After Midnight

whether anything ends invites argument
if you will I too embrace new adventure
the pattern shattered so we begin again

buttons to be pushed or pushed through
with unpredictable results warmth or
bells fireworks missiles organ choirs

champagne tomorrow after midnight
in New York we go to bed awakened
possible improvement well resolved

Fully Owned

why it isn't flat well it is
in the greater scheme Earth
is almost polished close up
the bumps are big and matter

a valley below the mountains
the creeks must run upstream
viewed from the attic window
a hill falls away from the sill

another country more ideal
fully owned not to be lived in
veined with rivers roughened
by spinning centuries of work

As Planned

how relaxing it is to watch
people being funny in Italy
the whole day goes better

laughing before breakfast
melody falling into chord
movements flow as planned

unfunny things happen too
unexpected interventions
by accident genes karma

playing tai chi in silence
I hear myself breathe in
and out in thankful ease

My Kind

not my kind of who
knows better than to
say so what else is

Debussy Fauré say
other personal habits
intrude on the pure

decide I'd rather not
be part of that scene
even fifty years later

Last Word

too late for never
told who came last
word a thing itself
deployed as laser

be yourself later
learning after all
what is being this

all right for now
before night falls

and close the file

Talking Back

the screen is my paper
talking back to me
telling me what I think

do we need books anymore
you are reading this now
books wait on the shelf

More Real

Larry Ree Peter Hujar Paul Thek
take away my mind imagine that
more real than actually being me

My Best

if I speak frankly
no telling what I'll say
the wrong thing or
nothing is wrong
a passing thought
may be held against me
so I watch my words

I go on having feelings
whatever they are
other centers in play
easily deceive mind
there's no other way
to take hold of them
but I do my best

Nuts and Raisins

domestic virtue gratifies countdown
skipping beats working not too hard
rewarded nuts and raisins reply with
starshine sparkles and a blue guitar I
envision gleaming like an old new car

Right Here

lighting the tree has a not very interesting
history I am the man less patient than I was
waiting for nothing it's already right here

one hand is enough if you work hard enough
time has passed to appreciate the possible
excusing my present self from yesterdays

be ready to make the right decision suffer
as little as you can it's perfectly normal to die
time ripens in spite of you one story ends

All Thought

forget all about it
simplify multiply
all thought in one
pattern unites all
complexity rules

Dreaming Along

summer love on the longest night
thanks Walt you're the best of men
encompassing everything in poetry
here today speaking directly to us

embracing highs and depths alike
listing off the many kinds of men
rising on the breath of multitudes
dreaming along with the dreamers

let me be you or myself in youth
striding ardently straining upward
energy stamina endless possibility
opening heart mind arms eyes bed

Delightful Views

hard is not bad but easy is good if you think so
too many words enclose many simple thoughts
one or two never all the sides of anything much
orderly intention clarifies improves most tasks
drudgery fun happily practice delightful views

Fall Rain

if you try to be perfect
you may be good enough
if you don't you won't
and other good advice
sprinkled like fall rain
matting the fallen leaves

Yes

yes I turned off the soup
the answer is yes ask anything

Frog Skin

I am playing with a little boy who is dressed up like a pirate for Halloween. He is sitting crosslegged and hunched over, almost hiding his little brother. I reach in and extract the smaller boy, who is tiny. He is wearing a frog skin that doesn't even have eye holes, completely sealed into it, squirming and moaning. I think we should let him out.

Coming Alive

unknowability is a copout
why I don't like Will Eno
a critic in spite of myself
or was it the production

what I said often unkind
dismissing weeks of work
praising in a single word
loving my own thoughts

at best sharing my delight
relishing a nifty narrative
characters coming alive
honoring true intention

the lights faded to black
the audiences went home
let them be not forgotten
having lived and given all

Relentless Zoom

Extreme regularity comforts his daily/weekly/yearly round. The very blinking of his eyes follows a constructed order. Habit is a tool of synchrony. Every move is both intentional and automatic. Every word both carries meaning and declares its place in a vast and abstract order, as above so below, with humankind in the middle. The structure of the sentence reflects the universe, reasserts the subject-verb-object paradigm that bounds and limits thought. Thinking of it freezes it in time. This moment is part of a plan, details continually emerging like Mandelbrot fractals, consistent to infinity, inexplicably symmetrical, the nagging thought of something else to do a relentless zoom. So the day unfolds, invisibly guided by Φ.

Her Ham

flummoxed non-appearing dinner guest
apparently entirely forgot although they
talked about it yesterday and this morning

it was her ham we ate some of it anyway
Carol's mashed potatoes my tapioca pudding
went down smoothly easier on our own

Here Too

I can do anything
make it up write it out
it as good as happens
maybe better the real
thing always clouded
with distraction error

the real is in the mind
time can be different

here too of course my
regular self as well

Each Oat

each oat opens existing satisfaction
between thought and utterance dream
and act as if you know what matters

nourishment and taste intermingled
with idea of wasting nothing eating
every morsel that comes your way

Present Tense

I said it all but it doesn't stay said
the sky darkens it's unnaturally warm
we are here at home thinking of others
far away in their own present tense

the point was made but doesn't stick
rain pelts and spatters on the skylight
other realities pulsing too many books
on top of books overcrowded shelves

oh let it just be you and me together
knowing each other knowing we know
sure of each other smiling and kissing
everything changes but not right now

Too Many

the Times makes it look like everything
is just going along all these aspects of
culture music fashion on Fifth Avenue
stuff happens people suffer but it's just
the regular way things always go along

longer Buddhist view is much the same
aging sickness death losing everything
get used to it 'twas always thus will be
meanwhile everything is going wrong
earth cries for mercy we are too many

Too Hard

intuitions of emergence make me think
thought should do something change me
not just flicker over the mental surface

one with everything in a physical sense
all of us nothing but quantum particles
rocks grass cars as well as you and me

epiphenomenal to the root and that too
hard to swallow impossible to see past
actually engage real meaning as it flies

Nap Time

rolls along the sentences
soporific it's the hour mid
morning already nap time

What I Say

what I say to the chickens
doesn't have to be interesting
or funny they factor me in
count on me for food water
treats even though they don't
understand how it works
there I am day and night
making sure they're happy

Coffee Later

morning toast
a different breakfast
who you are
homemade granola
orange juice
a second coffee later
leftover steak
after feeding the horses

Our Own

modern is long ago over
timeless individuals all
that survives of history
work that is what it is
whether or not a story

I like art by people I know
no less artists if unknown

or so we tell ourselves
present on walls if not
actually here happening
now never ending our own

Better Work

familiar blank awaiting [word]
revealing patterns unavoidable
deliberate adjustment required

the craft is learned by osmosis
in the doing lacking education
in languages chemistry geology

if I could think clearly I would
do better work and more be seen
by millions to be a great success

Too Scared

is it morning can I go to bed
inner racket of chewed nuts
conquering phlegm in a poem

if I go to bed early I wake up
in the middle of the night no
time to be awake and think

thus far I can rise up quickly
escape the harrowing dream
divert myself by reading books

too close to reality you say
what I was close to thinking
too scared to even tell you