too

Chirping
Chirping
To the embers of the universe

Until he isn’t.

The Wizard Will Know

The wizard will know everyone I met along the way said.
Okay, I thought, for I am from Kansas and not daft in my head.
I looked for the curtain as I pranced down the yellow brick road.
Instead of Toto a cairn terrier, I was followed by a frog who looked old.

The mini-munchkins did not come out to greet or to sing.
I never found a scarecrow, tinman or lion with zing.
In the far distance I saw a poppy field, but the flowers looked odd.
An old witch-like creature with wings gave me a head nod.

Where is the wizard? I yelled, kind of half-heartedly.
That’s when I found a lively sassy wise talking oak tree.
Winged monkeys are about, so make haste she warned me.
Fear came into my heart, I’ve seen Wizard of Oz times twenty-three.

I began to run and hit my head on an unexpected branch.
I woke up smelling cinnamon, pumpkin and possibly ranch.
A frog with a wizard hat was concocting some kind of spell.
I wondered if I was still alive or I had gone to…..

The Wizard Will Know

The wizard will know everyone I met along the way said.
Okay, I thought, for I am from Kansas and not daft in my head.
I looked for the curtain as I pranced down the yellow brick road.
Instead of Toto a cairn terrier, I was followed by a frog who looked old.

The mini-munchkins did not come out to greet or to sing.
I never found a scarecrow, tinman or lion with zing.
In the far distance I saw a poppy field, but the flowers looked odd.
An old witch-like creature with wings gave me a head nod.

Where is the wizard? I yelled, kind of half-heartedly.
That’s when I found a lively sassy wise talking oak tree.
Winged monkeys are about, so make haste she warned me.
Fear came into my heart, I’ve seen Wizard of Oz times twenty-three.

I began to run and hit my head on an unexpected branch.
I woke up smelling cinnamon, pumpkin and possibly ranch.
A frog with a wizard hat was concocting some kind of spell.
I wondered if I was still alive or I had gone to…..

London Bridge Is Finally Down

Those shrunken grey turrets throw 
Their distraught shadows to the wind;
And in the grey twilight of ancient 
Beinn Chìochan...
Hear you the droning sounds of 
Muted pipes retreating far back and 
Away. 

Albert heaves upon the old grey 
cairn;
When woken from his immortal sleep,
Laments beside the darkening waters
For that which, despite all its 
Eternal majesty...
He knows can but never come again.

Over grey skies, glowering like the 
Grey dawning,
Spanned the rainbow to briefly flicker
Before the remaining day;
But with the grey night will come the 
Weeping...
And London Bridge, reduced to nought 
But Her, laid finally down.

Ode To a Devil Dog

I shall not linger, tarry, where,
Beneath the oaks, out of the glare,
I had a dog to bury, ere
I lose control, emotions flare.
Among the roots, precise, with care,
There was so little room to spare:
A cairn of rock so none would dare
To dig, to make inquiry there.
Failed him, of this I'm great aware.
At times, a bit too much to bear.
It is a tragic, sad affair,
And so I dug internment lair.
The two of us, a bonded pair.
That wondrous coat of fine black hair!
But, damn! His actions: hard to square.
With growling, fearful, narrowed stare,
Attacked an infant, small and fair;
Gave all of us an awful scare.
I vowed demise, a solemn swear.
The righteous end, and yet, beware:
'Twas grief, not vengeance, in the air,
Commended with a tearful prayer.

----------


(In memory of Dizzy, the devil dog, a border collie I had for about 10 years,
but had to put down when he attacked my grandson. The experience is not
recent, but the emotion is still raw after all these years)

Gustavo's Rite

Gustavo’s Rite

He walked onto the harbor beach at sunset,
planting a small net on a pole like a guidon,
and setting soiled cloth bags around it.
Alone on the beach he began his dance.
Mismatched clothes flapping, he swayed,
then paced, then crouched to pat the sand
into a crescent, then stepped back and back,
dug sand by hand, finding black things
and tossing them into a jumbled pile . 
He stepped easily, as if riding waves,
moving in erose shapes only he knew.
Then he gathered net and bags and left,
not glancing back at the cairn
of burnt wood and asphalt fragments.

