Lost Chord

nothing plunges like nothing else
releases lost chord idea unheard
the presence you can't think of

it's there every moment noticed
when nothing else is in the way
untranslatable except in action

therefore do everything nothing
stands in your way go around
it will try to stop you don't let it

Amazing Day

my amazing day cued
in by the A&P cashier
I had hardly noticed it
corny but did the trick

stalled all morning in
shallow water I finally
took action recovered
and did amazing deeds

the weather cooperated
too pleasant to criticize
if so inclined I'm over
knowing how to judge

Even Less

self-sufficient as we like to think we are
no one is
even less when old
everyone knows it
but doesn't know what to do about it
in a culture of scattered family
two better than one alone
reliant on staff
or nothing

Common Good

did I cheat and does it signify
if I am playing against myself
certainly not for public glory
or amusement another time
we keep making a point of it

the way of the game is private
like life decisions needs space
clarity confidence you are you
and have to be the way you are
deciding for the common good

Later On

what there is emerges when summoned
echoes of forgotten yesterdays as real as
what you wanted or thought you wanted
still not knowing observing what comes

and then that too is gone or transformed
into what you have to deal with later on
still resonating in its cave of time what
came before what formed unfolding now

What to Do

cloudy all day beginning
with the vanishing dream
consciousness wakes first
complaining mind clearly
remembers where we were
before pills coffee cleanup
gone to matutinal birdsong
rushing heat instead of sun
same comfort another story
visitors from far what to do

Not Myself

illness offends the aesthetic of wellness
no blame but I am not myself like this
wanting to fade to nonexistent comfort
inaction devolving into aches and pain

was that the way my parents felt father
in his chair reading books on tape mother
in her chair smoking rereading a novel
me in my chair twitching over a laptop

who is comfortable how do I get there
this is the shape I am get over the idea
so long embellished of being thin again
even less the quick lithe bouncy old me

Morning

I'm up
now what

From Below

clouds vaguely billow up from below — barely visible — dissolution — The Fire — Refugio befouled — inevitable breakdown — all systems must fail

Random Offers

what a what to have given in to what
is missing if the wigs are not smartly
left on a gilded red-cushioned chair

I do appreciate that brand of luxury
despite everythig that has happened
and goes right on all over the place

and welcome the opportunity despite
random offers to do less or nothing
too tired for anything more than weed

Surplus People

what can be done about surplus people
crowd them on boats and let them starve
put them in camps and try to forget them
generations now knowing nothing better
is this real life is this how it's meant to be
more and more no place no good choice
this the biggest obstacle to sustainability
ten times too many people on the earth
face it think about it what are we to do

How Far

not over soon enough remember
what it is like to be someone else
forget the wishful good intentions
unless you intend to act them out

it is not too soon to start too late
to do anything about it mistakes
were made and brilliant art works
hardly noticed in the glare of war

visitors from another age reveal
how far one came to be here now
regretting most what's not ahead
as soon as we could say goodbye

Past Marvels

is that rain or the dishwasher
you or a virtual simulacrum
coming to me courtesy of
what tech conspiracy passes
for actual life in one place

is that what we talked about
opening up what's left of our
hearts desire a blast of past
marvels irrelevantly evoked
to justify merely being here

Who Knows

every face a different shape person
identified not revealed who knows
what any expression means feeling
or intention looking at the audience
tells you nothing of what they think

somehow we guess well enough to
function more or less together this
plan like most works out someone
sleeping in the other room waking
to the possibility of something else

Getting Old

kings and ones call the game
nothing else really matters
those awful in-between years
twenty-five to seventy-five
before that you are young
after you are getting old

everything changes it may
not show go on the same
although not as easily now
who knows my pain but me
whose do I know no one's
ready to be revealed at last

Motor Transport

continually picking up and tossing away
maintain tidiness amid wild proliferation
no stopping the flow of goods or goodies
everything depends upon motor transport

is this part of a process of natural growth
like weeds and grass in the flower garden
like rain when you want to work outside
like overpopulation extinction of species

do we have any choice of how to behave
details don't matter there is nothing else
thinking to be unique we are all the same
this is how we live because of who we are

Too Much

save don't save your changes
amounts to the same thing as
forgetting after remembering

write to write not to be read
if you don't care no one will
unless you give them a reason

the cloud a swarm of servers
keeps every single useless bit
until the power fails all gone

the text itself is what I think
largely unwritten if it were
it would be much too much

Another Night

patterns of expression reveal underlying thought forms
the yes but, if not this then that, a good idea but flawed,
another example of, the which when that would serve,
depending on commas to keep the syntax in fair order

that's why we edit ourselves identify break bad habits
they are not merely verbal but architecture of the mind
formed in a different time and place for other purposes
translated interpreted relied upon light in another night

Hidden Mark

anything is a story if you tell it
otherwise vanishes preforgotten
leaving its hidden mark on you
that no one will ever understand

therefore compose yourself right
as if Dante watched and judged
hell is waiting around the corner
in case you forget to love heaven

While Waiting

if I think of something I will tell you
otherwise everything will stay the same
will you remember what I said before
I have forgotten everything you told me
once spoken nothing can be taken back
morning comes when you least expect it
this is what one can say while waiting

Central Issues

if I could read one thing
for more than a few minutes
at a sitting if I could think
through my ideas I might
begin to grasp affect theory
central issues in everything
I have ever tried hard to do

instead I manage with bits
of this and that fragmented
implications resonant with
my own stark realizations
outdoing personal mortality
inconvenience I can live with
while waiting to understand

Woo-Woo

woo-woo doesn't mean anything to anyone
except me in a certain mood when it's exactly
right as in "a woo-woo language that everybody
can speak but no one can understand" or what
I say to myself when my head spins whatever
the cause try to enjoy it wish it would be over

Equally Real

unacknowledged likeness gift enough
no need for recognition paid affective
satisfaction included in your copay

not-like more the point of discovery
that different angles are equally real
friendliness enough not being friends

general intimacy art's purview life is its
own story expertise enough a moment
of her time asymmetrical remembering

Do Right

on a clear day it isn't clear
when it will all be changed
clouds or not rain where it
is less needed lakes empty

a more definite encounter
explains whether to sleep
alone or not at all warmly
prepared for what will be

if more sense is required
ask anyone what you can
do right by your child is
first the next bit to follow

Real Shoes

real shoes for the real world
where am I then here now in
slippers after sneakers as we
used to call them all day until
I went to the city put on shoes

Evening Air

they were away the house thinking
it might have some quiet for a change

nothing ever stops happening though
you can take time out for daydreams

the dust settles cottonwood catkins
float on the evening light showing air

if not remembered it didn't happen
but it did you know everything does