What Same

goodbye wet hello warm
one movement is enough
real story too depressing

I no longer care as much
but for a longer time not
quite what I mean to say

confusion non-admirable
whatever I was thinking
I needed to get over it

neurotic depressed and
drugged too too to bear
shattered fled regrouped

no longing for the past
only curious what same
survived what finally is

What You Will

honor be to the upward pull
balancing the molten mass below
this lifting energy sizzling up my spine
the opposite of gravity

do not cast my ashes into the ocean
but heap them on a mountaintop
where the wind can carry them away

or what you will
I am gone to the stars

Original Person

inside my head the original person
fluttering billowing looking for out
looking for self-knowledge peace

other side of uncertainty imagine
being different than you are place
based communal one of many few

this disorderly energy at the source
panicked in confinement naturally
firing crystalline conceptual clay

Warm Wind

somewhere else shaggy grasses
warm wind only passing through
on my way here

no wish for schnitzel and I can't
walk but wishing well beyond
wishing well dear lovers

Whole Cities

if there isn't a word for it
it doesn't exist therefore
words are all there really is

the bread in the play was
"bread" you wouldn't want
to eat it needed to be more

whole cities spring from "city"
straight streets houses mini
malls displace the nameless

Mere Weather

let beauty emerge as it will if allowed
so little remains of the will to become
as if what we are was already decided
before we awoke to present unknown

seize the occasion when ere it arises
phrases of Chopin a blosomming iris
mere weather a kiss a prelude to joy
for the taking nothing matters more

Old Bones

it's not the pain I mind unsurprising old bones
from whacking tall grasses on my hill and under
evergreens handles awkwardly maladjusted no
it's a bad movie mean gay prostitutes in Prague
obvious thick sincerity real tragedy no excuse I
turned it off brought down depressed after life
can be enhanced seeing "Paranoid Park" another
revelatory Gus Van Sant subtle tender beautiful
art to redeem what nothing has power to undo

Staying Home

glean asparagus unsnarl sheep wire even
slowly falls fields being plowed tomorrow
for sunflowers the mean ram better eaten

this what happens staying home no travel
bug I miss Vienna wedding Aix family fun
regrettably rather not so I can still be here

Warm Nights

anything I say might be embarrassing
the alternative too bleak like giving up

no one paying attention then suddenly
zeroes in how could you say that thing

you fool what were you thinking have
some respect others do not comment

chances must be taken or nothing can
be done morality curtained silent heart

forgive me only words wound or mend
what thought grapples on warm nights

Any Card

a missing king or ace oh any card
can stop the play before patience
is anywhere near exhausted I lay
it out again seeking the pattern
card by card reveals its fitting in

what I seek the perfect flow but it
doesn't matter I seldom bother to
complete it when it happens then
what go again relaxed like nothing
else hope make moves care little

Happy Together

mistake too late to fix
isn't that life and world
I don't know what I'm
doing until I'm doing it
mistake too late to fix

just kidding nineteen
years happy together
what I always wanted
didn't come easy till it
did and promise to stay

Twenty Years

"I have managed to sculpt a career out of a very short attention span and I encourage everyone with a wandering mind to do the same." —Todd Oldham

I finished the book I have been working on for twenty years
really
the die is cast
of course it can be recast but only at considerable cost
who will be happy

I thought Todd Oldham was in the Rolling Stones
he is actually a pop designer

Bare Feet

"For wars are occasioned by the love of money, and money has to be acquired for the sake and in the service of the body…" —Socrates, as depicted by Plato in "Phædo"

The issue in philosophy apparently isn't whether you agree. I
mean, I flunked. Socrates is quite convincing, but I don't. The
state, rebuked, does not improve. The body is all we have. It's
true ideas last longer. Plato is a terrific writer. Death not
dreadful, only the end. While we are alive, let us live and love.

"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." —Kahlil Gibran

Late Bloomer

too late only to be young
the day already old when
I begin explaining what I
mean I have time enough
I hurry stop become tardy
bloomer unexpected arc
igniting musk intoxicated
night white rapture born

Called Back

think of something
turn it inside out
multiply by seven
tell me the answer

Beethoven again
we lean to French
music being who
brings home hurt

why so serious it
is a comedy you
know already out
without a jacket

house demolished
in one day eyes
burn particulate
then called back

Stop Now

lucky James Levine miraculous match of talent
resources will élan enables musical perfection
no point in rushing Wagner he takes his time
enjoy the moment blossoming with meaning

and so the book is finished ready for download
to printer order proof see how real thing looks
and reads continuously revealing its character
stop now before I change it into something else

Gentle Space

I try to not do anything
lie back look at the sky
no way some purposive
action read write sleep
fills every gentle space

Best Fruits

an oncoming herpes on my lip
dims my mood around the edges
as if a shameful outward sign of
what failure does a writer not know

words unuttered or uttered in vain
works unwritten or unconceived
stinginess of self limned in dream
the world's disaster my own fault

lesser others give selves freely my
unearned arrogance kicks my butt
as if I missed another deadline
said the wrong thing again too late

viral shame not to make a better
reality be true and universal truth
less honor than cheerful illusion
ideal family only the dubious start

if you want psychology philosophy
promises more delivers less when
I am tired I have to sleep so time
slips by best fruits unharvested

What Bliss

nothing can be done mistakes
made the harm they do never
to be corrected lives destroyed

my own improbably redeemed
by luck and love while better
men do more and cannot win

holy music asserts possibility
what might be true what bliss
should be the general heritage

Weak Belief

enigmatic signifier
weak belief
verification of colors
normal narcissism!

Meanings Untold

misleading terseness requires title change each
moment passing judgment sensible ambiguities

I would say so if I could elaborate contextuality
promise effective story hymn-like sweet savory

instead coded mosaic forces looking up I insist
on being happy shares accrue meanings untold

Copper Beech

Doric found dead oh dear no family
but theatre inspired comeback saved
late years his Ninth Avenue tenement
welcomed me New Year's Eve 2006 I
was amazed we had in common Alfie
Lynch same time too a Charles Wells
etching of a giant copper beech my
2nd love 1st art purchase kept faith
and then ends we all must goodbye

In My Chair

steady progress but it takes forever
to get it right less being rather more
than imagined what did I think I was
doing time unrealizable the moment
over when you think if you can think

hours go by nothing much emerging
sweet sleepiness tempting to give in
en route to Woodburn for my swim
easier here in my chair swathed in
mohair something mentioned what

Why Not

I don't want to go or am
I too afraid of change my
careful balance fragile I
am addicted to what I do

mysterious reluctance
as if this is all there is
or is it that I'm satisfied
been done now stay home

well no being in Europe is
always great I wish I lived
in France or Italy instead
I have this life I choose

am I making a mistake
missing easy pleasures
with loved familiars in a
beautiful place why not

it makes me tired just
imagine airports flights
walking too much Paris
tourists daring to relax

Still Sordid

how I wished Bush would denounce torture
instead he smirked and waffled and let it go on
anything can be justified but it's no excuse
no triumph to invade the bedroom and murder
even the bad guy the mess is still sordid

Telling Choice

the story is now unbuilt revealing how
nothing but love intention came to be
this one particular emergence known
details restricted to most interesting

the subject is theatre and sex reverse
engineered for purposes of pleasure
what I meant to say when I imagined
attention even my own telling choice

No Limit

try again harder redefine
success there is no limit
energy infinite change it
if you can say so sooner

May motto may recover
losses move to another
state of ecstasy derived
essence spoken dreams

reconfigure history wake
art effort without tension
bar none who go or come
faster vaster seeing true