No End

things get dirty what to do
if you care get busy clean
mop dry wet wipe scrub
what you can only you

no end to cleaning up if
you like a clean house I
do what it takes is time
patient music good will

Jump Up

safety in snugness enables cocoa
bubbles of pleasure in red blood
squirms aches hisses his brilliant
pianism too speedy for Haydn's
thought a raging river of desire

it's late enough but not too late
the power is on I can do things
if I want to like any day in life
concerned for friends in the dark
nothing to do but swallow a pill

I can't imagine going to sleep
like that my own sleeps febrile
with dreams a minute enough
jumps out and grabs me awake
I wish you were here jump up

Home Safe

wet highway black flashes streaky fading void
must frighten sane pleasure-seekers always go
home safe remains possible to alter plans you
must brighten sane admiration for surviving it

so watch news listen heart knows what will be
will be revealed when it happens to one of us
loved for being ourselves no alternative offers
refuge from rain and wind warmth when cold

Doable Choices

air is a fluid has properties
you can rely on as long as
it lasts much of the system
works well for much of the
populace fly over see your
scattered family and friends

this is the only possible way
to live the way things are our
doable choices historical set
it can't go on it must go on
we are entirely invested no
other place to be ourselves

Lie Still

snap awake the subject is
suddenly disclosed a joke
pretending certain records
mysteriously disappeared
conspired with another to
make it serious who's mad
find them on a closet shelf
brings me up on elbows I
can't lie still read write a
mantra helps not enough
I'm up the heat clicks on
how would I bear it if I
couldn't get up read write

Enhanced Perception

all said in the music
and in the car afterwards
enhanced perception
following the score together

I turned pages we
could see what was happening
imagination in action
and how much longer it would last

Precious Thoughts

if not this something else was my motto
long ago everything became its opposite
as the Beatles met cannabis vulnerable
minds welcome an inclusive alternative

so we said whatever came to our mind
preshrunk expanded to consummation
devotedly rehearsing every fond move
shifting into overdrive wiping it clean

syncopation taken for granted means
even less than how to dance instead
breathe slowly to the bottom feeling
around in muck for precious thoughts

Perfect World

flotation enough to almost breathe
an ocean close to boiling slime on
my feet explains walking standing
the sun there whether or not cloud

all this maneuvers in aching peace
without slums people have to live
somewhere else the perfect world
waits in undisclosed mental poise

Not Yet

what music denies which words
implies imaginary feelings whose
special sophistication saves money
when is it insufficient to the now
know better where to turn back

too late to begin with running
to catch up to stay ahead of the
wolves are nipping at your heels
lying in wait wait for a stumble
but you don't someday not yet

Equally Real

automatic potatoes replace morning light
dark furnaces compete with music I don't
want to hear about what I can't understand
how not why when not whether or even not

having said which cannot excuse brevity
as incompleteness is not a final solution
so the thought requires expression breast
butt pudenda equally real subject to view

switchable modes distract or are the old
reality biscuits buttered on both insides

Too Literal

do not mention what matters what you do all day
only what occurs in parallel or series on another
level playing unscripted characters in an alphabet
known consciously to few readers of the lost arc

scarcely refer to nature going on soaking my coat
muddying soles nuts lying scattered on the ground
I pick them up with my special tool but don't say
that too literal abstracting a pleasure worth more

Come Home

here I was going to say you go
I hope you are not depressed
that it is raining will go on
indefinitely darker every day

well I will be if the fire won't
light my warm heart no match
for winter bluster turn around
and something else is all over

still be here when light returns
thought all new for each of us
wait no more the hour has now
come home in time for bed

Parts Apart

if all of me existed I would promise anything
rain on the dry land love light after long dark
regretting I only come to myself in parts apart
know little of the inner possibilities of thought
glimpse discoveries epiphanies I cannot name
or bank set down in story between the words

attend me then this is the best I have to give
sans patience confidence in listeners' interest
that it matters what is said what recognizable
shared by every body mind as history allows
Emersonian ideas ring clearly time also one
spirit wholly present summed in each alive

Better Accept

the point being that the other
exists and must be dealt with
not who she is exactly but
she is there and so are you

being accumulates as time
tightens its relentless grip
relation proves durable even
at a distance or in remission

better accept proximity lest
you find yourself alone on
the floor unable to rise or
merely miss the best of it

Random Snaps

I the thread connecting these images
and times it slips the slide show ends
is this the me this time the one or only

variously forgotten persons reappear
random snaps who is excluded what
else happened somehow led to this

Short Legs

dead metaphor catches my breath
deciding whether to follow thought
or have it for breakfast tomorrow

run down to the berry patch while
there's still time before rain starts
falling and doesn't stop for anyone

not enough eggs for all of us now
telling remarks adjust the family
short legs move faster to keep up

High Purposes

you must seize your own reins
merge observer and observed
sure your daimon really yours
serve high purposes and aims

how not then to be fanatical
insisting on what you believe
right in the face of doubters
clinging to the old doctrine

nature can no longer teach
we have interfered too much
senses yield only mind still
free to live its own visions

therefore face the challenge
no one else can live for you
define what you know best
yourself summit of your age

Worth Repeating

what I knew I know even if I don't remember
every little word some of them quite obscure

if music is worth repeating why not reading
there is too much more that wants attention

how to unthink habitual assumptions how to
imagine something never conceived before

Something New

if I can't do it now I'll do it later
again again the cycle comes around
reading writing music outdoor
chores finishing up with summer

we need people to do things with
friends if possible at this juncture
in addition to each other different
interests not always overlapping

you learn confidence in your own
limitations work around the gaps
familiar with the repetitions hip
to opportunity for something new

Poor Fish

are you doing what you are doing
(reading these words) because it is
what you do (when how often) or
for some other reason (what is it)

poetry can tell you what the poet
thinks or wants you to know who
he or she is how sees the world
persuade you of unfamiliar truths

you will be better when the drug
wears off what was learned gone
fishing you think poor fish what
matters is to stay alive uneaten

Actual Thoughts

whatever you are reading refers to
whatever project you have in hand
everything in reference to Emerson
thinking great thoughts Gary said
I am a modern Emerson I didn't
know what he was talking about
absorbed Emerson didn't read him
he was my ideal but I didn't know
what matters is the actual thoughts
and the style of expression says you
can't run away from reason it is you

Shining Comfort

morning sun on my yoga
bedroom shining comfort
tai chi lit by western sun
studio windows sparkling
couldn't help seeing how
well things worked out
happy in love she said
you're a romantic I am

worried about the world
I said italicizing the world
this is fifty sixty years ago
meaning not about myself
I was young and confused
now everything is worse
but we're all right on my
seventy-seventh birthday

Too Late

I didn't write what I didn't mean
be glad of that though dubious
and it's no excuse for ignorance

I was protected 1,500 miles
from either coast mountains
farmland rivers conspiracies

if it didn't happen here it didn't
happen I never knew till later
and then it was much too late

Something Else

one small step
could be anything
A to B or the moon

one other word
changes everything
mood mind location

as though this
or that were the same
as something else entirely

Without Music

tai chi is a dance
flowing with the breath
no need for Chinese phlegm
Maria's dipping swoops
movements in order
steady the body-mind

life is a dance
with or without music