Old Knots

Last night I found myself
still, standing in a yellow room
filled with soft morning light, just
as my grandmother had; a space
now kept by someone else.

Behind, souls can't get out:
I see this cable used to raise the door
is snagged with big old knots
I'm loosening. Half waking

to another noticing
attempts to make the same repair,
clearly retied way too many times
I begin to replace the line

with fishing leader. Still
half awake, feeling this
I am inside you always
coming again and again

—Daniel Potter

Your Mix

order comforts something else loves
chaos choose your mix if you have a
choice continual consciousness of art

I know it isn't what's real this night in
costume party ahead it's wet outside
elements converge on each individual

happens to be where when you are
can't run can't hide can't stop doing
what it takes advantage falls down

Lucky Man

up first out next to last who
works harder has more fun
than me o lucky man loving
every funny minute close in
bed unbored with challenge

come out even if you can it
makes the game go on our
finest week unwinds no ill
intended gain bright smiles
provoke charmed rejoinder

Stolen Meat

food for bakers bread for feet
wrongs unrighted stolen meat
broken promise altered text
swollen egos badly vexed
faulty thinking self-deceives
losing party disbelieves
platitudes are all intention
phonies rule by inattention
mention what you mean at least
Afghanistan

Never Mind

Time is to clock as mind is to brain. —Dava Sobel

or water to pool immerse yourself the warm
bed delicious to skin's own sense of existing

this day expose our borning art steady work
reminds will of its power to absorb and yield

pleasure giving self experience débranché a
now with you in it never mind what you think

Too Late

nobody pays me in fact I pay
to do what I like isn't that so
like an artist no John Lennon
though certainly an artist too
late for any more success but
not too late to do it any more

that last word not forever say
no more as if you mean it say
whatever the script says after
your name is who I think you
are the character as I am god
knows I mean what I say well

Come Back

a person saying this is that all
I want or need to know tell me

take me away chairs kneeling
imploring mistakenly mocking

tears a momentary melt-down
then strength again wasn't me

know when it is wrong to die
come back we are playing it's

obvious if you know available
to all starting to become alive

Country Life

countdown to Hamlet speaking up for me
smoke in the rain porch car both single a
two-woman house a burlap bench a scene
or three to be enlivened how can I explain

I too want real actors lucky to have a few
come to me where would I have to go if I
went if anyone would have me ever thus
the best I can having chosen country life

Folded Brain

old age frog
folded brain
play too fast
we can't hear

bigger screen
narrowed eye
seek pleasure
virtually music

found software
sudden season
slows morning
grateful gleam

Lying Naked

writing interferes with reading my little
mind spinning off in mid-sentence exile
inevitable yawning abyss faltering feet

even music isn't glue enough previously
eaten or factory food truth lying naked
linking minutes otherwise unconscious

comfort me and close my eyes when I
am gone one beautiful line among many
yearning to be heard by relatable minds

Warm Sublime

sadly yes you must accept the bitter
with the sweet there's no alternative
be happy to be wise enough for all
who have gone before to Timberline
or some such image of redemption
can remove your lingering improve
another day by rising early reading
friends and would-be strangers too

I might say more the line is drawn
some few will come and go away in
time for secrets habits borrowed at
interest recurs like every possibility
bargain prices conceal productivity
gained on social capital my analysis
cheerfuler in French with furbelows
tacked on whimsical warm sublime

Plum Jam

ordinary year-old plum jam none
this we had no plums it must have been a disaster
no one tells because no one knows more than any

what am I doing then can't follow
my own play actually having fun actually happy at
the end it's irresistible the way he turns a phrase

"My mother knew beauty, but not how to surround herself sufficiently with it. My father knew my mother, but not how to attract her undivided attention." —Stanley Cavell

Among Stars

individual words float salt prevaricate meanings fluid
just say it not direction enough not how to act pretend
be yourself being someone else doing something odd

few people care enough to take a chance and come or
go to anything unless their kid friend neighbor's in it
wouldn't be here where there's not very much like that

the horse is not dead or beat but kicks up its heels it
runs like wind get out of its way and thrill from afar
cloud races moving mind-body patterns among stars

Late Charges

everything said must be said again
in case anyone may have missed it
the first time is never good enough
I try to listen but do not always hear
or see what I am looking at seldom
more than adequate to the occasion

nor does one stanza fully fill the bill
due on receipt look once if you can
control your machine self sit down
do it before late charges kick in the
door open to all but welcoming few
the price of fair reality is vigilance

Dead Queens

what not who defines the mind
untuned in intervals of an opera
about dead queens alive again

no one said enough to be worth
repeating episodes like China tea
biscuits queer jam clotted cream

it was delicious you can believe
I wouldn't say so if it wasn't so
sad about the stolen idea of fun

no one thing enough to satisfy
such advanced peculiar tastes

No Joke

it's hard to read if you think it is
easy if you don't but of course you
have to think we all do even I

wonder what else there is whether
weather or not speaking for myself
contains adequate provisions

no joke in Haiti say something fun
going on without envying anything
you cannot possibly have

where you are matters who too no
doubt whatever free begins at home
where you actually have to be

