Tuesday, December 30, 2014

In a Mean Time


So many things weighing on our mind, 
We don’t need to count them

To know they’re there, we have to 
Forget about them and remember

How light-headed we get when we don’t care. 


Sunday, December 28, 2014

This Too Shall Pass


Beautiful— 

The word becoming so worldly 
Obscene, exploited, wretched 
The many failing

To wonder why 
And to what use 
Hoping 

It will all come in good time. 


Friday, December 26, 2014

On the Road at Two-and-a-Half, or Blowing in the Wind Called Phaedra


Oh, I like this new game 
Of Papa’s—these strange little 
Light things he picked up 
To show me—he calls them 
Leaves—how they race along 
Where he placed them next 
To each other turning 
Over and over and me 
Running after them 
Like crazy I hope 
The one he said was mine wins. 



Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Truth's Like a Fly Swatter


Cross my heart, hope to die— 
It looks like they’re droppings

Of flies, the eschatological 
Ephemera of poets who swear

Their shit will last and not 
Stink to high heaven forever— 

Though from where I sit, 
It all smells a little too much

Like a downright rotten white lie. 


Sunday, December 21, 2014

Silver Linings Playbook


when storm clouds scud 
your way, the sun does not 
up and check out— 
it stays there 

high above the weather, 
looking out the window 
of your world, saving 
for a rainy day. 


Friday, December 19, 2014

Ex Libris Vazambam


With all the time in the world 
At nine months short of three, 
My granddaughter tells me 
She’s going to follow 
In my footsteps and read 
All the books in my library. 

Looking back at how 
Haplessly I fell 
Short of that goal, I do hope 
She doesn’t take after me— 
For better or worse, 
Let my feat remain 

No small consolation 
I won’t be round to see. 





Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Faux News on the Air (In Cracker Boxes Everywhere)


No more pussyfooting round— 

(I tell you the news is right) 
There in front of you

(Inglorious color) 
And not in black,

(Just white), like 
You folks like it so 

(Get cracking, right?)



Friday, December 12, 2014

"I Found My Thrill"


I remember his 
Last words as he sped 
Down Memory Lane, 

His blueberry eyes rolled 
Back up all the way to where 
The moon stood patiently still. 





Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Sunday, December 7, 2014

House on the Hill


All that’s left is a mound of detritus— 
Barely enough to remind us it stood 
Tall and strong as the family that held
 
Sway over it, a domain now infested 
By burrowing creatures of the night— 
Let’s say blind earthworms with feelers
 
Breathing through dank skins, sensing 
Their way through the dark by gauging 
Changes in the ever-changing light. 

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Watchtower


That black 

Dog that stands 
For Death has 

Two gray marks 
Round its red 

Eyes that keep 
Watch for any signs

Of life just like yours. 





Monday, December 1, 2014

Fish out of Water


Where you find out when 

The sea is only so 
Deep as the air 

You breathe in. 


Friday, November 28, 2014

In the Long Run


It makes no difference where 
You were going when you were 
Turning left or right 
Or going straight ahead— 

Something tells me 
That was where 
You were going when 
You had no choice but to go 

Short of stopping dead in your tracks, 
Which makes all the difference, 
Should one wish to know. 




Monday, November 24, 2014

Aeolian


of fig leaves under 
limbs swept bare— 

a rotting 

bed the fickle 
wind left 

there. 


Friday, November 21, 2014

Clockwork Universe


He’d sit before the expansive 
Bay window and take in 
The sun rising and setting 
Without fathoming why 

It never failed to move him 
While the sea—in an unceasing 
Undulating pendulum rhythm— 
Rose and fell, as if breathing. 




Sunday, November 16, 2014

Alms

“I have come to debase the coinage.” 
—Diogenes of Sinope 


Nobody 

At the crossroad, you know the score— 
What’s about to happen has happened before 

So many times nobody gives 
A plugged nickel anymore. 




Thursday, November 13, 2014

To a Mind Long Gone

—for Duncan Jones and Tom Clark, two who appreciate 
the sound different drummers make. 


Be not mistaken— 
It’s not the song 
That’s gone wrong; 

It’s the gong going 
Off in your head 
That’s right on. 







Tuesday, November 11, 2014

On the Dark Side


Saw the whole lunatic 

Moon in half, 
Wondering where 

The other half fell. 



Sunday, November 9, 2014

Getting a Charge over Williams' "The Young Housewife"

--for Nin Andrews



Forgive me, Doc this foolish 
Old wordmonger I can’t 

Help myself as I stand 
Drooling over this offering fully 

Aroused and--do you mind?--
Ogling it. 



Thursday, November 6, 2014

Cryptic Relativity


There’s a where 
We all come from 
And there’s a where

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

We all go—here’s where 
We all are, never aware 
We never were. 


Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Voodoo


Do I have to spell it out for you? 
It so happened 

The last quack who ravished me 
Over a dish of Peking duck 
At the China Clipper 

I turned into a witch, 
Doctor Tu. 

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Out the Window


All these derelicts 

Abandoned, one 
Wonders where 

The room went 
Along with the view. 


Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Coming upon a Hitherto Unknown Poem by Sappho


[deterioration highly evident] 

heart frag[mented?] yet 
[ ] 
[ ] 
[ ] 
put together so 
[ ] 
[ ] 
[lovingly?] 
[ ] 
[ ] 
perfect [that] 
nothing could 
[ ] 
[ ] 
[ ] 
go to pieces 

[rampant moth bites] 

[ ] 
[ ] 
[ ] 
forever [like?] 
[ ] that 
  
[papyrus in fluttering tatters] 



Friday, October 24, 2014

ROFLMAO


In short: 

Your plight does sound hapless with you down 
There up to your wannabe neck 
In it but no need 

To get ruffled 
Over the gravity 
Of the situation— 

Just roll over 
On the floor 
And die 

While a world busting 
Its gut laughs one less ass off, 
Period. 


Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Huuklyeand Cinquor on Lives of the Poets


Who toil 
Throwing out lines jammed 
With flotsam and jetsam 

Day-after-day making their craft 
Trim, secure and lasting, 
Ending up perfect 

Shipwrecks that won’t go away. 


Moderator’s comments: I can think of no better example of the time-tested, found to be sound conceit “sink or swim” than this sparkling pearl of wisdom fished out of the murky poetic waters by our trusty trawling seafarer and sounding board, Huuklyeand Cinquor. And to think that his too, too long absence had me seriously considering abandoning all hope of ever hearing from him again. 


Friday, October 17, 2014

How Stubborn Ignorance Took over the World


No one saw the phenomenon coming— 
Not because they were blind, 

But because everyone insisted 
They could see right 

Through people even at night. 





Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Long Black Train


It remains 

A mystery how 
It pulls into the station 
Never late no matter how 
Long you wait.




Sunday, October 12, 2014

Incurable Romantic Thinking Out of the Box


I know deep down
in my bones the moon really isn’t 
the moon and the earth isn’t the earth either 
and not only that but everything else 
in and under the heavens 
must be more than what it seems— 
even the air caressing my body 
smells mysteriously of moldy green cheese. 





Thursday, October 9, 2014

Weary-eyed Vigil


Incredulous as it might seem, 
There’s a part of us 
That never sleeps at night; 

It watches over the other parts 
To keep them from falling 
Into a deep, interminable trance— 

Trust me. I’ve been there and back. 





Sunday, October 5, 2014

Nebulas


Crux: 

To far too many, 
Apparently not enough 

Stars falling 

To pinpoint the heart 
Of the matter. 


Thursday, October 2, 2014

A Poem Should Be (12)


Both ingenious and ingenuous, 
Should it not? 

Like our Spot here picking 
A cool shady spot 
When it’s sizzling 

And curled up 
On steaming hot asphalt 
When it’s not. 




Monday, September 29, 2014

Gravitational Pull


Believe it or not, 

What he wanted always fell 
Within reach or it did not, 

And he always rose 
To the occasion, 

Whether it was what 
He wanted or not. 


Friday, September 26, 2014

Aphrodite Awash in the Limelight


When she crawled out dripping 
Wet from the primordial slime and bared sharp 
Beckoning phosphorescent teeth, 
Those who went gaga moonstruck

On the strand moved ever closer, 
Took the plunge and grunted 
They had never before been 
Blinded, sucked in by a more wondrous sight. 

The others stranded in the forlorn hinterland 
Had to make do with a less fortuitous fate— 
Such light as they bathed in was toothless, 
A gaping black hole appearing eons too late. 




Friday, September 19, 2014

Upon My Word


Such silence 

Building up unbearable 

Cornerstones to speak of 

Silence holding up each word. 


Friday, September 12, 2014

Dictum


Wordsmith— 

If it’s worth thinking about, 
Find a language worthy of it. 





Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Terminator



Don’t answer the open-ended question 
That’s waiting at the end—no matter how 

The poem appears 
Finished with nothing 

More to give you, you have 
Yet to give it 

Everything you have and more— 
What on earth are you waiting for?


 

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Monday, September 1, 2014

Heady, Unruly Spirit


Don’t look now—wind 
Heading your way— 

More than strong 

Enough to carry that 
Heedless head off

And away.


Friday, August 29, 2014

Step Lively, Scouts!


As a way out of deep depression, 
They told us to go back 
As far as we could and keep an eye 

Out for any signs of life, any 
Footprints that would tell us something 
Substantial had been here before— 

All we came across was that familiar 
Hollow echo of footsteps dragging 
The depths that kept after us everywhere 

We had to go. 

Monday, August 25, 2014

Eureka! (Or How to Stop Deadly Writer's Block Once and for All)


Stare at a blank piece of paper long enough 
And before you know it, bang!— 

You’ll find your head filled with lead. 


Friday, August 22, 2014

A Poem Should Be (11)


Unlike a Facebook like— 
A not unmoving contra 
Diction in terms— 

There when 
You need it 
And still 

There when 
You don’t. 


Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Rising to the Occasion


The sun’s still hiding behind 
The ridge of the mountains 
Waiting for the day to begin 

Something quivering 
Deep inside 
The dark sleeping martyred 

Earth lightly nudges you, 
It’s high time you rose 
To seek salvation, too. 


Saturday, August 16, 2014

Heat Wave



Having a hard time pin 
Pointing what one is? 

You’ll know you’re in 
One when 

Even those cooling 
Beads of sweat 

Round your block 
Head sweat. 


Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Paperback Writer at Wits' End


I got this crazy hunch-- 
Stand back from what you’ve been 

Bent over all day, you’ll see 
What’s screwed you up 

Right away. 






Saturday, August 9, 2014

Idyll: Field Mice Out to Pasture


Just when you think 
You’ll never make it through 

Another down day, 
A crepuscular 

Screeching flash of a hoot 
Owl lifting you up and away! 


So no more mooning round 
If you please, plenty 

Of green cheese about 
For the likes of you and me. 


Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Alzheimer's


Cypress trees take souls--at least 
That’s what my mother-in-law 
Claims as we sit under our tall, 
Twinned ones having breakfast 
Before my wife takes her 
To the doctor for a belated checkup--
Olives give us life, she continues
Besides, I don’t recall seeing any 
Olive trees in cemeteries, do you? 


Saturday, August 2, 2014

Of Things Past


Draw them up as you will you cannot 
Hold on to them as they slip 

Like water through fingers 
Frozen in marble round 

The ring of a well. 






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