Tim Dwyer – Morning Detour

Dwyer LE P&W 4 Nov-Dec 2024

Download PDF Here

Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Four November-December 2024

Morning Detour, poems by Tim Dwyer.


Morning Detour

Hudson Valley

After last night’s floods
barricades close my route to work—
I follow a rusty farm truck
onto byways you only know
when you grow up in a place.

With many twists and turns
I lose direction, then suddenly
arrive onto a familiar road.
A beep from my horn, a shared wave
as the farmer turns a different way.

Overnight, the gnarled shrubs
along the roadside
have turned a brilliant red.
On this overcast morning,
I’m an eternal beginner
with happiness.


Mulled

During last night’s thunderstorm,
apples were shaken from Gary’s tree
and tumbled down the narrow lane.
I pick up one and take a bite,
tarty sweetness of a McIntosh
from long ago. Red. Plump. Crisp.
I fill my pockets,
then gather the bruised ones
that dot the ground.

Press, ferment, mature,
mull with cinnamon, zest, and cloves.
Serve the cider piping hot
for one more lingering winter.


Bohemian Waxwings

They are wintering in the rowan tree
near the library. We come close—
in the Scandinavian wilderness,
they never learned
humans are to be feared.

Thriving on red berries
untouched by our local birds,
the waxwings sally from treetop
to treetop, open wide
their flycatching beaks.

One in flight
pulls in its wings
motionless—

watching from below
we are floating
in mid-air.


© Tim Dwyer

Tim Dwyer’s poems appear regularly in Irish, UK and international journals, including Live Encounters, and many haiku and tanka journals. His chapbook is Smithy Of Our Longings (Lapwing).. He is a retired psychologist originally from Brooklyn, NY,  who now lives by the shore in Bangor, Northern Ireland.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.