The Transmission of Light

Falling Away

2011-12-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

The source of value is arcing back in on itself
Arrows are disobeying common sense
Returning to bows.

I have only a toe left inside the dance
Of the sleepwalkers
But the irony is in the cast iron nature of life.

As I exit this cage, and leave the gruntings behind
The shell that surrounds me
Grunts more boldly than ever.

Typhoon

2011-08-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

Today is for studying the Beaufort Scale
For understanding rescue
In the breeches buoy formed by the
Wonderful curve between the shoulder blades
Of three women at the bookstore

Or to tell a friend that the story began
When Macwhirr tapped the barometer

The foamy swells of time are whipping white
Froth by me and warning flags snapping
In high strung wires as irresistible green seas
Wash across the decks on Cleveland avenue

When she smiled at me I heard

Hatchbolts, even keelbolts
Beginning to give way

Ruins

2011-07-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

Have you ruined me for all others?
I do think you have

There is a sheet of plexiglass
On one side, my past
My dreams, my naivete, and you

On another side, my now
My waking moments, and my decay

Your net has captured analogues,
Ancillary loves, places
Sand and sea

Time itself is strung through your funnel

Stone

2011-04-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

She held the stone outside that sculptor's dwelling
It was her own and solitary : "Gates of Hell"
The child of her desire for copulation/his rejection thereof
Who is greater, she or he? Rodin is august,

But what of her experience on the outside of his radius?

And in a square chamber Kollwitz helps us
Also become a stone or metal mother wrapped around
That which is most precious to her : who can bear it?
Although it is stone or metal alone.

I'd like to curl on her doorway just like a mistress.

I am the mother of the stillborn child of my love.

Other Poets

2011-02-04T12:01:00.000-08:00

At the seashore
Some kids throw stones
Others take their rafts or boogie boards way out
Some collect stones and shells
Some lie in the warm sand near the dunes
Their spirits silhouetted against the sea

In the forest
Some birds warble, others trill, others crow
Little animals scamper around
Bigger ones rustle or stay still
While we come walking through
With the kids ahead
All under the shelter of the trees

The World's End

2011-01-13T14:48:00.000-08:00

where earth rivers pour out into the void
thought to be at the edges of a flat planet
are here on the unswept streets

these rivers appear to me, and to no one else
to be sweeping the avenues
to be rushing through the alleys
as wilderness canyons

when they swell and pour
over the edge of time
they freeze in the reaches of space

amidst shreds of yesterday's plastic
and the wind whipping of islamic fabric
the playing of children, the swaying of trees
and the thoughtless drone of traffic

it seems that no one else
hears these waters move

in a tower

2010-10-24T13:32:00.000-07:00

a man in a tower
is reading
by the light of a candle
what he is reading

i don't know

i do not know at all

is it a guidebook
to the masonry
or a map to the view
from the window?

i will never know

in the meantime
outside
the sun shines
the seasons change

the storms come and go

aristocracy

2010-10-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

You sense behind you
an irresistible buildup

A nameless, insatiable
demand for breakthrough

An eternity of beauty
rushes through you

You have inherited vast fortunes
and their attendant responsiblities

You hold on to all this
as though the very world
was waiting for you

You say :

Of the dull, what is required
is not what is required
of those who shine

But :

How long
can you hold on?

Day and Night

2010-08-31T12:38:00.000-07:00

Do not let your left hand know
what your right hand is doing.

And if you ride on surface coverings
Then ride smoothly my friends, and be sure
To ride grandly, ride far and fast
Smiling, letting the sun glint off your white teeth

Pray unto thy father in secret chambers
do not make a show of it.

And if you decide to pick moon fruits
Wandering through floating world print gardens
Licking on stamp books of Yoshitoshi
And eating the heads of enemies, the genitals of women

Before the cock crows
you will have denied me three times

Walking beside alpine pools
Pausing to drink clear water
Unfurling sail, or pulling it in
As the time, the wind,a nd the sea require

Why, oh why
hast thou forsaken me?

She sits on you, she bites you
She crawls on top of you, the drapes gently
blow in the black breezes
And you cry out, and you finally tell the whole truth

It is accomplished.

