Good Reason

my morality of lightness
balances heavy world
just think how heavy
then let it float away
that kind of thing my
normative assumption
chosen for good reason

Spotted Shade

these fancies of another time might
have occurred to me old-fashioned
even at a time when they were new
my own world now past based upon
the recent past of my own childhood

no one lives in the present unless you
forget you can't go on deciding which
of the duties is yours which inherited
obligation of continuity this is not real
until the past is laid definitely to rest

if its roots are cut the tree will slowly
die losing limbs its shape drastically
altered contorted struggling for light
leafed out again casting spotted shade
in another season of feeding squirrels

Amazing Days

what had happened before mattered
because you carried it inside a secret
self you still had tender feelings for
barely adequate to the new situation
who am I now what do I need to do

the real you would still be there no
matter what you did given made up
of underlying expectations parental
familial contextual colored by class
and under that your own intentions

how can you know what you want
until you do it find yourself doing it
as if nothing else was possible being
where you were at the time all ready
waiting to see what you make of it

lose everything it still will be there
part of you now inexorably forward
something never changing in spite of
time conditions brutal facts amid the
amazing days you never can live again

Cool Acting

heat eats the day everyone going about dazed
stumbling barely able to talk decide anything
a break from doing means do something else
somewhere else Swiss lakes Italian churches

cool acting doesn't help we get it go on smile
have sex melodrama is better than no drama
we're looking for both art and entertainment
surprise us by daring more than you promise

Beyond Desire

what remains beyond desire beyond any future
all used up in youthful intensity and confusion

skin formerly smooth unmarked can still feel
texture temperature contact another electricity

mind sees its body as what it was becoming
body asks mind who are you and so what

let's see the facts floating on a page of lake
deny as you like time comes for everyone

Keeping Up

I don't want to think about China
even less the multiple countries
where terrible things are going on
millions displaced starving sick
I sympathise and care for the world
but what can I do I cannot save them
by being more aware of their plight
China gosz right on being Chinese
we all have history mostly tragic
the day to be lived is this one here
I am entirely occupied keeping up

Healthy Eating

I'm already behind already forgot
the most important situation or
circumstance that colors the air

breakfast will help it always does
homemade homegrown delicious
healthy eating for healthy minds

I still won't know what happened
in the night of darkness distance
only temporary frangible as time

I refuse to believe that things are
as bad as they are the going story
not my experience luckily for me

can't help knowing the numbers
even here on the richest farmland
observe the takeover and collapse

About Time

accumulated spin reassures repetition
until it doesn't stop thinking about time
if you can be here without reference to
memory or anticipation eternally return

executive mathematics displace feeling
you don't know what to expect although
you do having packed for countless trips
and always had everything you needed

Who You Know

am I the only one who wonders
whether speech changes what is
and might have mattered more if
writing is speech these days like
so much else deploring limits of
self-significane is hardly enough
to explain what you really mean
be understood by who you know

Don't Ask

the story is there in the background
everybody has a story I'm not telling
you know your own and if you don't
you're kidding yourself don't ask me

this is about what the story might be
about how you came to be so sweet
instead of someone else I don't know
who had a different story never told

choice only figures in occasionally
as you feel the decision being made
long before you decide to act on it
only then seeing how the story goes

Even So

you don't have to explain
how carefully and thoughtfully
you threw this together we know
there is never enough time
for old-time craftsmanship
even if you jump off the ship
or speeding bus that carries
everyone over the lemming cliff
or run along trying to keep up

panting rushed even when bored
you know that's not how time
works the regular beat goes on
too slow for animals to hear
actual transactions too fast
and many for eye and mind
don't even try to keep up

we know you're doing your best
it's not you it's your time
and place but even so it is
your only opportunity to live
free to connect with dharma
no way out but further in
synced with your chosen kind

I'm Here

what isn't written won't be counted
in the inevitable audit of my assets
my sons will have to decide what's
for reading finishing trying to sell
more than enough of it ready to go
if there's a place it will be welcome
too pitiful to think of no readers
willing to be interested in all this
the point being to have written it
to catch life going by say I'm here