Making Moves

what better than this bemused ecstasy
registering beauty October color even
taillights anticipating pleasure continuity

nothing needs to happen but it does
anyway sweet company a thrilling play
then alone again in the private night

so the days go by making moves doing
what needs to be done facing problems
such as they be clearer than ever before

Warm Companions

worth the road buzz to visit Garrick
on his farm beyond the pass people
living friendly organic gardeners sit
talk on sunny porch two black dogs
become four walk with us in beauty

New York numbers whirl a necessary
nightmare faced with buoyant spirit
none better praise patience probity
welcome gift of self arising prepare
slices of nurture warm companions

Eating Machines

deer munching jaws moving as they
look around what is the point eating
machines and what else are we who
think we think this energy hums on
planetary cosmic flow like alien mind

we are smarter but just as busy our
attention possibly more various but
mainly same proteins and enzymes
drive our days and nights we as well
electro-chemical express a universe

Another Report

shoot me in my chair searching inspiration in the next word or picture
music will remain potential forever small comfort between rebuildings
hard to know easy to kill the old-world methods unregrettable results
in things everywhere barely mentioned specific grapefruits my granola
generously composed openly tasteful befitting sophisticated aspiration

unimaginable sounding has to be known for metonymy of meanings I
mean what I say the day play out the window sight he might authorize
giving up no clue to secret interleavings open to what can't be shut out
without losing what I want to call everything again once said all known
for indiscretion ask another for another report on another landscape

Acting Natural

fiction can never be pure intrusions
color the false profusion of persons
made up of memory and coincidence

she wakes and must be discovered
in the act of acting natural pushed
by me to define herself perversely

everything she does is made up by
someone else watching every move
beginning what can never end

More Confusion

saying the same thing says listen
I mean it this is the best I can do

saying something else returns the
favor without entirely meaning to

saying nothing is impossible use
words they bring meaning along

so speak carefully when you must
be precise or sow more confusion

What Normal

normal day cleaned the house
a drive a play a German beer
in Mississippi a drive corn a
short read stew Satie ironing
a movie Japanese Thai very
slow good night what normal

Deep Supply

nothing doing but regular living
in art I hold up the flag one of
many heroic fortunate happy few

the possibility of pleasure saves
the situation as long as it can be
taken from nature's deep supply

and give back acknowledgement
at least some value added form
elevates function shares root fun

150 Minutes

does art serve life no it lives
beside within refreshment
whenever you need it

(can I open the form despite
flush left yes I am otherwise
free to love)

it gobbles time wants more
driving everything while it happens
missing center if not

rehearsal as example 150 minutes
four a week lend meaning
to the daily dance

The Rest

what I say is not all I think
much of life is prose and
welcome to it nay respect
the forms absent interest
do something unexpected

the usual goes on pleased
when its needs are meet
for grand events or small
wonder you are here now
wishing to know the rest

Another Way

old friends doing as well or better

not all dead yet this the right age

to be or not remember anything

we used to count syllables how

else define a poem call it an ode

it is one example of another way

to rehearsal ritual sublimity who

comes becomes part I preside

spontaneous keen cooking art

Being Real

ancestors enumerated thanks Carol back to Alsace England

more recent details in my memoir files virtual memory means

everything to me loving family and friends celebrating with me

everything I like best now here given to me to rehearse for joy

sustaining story form discovery and emotions go with it being

real well seasoned promises keep all coming to play the play

Funny Prose

a birthday present to myself
ends in thoughts of poems
spoken only in the car can I
remember or shall I write an
essay or is this funny prose

rehearsal refocuses on what
must be done and soon over
Living Theatre my darling to
be or not I stand with Judith
doing what she wants to do

Good Form

so much useless nonsense burning up
the planet flight cancelled vouchers
phone calls shuttle to San Jose motel
"suite" means an arch gesture dividing
the room in two more comfort than I need

otherwise the weekend perfect modern
art College Avenue beer good company
Mark Morris indefatigable good form
Asian art Harold Brodkey and a sweet
baby cousin laughing burbling in my face

Love Changes

this not the part of life when
things happen love changes work
anxieties identity risks now I
have to be who I already am

and not get lost in playing
myself no sudden virtuosity
save magic moments still awake
surprised my routine so pleasant

what I always wanted was this
unproblematic love a stable home
time slowing as I gradually fall
apart together realize my potential

You Can

if I am the one who are you
who else is here and what
do we know about them even
knowing everything there is

a possible joining even then
what we assume or imagine
is never the same respecting
difference the safe approach

four-letter words tell it best
but offend our delicate ear
as if the real thing is fragile
embarrassable shy of light

we don't have to be alone
oh maybe in some ultimate
sense I say get it while you
can you can believe you can