Thursday, September 30, 2010

Usually Wrong

belly up to the shaker in your homespuns
tell me all about your plans and pleasure

I was there and you are gone but this is
not it anywhere the weather usually wrong

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Cinnamon Toast

how one habit or actor replaces another
how freely I offer my fondest hopes
how much less I should have said
but the truth will out and soon forgot

enjoy it while you can remember
how the show reminded me of you
or someone else decades earlier
still young enough to think so

go through the whole story one by one
is so much fun I can't stop eating it
appears to be cinnamon toast with
honey instead of sugar just as good

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Soul Legacy

underlying dismay goes on
regretting another possible life
shipwreck not to be repeated

uniqueness matters but
who to
to put it crudely

pattern of mind soul legacy
needs patient nurture
no one to do it

Monday, September 27, 2010

Act Real

what who might have said remains
unspoken projects absorb energy
move closer speak natural thought
forms twisted sister morphine act
real good time karma wearing thin

then well then absent alternatives
alter everything in flux or matrix
once you start the former engine
parse the matter phonic logically
assembled gets you safely home

Sunday, September 26, 2010

New Job

now I've lost Betty where can she
be sure she'll reappear in time I
can't imagine how they get it to
happen "Oedipus" in Japanese

flocks of crows across the sky
caw on cue hundreds of people
on hard benches for two and a
half hours liking it very much

Ophelia is starting a new job
no pressure take the night off
or rather not I want to work as
much as I can capable of more

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Wayward Skim

I mean it the way you think
without explaining excuse
for nothing unsaid and yet
this wayward skim is thin

I don't say everything think
twice or hesitate nor let it
all out only what I mean to
keep quiet mornings alone

enough but not too much
my motto modesty of aim
discretion open invitation
couched in sparest words

non-critical but still know
how I feel what judge right
or not wonder if different
ways are equal or superior

Friday, September 24, 2010

Hungry Birds

he doesn't hunt he kills
this human mind works
backward drinking beer
and sure it feels good

even sober fellow love
unites the lonely parts
leaves the wasp alive
but wastes the enemy

he kills for food nest
full of hungry birds
one elk months meat
beats selling his time

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Honest Weight

what of myself can I invest for profit
in a falling market attention my only
capital intention only honest weight

I must do it for pleasure or pleasure
in the doing and I do what emerges
is the measure of improving wealth

keep it going is the challenge share
manifest value each can understand
want to willing voyagers toward flow

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Such Fun (for Mary Lucas)

even long or wrong lives end
sooner one you've known for
seventy years the later gaps
can't erase it is all past now

I distanced myself but didn't
judge unfortunate choices or
bad luck only sorry you lost
your knack for elegant living

such fun to visit on Russian
Hill or Nob or Chinatown or
Oakland piano hot tub with
Julian I have no ear for jazz

nothing personal if I prefer
Chopin egotistical indulgent
I shouldn't have beat you up
with my supposed normality

still don't you had to be you
I me incompatible directions
beyond therapy conversation
regular living could not go on

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Flying Visit

equal night full moon call across mountains
read across all borders imaginary drawing

Cascades opposite coasts weather patterns
fail to break aims for uncommon language

if that isn't it I don't know what is is what
he said tell everyone I said you know I try

I think in Norwegian act in flowers kisses
cousins foresee a flying visit well deserved

this accounts for another season passing
flow moments resonate the work begins

Monday, September 20, 2010

Hold Back

don't ask unless you want to know
or answer until spoken to hold back
not to offend repel others' patience
fear of overpowering being too man
excuses nothing of your withdrawals
twee fastidious hold that back again
late much going on being themself

that was what I wanted to know then
wondered why subjected to the wry
tweaking feathers aflutter forget it
not the formula for viscosity one of
my gaps I brag as if there were few
and no one knows better than you
how little glue is not really enough

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Irrelevant Wisdom

shall I be more direct I would
if I could but isn't everything
too obvious already this idea
for example if it is if anyone
says so

otherwise I should abdicate
but who else would do it if
it had to be done dine out
on irrelevant wisdom as if
any is

