My Delight

nothing more I thought the day
was over but it was barely ten I
was home by 11 an hour to go

buzzed from the band talking
coffee one thing after another
quick before it's over for good

the city works that way plenty
of people doing stuff dressing
up performing for my delight

What We Need

courage added to the list of what we need
blessings on all beings peace love justice joy
and courage to remember higher aspiration

who could forget how innocent and pure
we all began and still remain within without
blemish whatever groping progress learned

affirm the possibility of beauty and grace
granted freely seekers find each other here
below allow the good to emerge unmarked

Burning Sheets

if breathing speak if not
the silence meaning less
will have to do even more

spare us the explanations
who thought what cares
expired before night fell

or whether anyone knew
better than I did nothing
until the time was right

we wanted to be lovers
still tenderly embracing
between burning sheets

Many Movies

unforgiving timing chain breaks goodbye engine
whatever you do I am on your side armed with love

revising the misremembered story already weirdly
different in the telling from what really happened

fact led ahead distortion introduced by mistakes
as if blaming too much believing in false causality

let it out or thinking trips itself up the enterprise
hastily chosen many movies waiting to be seen

Not Airports

I'll be happy if you are in spite of
whatever gripe is just don't start
put in take out mistakes galore I
didn't know please help me out

escape out window come back in
these freshman pranks are fun if
you imagine being there and are
not airports on their way home

Two-Way Sofa

reeling mind blurs then clears
earth gravity balances the stars
peopled randomly overreacting
as if conscience were aesthetic

noodling between swoons can
be a two-way sofa augmenting
her suffering figure glimpsed
his images snap into ideality

Go On

completed voyage brotherly resonance
satisfy our stated driving requirements

selfless choice allows inevitable repair
without asking in advance of anything

therefore let us be grateful and go on
as if this is what we always meant to do

Web Traffic

catch up with my mind
if you can I am with you
running across the river
to smoke the inside lane
not one more web traffic
bring as much as you like
we can worry about it later

Owning Up

I can't think it matters what I say
refrigerator muttering fog horn
when night has come we sleep

nor do sheep explain their voices
or dog wait patiently on the porch
eyes thrilling to the thought of art

decades ago I took the only route
Madras and Bombay never coming
back now she's getting her master's

stop falling I said or expecting me
to respond tense in spite of Reich
saving cartons for our owning up

Totally Famous

sometimes utterly useless
someone tells you even so
how to follow instructions
even then miss the point

don't even try to go on if
the message is not taken
seriously was composing
you might not understand

I won't tell if you'd rather
meditate or keep it filled
even if you think I know
used to be totally famous

Who Told

what energy rising falls between
irises over peonies lilies bamboo
if I could I would tell everything

these are immaculate curvatures
like women you'd want to know
better like what you can't avoid

such talk defeats known purpose
the wall not listening no matter
who told would not be believed

Inside Out

dash past one stop strive
for another never be mean
if you mean to be rude

vary the rhythm beating
you never expected this
climax exactly so soon

notation deluxe a sweet
rigadoon beside hammocks
to witness one you know

I mean it even in leaving
it up to another lover who
knew the routine inside out

New Glasses

the world is not as blurry as it looks
my prescription out of date I dodder

moving slowly slightly dizzy dazed
no legs for the center of the universe

the next possibility emerges silently
then you hear it as loud as tomorrow

oil leak fixed I ordered new glasses
still walking still hoping to see clearly

Wrong Ears

win without cheating lose without minding

remember what day it is what comes next

is anything enough or hopelessly too much

can you forgive yourself for being who was

much less trouble than laughs and kisses

stolen or given freely more than ever true

mistakes were not only made but repeated

in wrong ears enduring against persuasion

when we were awake deciding what to do

Inner Life

Tom has more of an inner life
he talks to me asks plaintive
questions weaves around my
ankles swipes me with his tail
and persuades me to sit down
is he making love as he climbs
into my lap prowls and presses
against my body solicits hugs
and scratches very softly purrs

My Advice

last roundup at last first summer

furniture salads all round discuss

nothing to regret time passages

50 books in a box ready to read

blueberries weeded lawn mowed

no longer trying to impress them

this is natural I accept my advice

if no one else likes everything I do

Whispered Lines

overload too many plays again

in the wrong languages for us

French that sounds Italian or

English stilted worthy of BBC

the old BBC I mean anything

goes now the day is ending

don't interfere with the wife

behind his back now this one

knows how the hay is drying

if you call I will answer even

if it isn't you but a business

whispered lines like prompts

no singer can hear devices

silenced from respect while

wool makes its plaintive call

Our Hour

Where is glamoury alive if not in actors acting? The person before us, whose thoughts we share and feelings feel more vividly than our own, does not exist as we think we do but only in the meeting of our minds, only potential on the imagined page, winking into life acutely time-limited, where our mortality is chronic. We may be dreaming in company, but he has his own ideas of waking life. Of what does he consist? We all remain ourselves as well, and the spell can easily be broken, but it rarely is. We have our hour, then are no more. We do not entirely lose ourselves, though we wish we could: we are present and willfully possessed. Sweet manipulation!

New Shoes

word picture jumps
out might be scary

typing only letters
words only artifacts

look down we all
have on new shoes

look up something
may be happening

Still Free

all is revealed if you're paying
attention count on it no one is
noticing how fortunate we are

can it be true when bad people
stay up all night exploiting any
gaps in our defensive strategy

self-expressing in the dark's
still free if you believe it still
can image one on one as two

Seasonal Blooms

spin as I will the past will be as it was
unrecognized perfection transforming
sucks me in again again as if so many
other years had not wrought changes

time to stick forge ore unrecoverable
riches squandered I am so annoyed
none to blame except myself if play
is worth recording and playing back

St. John's wort fish oil Mega Men and
joint compound to keep me walking
mind nourished on seasonal blooms
fragrant beauties free while they last

Just Chickens

what to say they are just chickens
four indistinguishable black white
speckled all over blobby pecking
intimidating two variegated brown
perching they look like meditators
running around like wind-up toys
if people look like that watch out

Almost Over

summer plans almost over before
beginning again more so every time

crisp articulation variant sunbeams
rainbow afternoons under cottonwoods

I can be natural if I remember only
being with you nothing that I said

Between Chores

attention to what to dreams
to the passing net of subtle
particles to what really was

surfaces need only be clean
we can all read them hear
the same views choose news

dust pops typewriter ribbon
other lives go on changing
like clothes between chores

this pattern same evolves
if thinking goes anywhere
it takes willing lives along

is that what Steve said more
gracefully second the motion
and quietly close the door

First Prize

each large lush iris wilting yields to the bud
releasing bad smells each stem true to color
however exotic as each chicken runs true to
type behaves the same as its in-bred nature
insists on its variations each one first prize

we don't show irises or chickens another kind
of farm you know the kind you think know all
invisible parameters contain our options idea
driven thinking or not to do and see what we
can blind beyond sweet early summer blooms

Better Hidden

there is no general I speak for
my class my time though I try
to free my mind it is this one

taste is superiority everything
in code whole stance preset
revealing all as better hidden

let's hang out as if acceptable
behavior includes unlikely
ways imperfectly explained