Before Machines

don't take me to the moon I dread
space flight complications spread
like rogue diseases warm climes
foster I feel natural here on Earth
where my genes chose to evolve
before machines took over living
it's the brute materiality I resent
power spent on a fantasy of flight
for few from the human condition

An Echo

everything is typical you can
make up the details weather
comes around again each day
like another newly reproduced
the order rhymical and random

observe yourself observing it
write it down or you'll forget
but it doesn't matter it comes
around again love gain loss
unique only when it happens

the moment snatches it free
before anything else intrudes
blurs present with memory
this observation an echo of
colors never yet clearly seen

Complex Transactions

air is not nothing
although transparent
you can't see it but
complex transactions
happen inside lungs
it leaves you changed

My Mood

maybe it's old friends dying
that is making me so blue
I'm going strong if achey
and spring is coming along
but the afternoon light is gray
my mood deeper than now
dependent on my pleasures
weary of cleaning the house
sans illusion of going back
hopeless redeeming errors
missed opportunities gone
perfection a lost ambition
oblivion a nearing horizon
only words save the day
lent to a distant mourning

Only Exit

The Times holds you hits you
one-two with ads and fascinating
content the new word for facts
and opinion theoretically helping
you to know what's going on

the only exit is close the window
be where you actually are think
your own thoughts slowly arise
the hours opening out unlimited
interior galaxies outlast all news

Painful Tension

no couples in the play
although we are mostly couples
and happy about it

is drama necessarily miserable
real life too harmonious
to entertain

\are we committed to conflict
needing painful tension
to bring us together

My Chair

what then besides mowing the grass
watching maple buds redden and swell
serenaded by the squeaks of my chair
half-interested in whatever comes up

my screen frantic de Kooning Gotham
News not how I feel or want to feel I
change it to a straight road through a
boring landscape and imagine I relax

How Happy

old photos remind us of time
past recovery what we wore
forgotten more than where
how much younger we were
just a handful of years ago
bittersweet proof of aging
and how happy we were
randomly caught forever

Longer Light

all right then
something must be done
all day doing and seeing things and people
includes fun and obligations

everything is wrong on a macro level
nothing being done to set it right
meanwhile spring
bright flowers celebrate longer light

is it right to be happy
even now
is it fair to live one's own life
in spite of evil foolishness and destruction

The Hill

walking a bicycle
like walking a
horse helps it
climb the hill

not so serious
unless it rains
even then you
just get wet

Spring Rain

more than I can read
don't stop buying books
more movies than I can
take time to see through
more stories in more
newspapers magazines
online revelations more
secret aspects of the world
falling like spring rain

So Long

nothing lasts long even stone
breaking up into rubble or sand
words cut into wax dissolved
in the merciless heat of time

but time is not so long for us
memory may fade and vanish
genealogy remains informing
who we actually are right now

let it be gone without remorse
each corpuscle doing its will
then reverting to only atoms
affirming process all that is

Doing Nothing

how did it happen that I am here
doing nothing to change the situation
that I like the way it is now
never to realize the other option
which might have been equally good

instead I travel far in time and space
reading in books of others' travels
no need to go there myself
and couldn't if it is all long over
gone with magicians and seers forever

We Forgot

those who got along did better
and we forgot to be ourselves

temporarily the bad guys win
then start fighting each other

needing to be thought strong
we will all join in and suffer

Like Chickens

hardly more books than raindrops
no one thing defines all you can do
and be busily chasing all week the
days like chickens waiting to be fed

I pick up one and then another try
and participate fully before moving
on the next subject of investigation
opening like another Broadway show

Ear Plugs

my noise your music
worship song I have to
respect horrible to me
it's not my music no
excuse for letting it play

later silence between
raindrops ear plugs in
fills empty distance
measurable in hours
here and back again

In Secret

attention like a stylus
scrubs around inside
my brain groping for
interest and coherence
telling myself be still
and wait the meaning
will emerge in secret

Still Modern

we calmly forgot to read
what we always read
Pasternak barely legible
but thrillingly himself
Elizabeth Bishop lonely
Marianne Moore held
captive by her mother
Scriabin still modern
after all these years
and again it is Sunday
and we calmly forgot

Bathing Wounds

rain rushes sideways across the sky
denying all boundaries and borders
turning earthward where it pauses
watering gardens bathing wounds

how can we drink enough to fill
the gaps between places and tasks
spinning minds gaze heavenward
wet with the language of weather

General Drift

one of the ways I know
is what you tell me
otherwise it's guesswork

even knowing you pretty well
no one can really imagine
how another person thinks

I know what you think about
most of the time at least
the general drift is secret

neither can you follow me
I am generally drifting too
both on our singular path

Made Up

more to say to more people
doesn't wait for chocolate
if they want the best brand
I know what it is and where

more to say to more kinds
of people listening closely
thinking heaven knows what

more words ready for the
camera dramatically made up

more said never too much

Slow Work

sketching is art too
no blame for quickness
when the light changes
before you can catch it
painting is slow work
words come fast

Watch Out

I think everyone can say
whatever they want
and everyone else watch out
it may be off the wall
and profoundly wrong
or vulgar and even evil
just watch out
they still can say it
I wish they wouldn't
I wish some attitudes didn't exist
I keep my distance

Too Real

I feel like I'm going to explode
but nothing happens bursting
with sympathy for a story in a
book by Teju Cole what people
endure and retain their sweetness
unvalued in the overcrowding
too real for me even to imagine

Never Empty

these words are mine

while I squeeze them

we can all partake of

their renewable juice

they are never empty

never entirely owned

we can all taste them

at the same exact time

First Person

the first person is not me

you or anyone we know

a greater writer thinking

might achieve an actual "I"

acknowledged mentioned

in the hebdomadal report

"I am myself" he insists

after extensive reflection

and no one calls him out

So Often

how satisfying when

it all works out

as it so often does

when there is peace

and you can pay

Changing Course

reading three books now

writing two now that one

is finished how can I think

driving into Portland for

lunch walk a little concert

heard all over the world

what happens in between

when I am changing course

momentarily doing nothing

The Month

first daffodil announces March
the month makes a difference
like what state you are living in
is culture really like the seasons
alas not weather sustains itself
without depending on humans
spring will come in spite of us