Life Itself

politics is not more serious than life
itself a world of many states of mind
and body like a river tirelessly seeking
death in the restless ocean of eternity

Each Moment

 what am I trying to say
that this is life
in all its preposterous complexity
simply getting along
that this is me
in the real world
each moment a poem

Staying Home

 the places I want to go are closed
the people I want to see are dead
what's the point of old New York
 
museums rich in art already seen
concerts of music I used to love
no more hankering for the new 
 
city me carries on in dreams
livelier than memory's reprise
staying home the now preferred

Loving Look

 alas his eyes are long unseen
their loving look complex
challenging my existence
wryly accepting wanting me
 
and in the dream I am writing
trying to please women who
have their own idea of now
more style than I can equal
 
I do my best always sincere
despite a fondness for irony
wake with unbearable feeling
loss and desire intermingled

Too Close

to Lora

I could have spoken
up but you chose not
to reveal more than
the public story so
I'll never know you
really don't want to

Beyond Words

 stop naming composing every moment
as words as if everything distinct and
present when referred to as if anyone
ever quite gets what I mean that's not it
that's the words running away with it
 
like another sense another mode of
being in the world words overriding
actual living noise bright light bodily
smells and innumerable sensations
 
turn it off if you can already enough
said to yourself if you can remember
their names anything will do someone
loves you will know what you mean

On the Fly

 can I sit and think usually
I am doing something else
and something bubbles up
and I start writing and see
where it goes thinking on
the fly not stopping to ask
if it's the right thing or what
I want to be doing getting
lost in imaginary construct
and these days I can barely 
see the keyboard so it isn't
as easy to rattle on I do it
anyway how am I to learn
to think without writing

On Doing Nothing

 I can't read or write all the
time my eyes give out
closing them fall into reverie
going over random wording
might be letters or smething
I'd like to say to someone
now that I have nothing to do
I need to practice doing nothing

Quite Mad

 they will buy your butter
if you churn it fresh cream
we never had before I
wanted cheese and pasta
 
enough is more than we
deserve but thank you
have another deviled egg
come again if I am here
 
after that something else
you think as if there were
a future knowing the past
is over and forgotten
 
so that's the way it goes
da-dum da-dum da-dum
driving you quite mad
if you think of it that way

As Is

if I am not to write anymore
what will I do with thoughts
they will continue to arise
sometimes seeming to progress
toward the firmer grasp I need
to validate myself and others
 
I want to know the world as is
but capable of improvement
so much wrong is worsening
through wrong understanding
while I just manage to go on
what I can do already done
 
still I wonder what will happen
will the young be wise enough
and diligent to save the world
there is nothing else we live
creating patterns that live on

let them be better without me