What’s that you say?
Superkid poet profoundly
Past his prime still
Defying gravity always
More than capable of leap-
Frogging from one fantastic
Telling line to another
In an unbroken series
Of singular bounds,
With no wear or tear
Worth mentioning till
An astounding lack
Of down-to-earth metaphors
Finally sends him and his oh so
Flighty craft soundly
Crashing to the ground?
You must be kidding.
Light-washed columns
Of plain and simple truths
Out of the blue—
Nothing like it in this world
Made to order
For the likes of me and you.
Thus what bound them
Together remained
Forever unspoken, known only
To a blind, deaf, select few
Who knew all too well how
To keep their mouths shut.
You’ll do fine
By it—just remember
To approach
It with caution,
Even though
That unsettling flickering on
And off that refuses
To keep still and let itself be
Snuffed out does not look
As threatening
As the quickening shadows
It keeps on casting.
All the junk we thought
We needed on the way,
But with nothing
Lasting of value beyond
A precious uncertain morrow
Every day.
Believe me,
Nothing to believe in is
Nothing to sneer at—
Just think zilch
And you’ll see how
Grim it is to grin,
And your curling upper
Lip unable to bear it
By tucking it in.
Hell or high water,
I’ll keep shouting it
Till I’m blue in the face:
I’m not going to keel over
And die till I see all three
Of my intimate followers’
Bulging bloodshot eyes
Green with envy, ogling
The body of my work
And me
In my final resting place,
Period.
Nothing remains
The same: It’s been said so
Many times it’s old-hat,
Oblivious to change—
Keep on trucking light
Just the same, tread
Water if you have to,
Always use your given name.
--Corazón, stout dog,
“Poetry Is a Destructive Force,”
Wallace Stevens
To bark with all our might
Straight from the heart is just
What we didn’t want—
We needed something
That would clearly set us apart
From the howling, romantic pack. So
Oh so vain as ever, we found ourselves
Mushing on to wherever it was
We were going,
Forgetting all too soon
That which brings us
Together remains
For all appearances,
A blinding blizzard pure
As the driven snow.
Have a heart, dear
Ham—the persona
You so want the crowd
To lap up, keeps fleeing
Through the riddled
Exit wounds
Of a bleeding ticker.
Patience,
It’ll be over
In a jiffy—
It only
Hurts so
Long as you
Hold it in.
Striving to best
What you already think
You do better than others,
You keep writing, trying
For that elusive special something
Precious to say, never
Once thinking you should have
Packed it in yesterday.
Like that pale
Horse that gallops through
Our thoughts bringing us
A multicolored mane.
It’s a mystery how
The words have always been
Waiting there just as you left them,
Waiting to hear you
Go back.
Mess with innocuous
Ideas long enough
And they become bad
Habits itching
To be scratched
To death
Again and again—
What’s to be done?
Shun yourself
From everything
Blah and dig in, saving
In the process,
Your worthless skin.
Better you
Lose that too bitter
Demeanor quick, Junior—
You’ll find soon enough
It’s far better than becoming
Meaner and meaner.
Confused? Why,
If we were
All going in
The same
Direction, we
Wouldn't need
A compass, even
In the dark,
now
Would we?
—for Eleni, always there
In the worst of ways you were always
Under one rug or the other,
Murmuring and wondering just
What to do with yourself when
Her uplifting spirit
Got wind of you and swept
You off your feet
At the speed of light,
And dragged your sorry lot
Onto a pied magic carpet
Traveling untrammeled through
Eons of uncharted space.
In blackened hearths, remnants
Of old growth
Sizzled to a crisp, still
Glowing embers
Ashing to ashes, dust
To dust in an ever-swirling,
Resurrecting myth.
You’ll have noticed by now,
When the stars are right,
Nothing looks to go wrong.
Pay them constant homage then
If you wish to see the light
Right proper thorough,
Even through the now
Darkling before you
Night.
