Warm Legs

something missing thinking about
ing words proliferating nonprofits
seasonal blessings filling the void

contentless episodes polish finely
protocols warm legs adjust screen
fatted chicken shames poor birds

complain explain apologize worse
to be a rock exposed to weather
easier to let someone else decide

Fierce Theatrics

the antidote to inner obstacles is practice
fierce theatrics dry my tears
hunger is good when I am dieting
headlights coming and going blur
all kinds of peasants glad in spring
moon either waxing or waning
your turning pages my tired eyes

Barely Enough

sick of words what else do
who more like vacant pause
works will play cleanly dire
situation hopeless to adapt
illusion stubbornly struggle
stuck with this self after all
these years better than any
new decision barely enough

Running Away

poets grapple with experience
coming at them running away
not telling them what to think

writers grapple deploy words
like warriors idealize hopeful
notions in the face of mystery

if I knew more I would tell you
what small comforts balance
declining value failing wealth

This Belly

burping thanks for overfeeding us
again not ours but a loving family
worth enzymes tomorrow is diet

who cares I do easy give up wine
cheese additional coffee eat less
of whatever you're having better

not to feel this belly not give up
because I can tell know as well
this choice never hard to make

How Tell

there must be a now I'm here
with more past than future no
kidding aside how clearly see
and say what I think I mean no
other time divides good or bad
dark light real or didn't happen
how tell difference I can't read
between truth and the usual lies

Five Minutes

rise organize how small leaves fall
failing that rouse reasonable dids
given save starry might reconvene
who will come who care enough to

thus abruptly ends familiar sense
despite all signs to stop and yield
ending feminine is that a surprise
that variation is the clue to pattern

five minutes give admits reflection
glints of connection though others
thought the same thing by accident
and tell them what they want to hear

Every Name

tears from a book "2666" by Roberto Bolaño
years to remember every name spelled out
battles villages streets in different countries
and when he came to the door at last I wept

why is it already light I wondered unaware
that I had slept again I thought the universe
had slipped a notch or I mistook the season
some such silly me to lose an hour like that

A Letter

the cursor waits for a letter who
will write who read who answer

slower than my heartbeat were
I that calm could I think or feel

real emotions are the backdrop
luggage undertaken on purpose

what is the foreground writing
music reading being in my body

Like Butter

movies books are input like food
I don't need to remember to get
the nourishment if I liked it then
when hungry again read more
watch another DVD eat three
four five times a day this music
like butter on whole-grain toast

Wet Shavings

eucalyptus you grew too fast wobbly
on your roots liking hard packed earth
not these wet shavings horse manure
ropes could not hold we cut you down

how do you prefer to remember me
young not judging any other age as
tasty smart confident of infinite future
time to perfect what might have been

The Real

if Orpheus doesn't mean something how
are we to be satisfied with many wanting
one or two possibly three and why is that

we live in a web of myths unrecognized
understood but dimly as if our own little
matters would suffice this once around

as if the present can define itself free of
ancient history as if blood fate destiny
were causes too complex to be the real

This Night

music from another room another time
a ball Vienna what do we think is going
to happen Turks Napoleon attacking us
it could be worse think that if you must

hardly the first end of days for some we
have been spared beyond imagining why
then let us linger on in present pleasure
unashamed and grateful for this night

Random Loops

thought fleet uncatchable what structure blobs folded squishy
repeating patterns accounts for nothing familiar old surprises
indecipherable because incoherent random loops few specific

as opposed to dinner on the table soup salad is that enough
for you for me the Canterbury Tales fond routines particular
challenges overcome good habits ideals dangerously smug

where do I take hold of what I take for what it means to be
defining the general when everyone unique if they remember
why what happened made a mark that makes anyone care

Real Damage

start over change the game again
the same arrangement differently
told no difference is that memory
doesn't only happen once like me

in life youth is a ghost that haunts
the later corridors retelling a tale
but nothing alters what happened
real damage done ash scattered

Down Here

the world is too much other we can't
imagine how much each one so tiny
as a few men puttering build a tower

it tears apart confusion reigns down
here the view is narrow partial given
to generality though all is particular

each matters as if it were the whole
imagination yearns to stretch wide
pull it all together but it never can

