Friday, March 31, 2017

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

Thursday, March 30, 2017

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

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Complex Transactions

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

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

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

Monday, March 27, 2017

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

Sunday, March 26, 2017

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

Friday, March 24, 2017

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

Thursday, March 23, 2017

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

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

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

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

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

Monday, March 20, 2017

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

Sunday, March 19, 2017

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

Friday, March 17, 2017

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

Thursday, March 16, 2017

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

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

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

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

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

Monday, March 13, 2017

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

Sunday, March 12, 2017

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

Saturday, March 11, 2017

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

Friday, March 10, 2017

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

Thursday, March 09, 2017

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

Wednesday, March 08, 2017

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

Tuesday, March 07, 2017

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

Monday, March 06, 2017

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

Sunday, March 05, 2017

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

Saturday, March 04, 2017

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

Friday, March 03, 2017

So Often

how satisfying when
it all works out
as it so often does
when there is peace

and you can pay

Thursday, March 02, 2017

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

Wednesday, March 01, 2017

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