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Clearly Explained

And maybe the message that can barely be deciphered is as close as we can get to the most powerful message of all, which is the one we wait for that never arrives. —Rivka Galchen

not say less more than two
more than you more than
multiply two who can rain

down it comes let it come
let it become few as three
or more clearly explained

never wetter weather wait
may be better or the same
way to nowhere be alone

Friday, September 17, 2010

Try It

everything is clear to me at last
I understand perfectly articulate
write the letter before I've read
the poems though I do mean to
it is only written inside my head

others promise more pleasure if
I'm right it means nothing which
purpose served or aim achieved
which art says more about what
and who cares enough to try it

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Hidden Depths

he can't help himself she
said feeding dogs who can
we are what we feel from hidden
depths or else deny the true

missing action figures darkly
measured in spoons toward emptiness
nothing overflows that you can keep
quiet play your ridiculous part

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

My Ingenue

I hate casting it's the hardest part
of doing a play my little company
is fine but my ingenue is going to
college at night can't do this one
directing comes easy but casting
is agony oh Ophelia materialize!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Serious Stuff

sick of republicans sick of democrats
sick of the stupid tea party iraq iran
afghanistan somalia poor congo poor
people sick of hearing about politics
seriously stupidly stuck serious stuff
needs doing stop posturing and start

Monday, September 13, 2010

More Fun

keep the rhythm going is the key to music
and everything else who can choose to do
is what is possible with practical exercise

patience perseverance courage in adverse
circumstance arranges when we are tested
for soul and substance without prejudice

you can be good too if not the same way
no one has to harder than it looks work
more fun than play if you bring your best

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Others Mumble

need our numbers help with weather
whether others mumble I don't care
where you dare go crazy for berries
falling off the falling over vines pick
quick if it doesn't seem so at the time

movie time bed late I finished another
draft of the same old story finally got
it right I always knew but didn't dare
there I dare to too many times willing
to prove the opposite not so different

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Nothing Real

did he look at me did he see
the tears and know how well
I understood we sacrifice for
art immolate ecstatic bored
tormented humiliation isn't
worth it but there is nothing
else was the line to the man
behind me scripted nothing
real who knows besides me

Friday, September 10, 2010

Busy People

streaming north counter others
south all different destinations
why this not something else
everything quantumly possible

you can only act now only be
consistent with earlier choices
you might not have made why
cars why so many busy people

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Something Else

should I be doing something else
must we always ask ourselves that

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Bad Night

comfort range narrow tolerance
for discomfort nil non-survive
without furnaces houses exact
layers of protection mentally no
better one bad night ready die

winter is coming get used to it
the pool eighty-four year round
makes it easy if cold don't swim
bring out the corduroys afghans
fleeces heaters store away fans

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

For Hamlet

black velvet on the tennis court
I want some for Hamlet myself
beyond the pale brooding beauty

they are athletes with a sense of
style who can scorn such power
bodes well for something lost

what mattered was elegance cool
meandering days freely spent
learning subtle highways home

Monday, September 06, 2010

Do Something

I started to get depressed but
didn't have to not an ordinary
day it's Labor Day do something
dance with pendulum no video
clean studio floor call a friend
whack my hill I did my writing
before breakfast is that enough

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Out Loud

why don't I think what I have to say
is interesting it is and yet I fade say
some vague fragment of experience
someone changes the subject I hope
you don't mind my questions it's how
I think out loud if one has time for it

Saturday, September 04, 2010

No Option

work does itself if you don't do anything else
give your mind and body that is your time it
happens you don't have to do it just be there
active allow yourself to act idleness no option

Friday, September 03, 2010

Keep Moving

two weeks O.K. anything it takes
everything is negotiable if I can
keep moving preferably forward

fabulous charro artisan work we
celebrate Mexican excellence we
lunch dinner from garden better

tomatoes at last pale European
cucumber tiny new potatoes it's
plenty I don't want to eat much

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Only Morning

I didn't want salmon
but it wasn't my birthday

all my efforts in vain
delay two weeks? or?

open windows for air
close to keep in cool

chocolate at any hour
breakfast only morning

clouds in monochrome
cobwebs on peasant girl

pleasant to contemplate
madness to undertake

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Mainly Awake

everything held in mind at once
rewriting my life casting Ophelia
letters poem news books granola
season changing

Tipsarevic demolishing Roddick
most of it trivial Fleming singing
in Russian palaces don't we miss
Saddam Hussein

no excuse for killing tomatoes
race the frost worth year waiting
for coherence past bedtime still
mainly awake