Tough Skin

you want the system to break down
so that something better can emerge
but will the change be worth the pain
is it not just writhing Medusa's snakes
lava bubbling inside the ripped body
painful spots breaking the tough skin
you can't afford to be as soft as you are
needing order overwhelmed by weeds
dancing sprightly on the edge of chaos
horrified another backwater devastated
modeling innocence no animal can feel
to open up a space where life improves

Let's Not

let's not think so much about death
and divorce isn't there something else
or have the possibilities been used up

Whole Story

what of what I tell you or myself is true
and not a story I made up and tell again
what I thought was happening was only
part of the story God might tell if he was
telling not the whole story either many
ways of looking at the same thing which
is never simple no one thing acting alone

if I were smarter and knew more it might
help keep things in perspective probably
not no one likes dying and dies on time
get used to it only goes so far then what
smart people lose grip and favorite gems
lose their meaning and sense of feeling
true as they may have been in their prime

Mere Acting

this is mere acting you are
not entirely here where then

bemusedly being yourself
going through the motions

come back to me now this
instant needs you present

or is it myself acting myself
as from earlier learned sides

this after that because scripted
requires my attention as well

then may the passion emerge
and the life of the music flow

Being Now

two days slip by
nothing done but
what it is recall
easier comfort

obscure desire
faintly echoes
failing body
rejects return

nothing hurts
if I don't move
better answer
young again

imagine that
years to come
no alternative
to being now

No Plants

the neighborhood is changing closest neighbors
moving away three new houses being built well
drilled field across the street sold to fellowship
sprayed poisoned dead no plants around their ugly
church junkers dug up from blackberry mound
trees coming down parked cars glittering we can
move if it gets too bad but probably won't have to

Being Chickens

what a pleasure it is to have chickens
they scurry about peck exhibit behaviors
speak a vocabulary of clucks and squawks
they speak to me lay eggs eager for treats
pursue their less than individual lives
being chickens being chickens is enough

Ordinary Prose

Four o'clock. Hours to go. Not hot yet. Itching. Chirping. Fanned. Between poetry and prose I choose prose. Not ordinary prose. Not expository, descriptive, narrative, psychological, philosophical, expressive, evocative, clear, specific, analytical. Not that. I could go on. I can always go on. I often have. Often I have little to say. Even so. Musico-structurally deployed, punctuation may help. Full sentences usually do. Paragraphs occur spontaneously. The eye adapts. Everything adapts to everything else. Or is destroyed. As entity. Even the idea eventually forgotten.

When You Can

by the time you know enough
it will be too late to do anything
you must act in spite of darkness
like a blind person in a spotlight
perfect understanding never comes
the right moment is when you can
do something then something else
then you will have done enough

Other Lives

index of another era
multitudes passing through
to other lives or not
was that the appropriate use
of their talents if any

mine wore thin I moved on

not wanting to remember
we told ourselves it was important
in its time it may have been
eccentric taste outré fashion
to be marveled at

Having Been

real is what it is now
no matter what we had in mind
when we set it up
set it in motion
made choices
imagining an entirely different basis

this is the natural order
however distorted it seems to us
this can't be right
evidently it is
all there is
after the consequences are revealed

how will it all work out
more or less as we always knew
life stages flowing
counting down
flourishing
becoming becoming having been

Pure Intention

I don't have to see photos I was there
looking at photos is another trip back
in time sterilized playing out the ideal
as image deliberately acting the roles

I was there as myself in pure intention
incidentally taking in everyone's game
gamboling unseen in the hidden desert
let it remain in memory hope promise
what may be able to occur in real time

Wet Dog

if there was no good way in or out you would have to stay in or out
or scramble down the slimy wall and hope you could get up and out again
the air better outside if anywhere your friends having a party in the other room
the minnows were gone but the pitiful wet dog needed to be rescued
if you didn't do it no one would follow your example nothing happen
cisterns may be coming back we have to think about water use a whole new way

Roots and All

peculiar satisfactions dot my hours
weeds that come up roots and all
a hand of solitaire that works out
fingers find Beethoven's own notes
our own vegetables eggs and meat
felicitous phrases appear unbidden
seasons weather generations love