Falling Bodies

wind no rain no falling bodies
glimpsed behind unavoidable
regrets accepted with the rest

happiness was acknowledged
without appropriate sentiment
despite high legal application

family friends fellow students
flew in from all over present
hand-crafted congratulations

another generation takes off
choosing each other as living
partners loving making lives

Advice from Us

we were the oldest people at the party
our age honored by Chinese tradition
amazed to see young people so together
without help advice or opinion from us

whether the weather holds is uncertain
rain lucky says the mother of the groom
whatever happens has to be wonderful
and will already having come this far

Society Today

gender studies professor meeting
social media specialist over tinis
deplores eighteen-hour work days
flirtation blocked by same-sex mates
if this were a novel of society today

ESL teachers unite to deconstruct
a Haydn sonata if they only knew
secondary poetry beside birdsong
absurdity has to be embraced or else
life slips away one episode at a time

Realness

Traci's horses and my chickens are equally present. Mineness brings no added value, has no effect on realness. There has to be a better source than self.

Positive Spin

condition of now will find you where you are
expecting better a habit learned in childhood
if not you would make all different decisions
too sick to think play love create even dream
furious at the fate that awaited you all along

imagine a world before any of this happened
could you be happier if everyone else was too
you would still have bad days lose loved ones
have to die alone feel terrible on the way there
what does that do to your famous positive spin

there is hope because we say so belief because
we want to believe joy in spontaneous energy
manifest in childhood cellular obviously true
nature entire in the fragile film of atmosphere
precariously clinging to a random whirling rock

Infinite Space

I decline to say more
again capitulate go on
practice means doing it
feeling like it if you can

still less is not enough
to fill the blanks erase
what you didn't mean to
say say something else

thereby I may withdraw
having emptied my mind
defy anticipations of wit
escape into infinite space

Wrong Glasses

what is not real the universe
or me look stars new moon
are these the wrong glasses
yes but not all that I mean

fly real because annoying
February flowers mowing
are stars too much for me
expand relax take it all in

not as strong as I ever was
nor quick nor lasting smart
when I pay attention starting
to acknowledge the decline

Steady Choices

this calm dispassionate tone is either bliss
or nothing happening in my life is it age
geography consequence of steady choices
even excitement is not exciting anymore

the only action I can imagine is disaster
slow like oceans rising fast like a tumor
or an accident come on Beijing nightlife
repellent desperate ebullience of youth

not that I feel less alive personally I'm
doing fine chipping away at projects I
like happy well-fed healthy loved what
more could any man reasonably expect

there I go again calm finding a positive
spin back-handed self-compliment still
wondering if there isn't some adventure
story I can imagine not necessarily do

Other Errands

what was I to think as I drove into the city
knowing the road the car how long it takes
think over the months of tasks I have to do
better thought about when I am doing them
plan my route and timing easy to get right
the first time which this time certainly isn't

breathing distracts attention from the road
if I pay attention wander off on Clackamas
River Drive admire big houses flashing by
half trying to visualize the map find one I
envy as if I might have had a different life
other errands obligations to people I love

Made Up Story

imagine particulars
what I mean exactly
made up story many
fantastic characters
doing what I wish I
could if it wasn't me

it is though I'm stuck
I know what Buddha
says I know it helps
different person now
each relates his story
challenges overcome

No Resolution

poetry hovers in the chilling air
awaits the page to be on pounce
upon unwitting readers' minds
like music from another planet

did the Schumanns live as we do
Bach depart from missing norms
without a sense of final collapse
the world would go on afterward

slow change may come suddenly
no one certain what to expect or
when the cadence means the end
apart from tonality no resolution

Whole Life

good resolutions usually get results
if you don't overdo it say too much
just silently murmur to yourself
without making too much of a fuss

one thing at a time is not enough
to make a difference add ordinary
complements soon it's a whole life
practice keeps you in tip-top trim

Dodging Eons

time curve brings Klaus writing enigmatic
lines dodging eons vainly daring to evoke
"bourgeois harpsichord times in marriage"
heart-wave full with exchanges of identity

