Sunday, February 28, 2010

Like Me

it doesn't matter what I think it's for
the young this applies generally nor
do I imagine I teeter through the row
who the vital catalyst the magic friend
like Joe Cino was to white-bearded Joe
Davies no one they all know each other
like me in the Village too much to ask
again and I wouldn't really want to now

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Many Bits

but where will I stay how will I have fun
look at art is that enough for two days

the artist must be ruthless others will
nothing accomplished without a space

scurry back I used to drift around as
if what I did where mattered the most

here is where I need to be everything
awaits attention divided in many bits

Friday, February 26, 2010

Magic Words

654 artists imagine the car defines
the man beware drive what u have

to be financed magic words money
is not real but all else is conditional

well not all obviously the body not
branded uniquely everybody's own

& the mind rules itself conditioned
so choose carefully what you drive

Visible Trace

cut the grass before the rain comes
again every time the same solution
unreels as if for the first time never

granite is opaque no one complains
a mountain there a piece you hold
in your hand world made revealed

this work arises unasked welcome
visitor visible trace and then go on
the rest hidden silence by distance

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Less Hair

do ears get bigger they look bigger
with less hair see through to scalp

vulnerable still strong bodies stand
face to face hands holding whiskies

it's amusing so I'm cheerful my own
happiness index keeping high so far

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Gray Fog

if I lost wording whatever would I do
to you revenge distraction someone
is reading them aloud or left behind

late night cooking granola riches
sitting undoes exercise not getting
up rolling around rolling your eyes

Better to drift into the gray fog and be forgotten. (Jonathan Lethem)

most beautiful too close up to focus
your tender touch and I am released
impossible not to notice everything

Monday, February 22, 2010

Sheer Joy

sudden confusion warps reception
fitting the tune contusion marked
like Cole Porter or Paul Simon like
poetry but not for any good reason

impossible to communicate disease
control freaks me out again raving
as if I cared who can think like this
is dead hopeless difference yawns

these rigid forms replace sonnetry
with something easier who needs
more perfect performances stunts
delight sheer joy something itself

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Perfectly Fine

news of the day a coming out
surprise
it is certainly O.K. with me I think
gay is perfectly fine if you like it

as for me how life goes on my
mantra
everything changes but usually
slowly better get used to it

Friday, February 19, 2010

First Time

how big is a house
cousins generations
Abraham Lincoln's
signature before all

Remy takes himself
too seriously for me
Academy of Science
full of noisy children

I'd rather walk if I
could be irresistible
to anyone sees me
the very first time

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Sunny Days

the miles fly by
a waterfall a cat
on its back purring
gesturing looking at me

I am comfortable
among old friends
new family familiar
thinking easily wrought

a strange noise
under Bicky's Volvo
loosely plan to meet
if not now then later on

San Francisco
still here where left
turned out Cambodian
after a week of sunny days

Monday, February 15, 2010

Paper Bag

Garrison Keillor practically took my cereal away.
Tell me your number so I can call you back when I am awake.
I am writing everything down on a paper bag.
No, I only moved here nine years ago, after the good times you so fondly remember were over.
That sounds like a good book for us to publish, and if you are really writing a column for the New Yorker you can help us sell it. How can I get a copy of the manuscript? Is the author still alive?
All this because I answered the phone in the back of John's station wagon, which he was compulsively tidying up.

If you are unhappy with the kids in the cast, talk to the director, don't talk to me, and don't tell him I said to.
People persist in their behavior. What can you do with a thought like that?

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Speak Love

if I don't sing who
will deliver the news
who else speak love
fulfill love changed
and still the same

touch and be close
over distance years
saved up and spent
trust chemicals or
science to explain

so I get up early
every day to write
tell the sun's rise
clear or fogged in
love's fresh dawn

Friday, February 12, 2010

Modern Friends

all would be forgiven if you blessed my borrowed charm
as if the others knew me better than I ever knew myself

all would be revealed if only we had more time to spend
together in one place playing the musics of other worlds

who could know the secret movements of sober hearts
in passages like melodies or guests as modern friends

like would be recognized in the spaces between words
granted as if blessings on repentant sinners in the act

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Joining Hands

born to love we travel endless miles
to find ourselves together from afar
the moon or phone or bodies meet
awake or closely sleep appreciating
interest on principle and in the flesh

these are good reasons to be happy
that we care that we continue equal
right and true discovery new worlds
inhabited on purpose joining hands
to make a better world for everyone

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Easy Part

she works hard spreading shavings in the horse trailer
wheelbarrow shovel is the easy part moving fence posts
stringing wire moving hay moving manure and all the
horse hygiene pick trim hooves feed blanket wash and
all the gardening planting cultivating weeding digging
potatoes we are glad to eat well from her bountiful plots

Monday, February 08, 2010

Travel Fantasies

if I do all that I can go even if I don't
call write reach out all over sow seed
so something else will happen after

this void is not so bad a few months
booked books to read travel fantasies
to be or not to be granted actuality

then what befalls better be good or
I'll have to turn and exit backwards
as if my entrance played in rewind

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Great Queen

where you come from makes differences
in outlook vocabulary values unassumed

you don't know what is peculiar ordinary
standards apply before you think about it

line length or regular meets over coffee
or ping-pong search approximated cues

that explains it she would have said back
in Kansas City great Queen of the Prairie

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Great Personalities

Verdi in the mall tastes in opulence collide
embarrassing chill wind in the parking lot
this calls for a nap then poetry computing

great personalities display themselves at
work extravagant skills status union jobs
this fantastic world just one of thousands

Friday, February 05, 2010

Every Detail

did you notice every detail that's
the key if not you will not know
what's going down next door or
in anyone else's miniature mind

models of probabilty don't apply
to particular instances managing
wealth or love follow the market
even when you may know better

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Too Frivolous

I just want to have fun and be happy
mindful awake to reality not the same
for everyone facing greater challenges
survival adequate nutrition shelter health
much less comfort is anything deserved
to love and be loved is that too frivolous

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Remind Me

dozing mind falls right out of reality
fantastic dramas flicker all sense lost
snap back oh yes how brains process
information please remind me often

many hours between waking sleep
creeps up some unusual channel
patterns recognized as another day
insists on verbalizing mystery meat

what is the connection nothing
is random firings make a sequence
signifying something if we only
knew we could enjoy it even more

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Ready to Write

squishy mind wobbles unreliable body
parts itchy writhe sinking core reeling
cortex assumes control the sizzle high
again Eno bells as if posed in its chair

as if ready to write when what obstacle
clears all systems working gravity wins
but does not gloat floater in time-space
frictionless gelid definition to be found

Monday, February 01, 2010

Only Hint

documentation rewards itself we are
onlooking gourmets sorrier I missed
Kandinskys should have flown east

art is there but you don't get to see
hovering potential books only hint I
miss at least I wallowed when I could

commenting as we pass forward leave
everything behind nothing remains
even document enjoyable in its time