All this I watched from a restaurant deck,
and had to ask the waiter about him.
“Gustavo,” he said, shrugging, “a local character.”
I nodded but kept silent, recalling that morning 
walking another beach, trying to feel profound.

Raining Dogs

Well that’s something new I said with a twist.
A lopsided pile of dogs that went past my wrist.
They are still coming down! Watch out said boy Pete.
I looked to the sky, and was bombarded by feet.

Paws, tails, wiggles, and slurping tongues from the sky. 
I could not stop looking as dogs came down – me oh my!
How is this happening? I asked as a collie went floating by.
A boxer and bulldog breathed in my hair and gave me a sigh.

A cocker spaniel breezed down, with sore red eyes.
I was surprised by a mastiff, who was giant size.
A cairn terrier was the next to land with a lurch.
I knew now that God had heard my prayer in church.

I had asked for a dog, so this had to be assign.
I turned to my mother and asked “Which dog is mine?”
She was horrified, and stopped devouring her bread made with leaven.
Wishing she had never told me I would have to ask heaven.

Glen Nevis--Lochaber, Scotland

Majestic, barren, rock-cropped braes ascend—
Arrayed, green-clad, in heather, gorse, and fern—
As mid-day, misty, dark’ning clouds descend
To cold-embrace each soaring tor and burn.

From heights unseen a torrent cascades free,
Unfettered into deep Ben Nevis’ glen;
Then onwards toward Loch Linnhe and the sea,
Through sodden bog and brackened, stone-strewn fen.

Though hidden from the eyes of those below,
Ben Nevis’ surly brow is sought and found
By those who brave the rain, the sleet, and snow,
To scale the cairn that marks its highest ground.

And there, amidst the cloud, God reaches down
To touch and bless fair Scotland’s Highland crown.

								brae=steep hillside
								tor=rocky peak
								burn=hillside stream

This sonnet is one of a set of five sonnets written while traveling through Ireland and Scotland in June 2019. This sonnet was inspired by my climb to the snowy summit of Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the British Isles. The poem is included in my book, "Mostly Sonnets," published by Dunecrest Press and available for sale on Amazon.com.

Panda and Oakley Our Dogs

Panda decided to have a serious talk with Oakley
I always have to ride in the backseat, he complained
So tomorrow when we get in the car, can you jump in the back seat?
Oakley barked an okay, but not meaning it actually.

The next day it was the same thing.
The back backseat was opened.
Get in Panda, the mommy said.
Oakley looked away, embarrassed because he had promised
But had no intention of keeping the promise

So Panda had another talk with Oakley the next time they saw grass.
Oakley readily agreed, yet, they both knew he did not mean it.
When the car pulled up Mommy said “Come on Panda,”
Panda gave Oakley a sad face, but Oakley did not see it.
He was turned away, checking out a pretty little cairn terrier.

My Six Heroes

MacGregor was our first pet dog
a cairn terrier, a little bundle of fun
being adopted I found home strange
my pal MacGregor with me love to run

Also in my upbringing growing up
had two lovable cats Jinky and Smokey
lay on my bed bringing comfort
many a night felt safe with real support

Then Glen came along full of pace
this Collie dog loved to run for stick
I was kept fit keeping up with Glen
but his life left me far too quick

A ginger coloured cat next came
to our household which made bright
Sandy by name with full of mischief
once went to no return at night

My very favourite was a black labrador
Cora by name, so clever and strong
could hear our car a full mile away
so affectionate and loving it did belong

There you have my six heroes
all were special in their own way
from them learned many a lesson
never forgotten even to this day

(Looking back on my childhood and adolescent days on the animals we had and their effect upon my life.)

We Now Use Wicked Witch's Castle For Good

Wicked Witch of the West’s
Castle is now a home for unwed children, numbering twenty-three,
Children who are gloriously sock-loose and dance-e-bee.

The flying monkeys have turned into baby sitters, and lovers.
They protect the children from all mean witches and mothers.

The scarecrow and the lion come by about twice a week,
To make sure things are comfortable, they both do peek.

Tin-man runs a home for cairn terriers down the road.
He occasionally also saves an iguana, or a horny toad.

They get a face-time call from Kansas, USA, once a day.
Dorothy is in college now, so she does not have time to play.

But she picks up the ruby slippers and makes them shine,
Showing them she will never forget Oz was a fabulous time!

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