I of course am delighted a fiber-optic miracle
reconnects us across time and distance as if
we never were apart or closer real than virtual
the fact of each other's existence quite enough

Liquid Gesture

curve equals sound spatial
movement defines solidity
liquid gesture wooden limb

scribbled choices mark map
time changes everything goes
faster than what yesterday

such propositions mollify
fallen men who try to get up
morning having gaily come

Moving Words

language's lunatic agitation perpetual as the sea
water moving words treadmilling free-fall fast

at the same time silence stillness no time passes
until restless thought twitchy limbs impatience

call me when you get this and we'll talk about
getting back together once all this is behind us

we have all moved on the present is like this no
church or state to tell us the right thing to do now

we ourselves we know are capable of coherence
if only we are actually here we can go anywhere

Something New

any word is sound but not entirely it is also a picture
drawn on paper or deduced from sound before meaning
anything can be imagined to be written or spoken word
thus what we hear is never the whole story yet to be told

words about music are visual music is rational not really
the body itself is noisy if you pay attention you'll hear
blood rustling cloth creaking joints fingernails on scalp
always that distant low-frequency hum behind the hiss

blood moving in the veins or resonant crystal spheres
imply a world of genres movie scores computer games
entirely synthesized switches in the form of a keyboard
makes you think someone can imagine something new

Real Life

a faint headache from overheated
mechanical thinking mind aseethe
telling itself if it isn't written down
it might as well not have happened

okay the young need expression old
interpretation of earlier emotions is
that all examine explain watch out
real life is coming to your town

Chocolate Milk

no news refuses blown shingles
whimper in the different dark as
wind unwinds elsewhere sunny

don't look at me for your ideas
alternatives are infinite within
the usual limits of probability

I'm smiling over chocolate milk
cardboard character still intact
as the whole situation declines

Back

this clementine has been to Taos
and back now I am eating it

Promises

time out of regular mind
traveling server kicks in
only say so and there it is
bodily conscious change

dogs know when to eat
what else really matters
only promises made kept
dictate following moves

continue making choices
affecting self and others
caring that we are there
need us to be as they are

Strange Necessities

all these lives make me want to cry
though they are doing well finding
themselves raising children excited
exhausted we can barely survive it

place which shouldn't matter rules
adapted to its strange necessities we
tolerate celebrate defy circumstance
grateful for the opportunity to serve

What to Do

not at home I don't know what to do
time studied passes incomprehensibly
without regret entertaining error only
partly correctable as the family fades
too little sleep way many people too
few openings for what matters more
nothing but life as it passes through
heart ready ideas longing to multiply

Flying

don't worry nothing lasts
even happiness

and if it does he hopes
he's ready

Urban Errands

Faustian restlessness still stirs striving
no desire now to go anywhere but home
how old was Faust anyway at the end
Goethe died eight-two what did he do
with all those extra years what do any

this explains a day of urban errands I
successfully completed without even
planning it out or looking anything up
free of time but right on time as usual
my former tardiness preposterous now

Pizza in Ischia

food is transparent unremarked
background to the conversation
pizza in Ischia absorbed in talk
about acidification of the ocean
how little it matters you think is
wrong it structures days adds in
pleasure good to look forward to
fuels mind body growth decline
like air human touch impressions
singleness vain imaginary empty

My Cover

if I want to be fancy let me keep it to myself
farm life my cover for this episode regretting
nothing left of years of choices made except
all survive inside and carry on as never before

now I will explain what I mean by class non
dismissible in spite of lacunae in the lingua
frankly too embarrassing to say what I mean
lie low dress simply speak only to the spoken

You Knew

work at the right moment redefines
la même chose changing all the time
you are here and somewhere else too
anticipating what already happened

inherent paradox constantly in action
inviting respectful admiration as now
becomes nothing to regret you knew
it was priceless at the actual moment

say nothing about it unless you can
be just be truthful though it's hard
not knowing where you are in the
story only you can relate correctly

Breathe In

sky of love
why wonder
none undone
malfunction

sky so high
says infinite
in-breath and
here you are

love shadow
wears black
come away
unveiled