Look Twice

small town art auction look twice
you missed it the usual suspects
have a good time once a year buy
something not possible to want

any pictures something else has
to happen walls waiting last joy
divides types who can't pretend
anything different is going down

O.K. we're all exceptional I know
the rap and anything is possible
but not likely to surprise awake
aesthetic rapture in the pigment

Old Men

Obama surrounded by old white men
I'm an old white man myself but I say
get rid of them they're the ones who
screwed things up make that change
you promised us why we voted you in

This Once

the story's not the life's
a million simultaneities
every instant becoming

therefore choose wisely
you only have this once
once and once again we

are writers all fictioning
rewriting reality in form
time enough to be right

Look Back

two times living memory flits
places real synthetic blurring

history ribaldry meanly told
confuses search for genuine

gold standard make me rich
the next time we look back

Say Yes

what you need is not what you think
you want you may be wrong about it
how does anyone decide what to do

well how much choice do you have it's
already decided by what you already
said you would do thinking you knew

you said something then have to do
what you said you would do and so it
goes better say before it gets too late

it's a leap in the dark you live with
consequences unimagined changes
circumstances partly not your fault

still you say yes I will follow through
as if this is who you are as if others
know more less what matters most

Slow Motion

I am a typical Libra but she is not
a typical Virgo just as well thank
heaven stars there rain and shine

everyday differences seem some
same sane better now something
to do but not too much is enough

another adage mixes metaphoric
letterboxes foxtails homewreckers
rock the slow motion fast return I

stop before I say what I may mean
it fits together if you can but see
but I was never clever in philosophy

Many Treasures

"If you're too serious about everything that's involved in directing, it could drive you mad." —Kenneth Lonergan (in the Times)

I have a piece of the Berlin Wall
I was there not long after it fell
and picked it up off the ground
it is one of my many treasures
a gold beetle a piece of Indian
beading that was buried in the
asphalt on Second Avenue my
mother's wedding rings others
I've lost my Old Faithful pocket
knife my hope of fame my youth
when my studio is warm I'll write

After Beauty

am I too barely recognizable I
hope not to myself I'm still me
apart from bulges I could take
care of except I like to eat well
it punctuates the day the week

most of life comes after beauty
what we most admire fades as
fast as we can keep like music
over as it happens we sustain
what we never quite achieved

seek perfection anyway it's all
in whatever turns you on real
personhood including surface
values love as deep as outer
space comes in like weather

Not Noticing

positive is possibly good if you
like rain raise your other hand

random movements relieve no
change must always be illusion

silence is not noticing the noise
of time being over as it begins

stealing stories retail retell not
possible to make up anything

Other Moves

and if he had it all to do over would he
make other moves or be the same if he
had gone to Hamilton say escaped New
York a decade earlier resisted various
temptations been smarter about money
and career would he be here now happy
to be whatever age he would be anyway

Future Past

the real me lives in a trailer
in a field I never go out
there is no road to my door
hermit meditator he thinks
about it can't get past himself
sees through to the other side it's
China ha ha future past the real me
doesn't have to do a single thing

Why Suffer?

here in New Zealand it is a day later
beautiful in the rain and not too hilly
here in Silverland we are looking at
deserts eating goodies drinking wine
Mojave only the beginning hitch rides
all kinds bicycling ideal with planes
trains ferries larger gaps why suffer

Making Art

board meets far phone theatre still
theirs next play in rehearsal having
a wonderful time wish I were there

not really but I love that work will
always do it when I can those guys
I don't even know giving their all

she keeps the faith and passes it
on keeps making art what else will
get us out of this dismal situation

Au Courant

I can't read news every day the same
gnawing anything so big intractible or
is that first declension less forgettable

word not found you're kidding even
the New York Times makes it sweeter
than real it's multimedia it's writing

I don't want to know more than I can
handle more than I think I can but do
I have to think like that be au courant

it's make-believe a mental construct
sure shit happens but not to me my
knowing about it doesn't do a thing

Strong Opinions

I was Frank O'Hara what fun to be
somebody I like so much Roethke
was there and Anne Sexton and
Baxter a rhymster of New Zealand
with strong opinions I agreed with

Frank was the best lightening all
hearts with his zest for living takes
me back to being young in the big
city and how excited we were how
lucky in love and art our very own