a friend came by
we played wooden flutes
in red trillium time
joining bird song
through maple woods
into the sunset

are we venturing
through our eyes into
curiosity?

a friend came by
in red trillium time
we played wooden flutes
joining bird song
into the sunset
through maple woods

shades of grey
as wet snow falls
and I look uphill south
through maples into
a brightening sky
the moss on the
windward side
of maple shafts
now damp
incontrast
to maple flesh-
the growth between
spreading ridges
now looking east
the green of maple shafts
in complementary contrast
to the burgundy of
the budding of
distant tops
enter one
bedraggled fox
slightly more orange
than the forest floor

SpringJazzLandscape
Image size 66 x 80 inches, oil on canvas

FreeJazzAbstraction
Collaboration at SUMMERFOLK
"Yea though I walk through the valley of banjos
I will fear no evil, for I have my tenor sax to comfort me"
Kenny Baldwin
with Peter Beckett on canvas


standing in for the hero
for the first painter to
speak to me of searching
his friend in jazz
the fearless improvisor

cutting fire-wood
has turned to
sculpting
with earth and trees and
emerging pathways

scattered stacks of wood
melting snow
the first of the wild leaks
emerging now

I started painting in the woods
one spring years ago
after returning from a
winter in Santa Fe
where Alice in the cowboy bar
read to me from the enteogical arguement
horizons appeared in all directions

space-time

luckily there's work to do outside
luckily it's spring
luckily i spent a winter living in a little wooden sailboat

and painting outside
the birds keep me company