The Speed of Sound

2010-08-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

she speaks of reich speaking about porn
and then breaks into a child or animal's sounds

whereas i hypothesize my nose behind her ear
and we luminously gather anything that any star has left

can you watch us now, gathering speed?
like stanley kubrick, like the best athletes, like beethoven

like an asteroid just barely missing the sun
so getting shot back out even faster into the icy void

im taking a down escalator, somehow standing tall against the scourge
of invisible whips - coming down the escalator

she - passing in the opposite row, in dark
the object of predating male .... whatever

pass me a cup of tea, sit with me in some french quarter
let the world spin, let people work, let them toil

let them lie, and let us lay down

Phase

2010-07-24T15:03:00.000-07:00

Dragonfly : dissolution

Waterfowl : peripheral

Woman : beckoning

Sky : everywhere

Good Night

2010-05-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

Good night
My sweet ones
Good night

Now it is time
To turn out the light

I will protect you
I'll not let you come
To any harm

The world is large
Larger than we know
My sweet ones

When you sleep
You will float

Through the canyons
Of this world

And pass into the blue beyond

So good night

When they tell you this and that

2010-05-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

When they tell you about this and that
Don't buy into it at all

and in some way I do not know
This is related to why

right now
I cannot cry

that little dumpling said to me
"you again"

and then chose not to do it this time
so i'll have to work with her again

next time

don't buy in to building any castles by the shore
or ladders to the clouds

id rather do it with you tonight
but if we cannot

i'll be forced to do it with you

in another body
and on another world

at some other time

calling

2010-05-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

now you are back in the hospital
and your mind is spinning out crystalline trails
vainly making sense of past nonsense

you, a black haired dream
may take my hand this summer

and i will be your strong armor

we will feel the cool sand

between our toes while we wait
for whomever summons us
when it is time to go

ambition (to ogmd)

2010-05-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

under an entirely subtle
and painted sky

and before 7
the jets appear lazy
arcing in lines

rising

one by one to destinations
seeming not-to-distant
from eternity

and i

who used to run
the stadium in Hanover
for the inimitable pleasure
of sweet, sweet pain

am running the long, long steps
rising, then loosely
descending the grasses

to climb again

and so i climb again
and again
and the jets climb
again, and again

and that sweet, sweet pleasure
no one

can take from the travelers
from the pilots
from the sky
from the jets

or from me

minnesota 1

2010-04-16T09:15:00.000-07:00

walking at right angles
to ten thousand mirrors

walking into a sky
the color of steel

walking through two planes
into fifteen

walking on into emptiness

spring - for minnesota

2010-04-16T08:50:00.000-07:00

park comes up through city
scent the open grasslands

empty vistas
lakes and ponds

shine silver fluttering vibration
upward into the eye

a mirror with a searchlight behind

beside the shimmering water
disappear into the Spring

the heart and its longings
rising and flooding time

with its needs

disappearing into spring
by glittering pools

and floating away

on currents of clear desire

Superior 2/20 (Draft 1)

2010-02-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

To be a fish pulled glittering from Superior.

Tomorrow one turns thirty-something
One turns nineteen.

(Where is Kate anyway?
Is she back with the men of Brooklyn?
Is she back in hospital?
Or holed up on some family plot
Penning her familial plots
Plotting her familial plans
Starting her many companies?)

I can't call EAG.

CP isn't home.

The kids will dine with me
In a circular revolving restaurant
That stands above Superior (oxymoronic?
a contradiction?).

My call for help
Answered by the generosity
Of the Jehovah's Witness who
Has retired from
BNSF freight operations

Who gave me a room and steak.

Superior intelligence at work?

The one who turns thirty-something :

Yesterday when she was putting his
Things into a plastic bag I gasped
Because she's so utterly beautiful.

In a fractional second
I saw :

Halo of consequence
Damage of ignorance
Fluttering gossamer wings a bit torn.

Nineteen is in New England.

Coming down into downtown
Near Bob Dylan way.

This town's existence
Is from iron, running semi-liquid
Through the lake to the world.

Two days ago :

I actually saw the two of them in the bus
Children half from me, half from her
All from somewhere else Superior to this.

Into downtown
The car falling-ever-falling

Spilling over terraced asphalt
towards Superior.

This afternoon, all life seems to be
Spilling also towards Superior.

To have been pulled, glittering, from Superior

and

To be thrown back, in time
Into a greater lake.

Mute

2010-01-24T13:53:00.000-08:00

It’s a grey day

The interior lights
Are reflected in the cup

The music speaks
Of solitude

While the windows show
The black branches

When you put away
Your cup and teapot

You can step outside
Where everyone,

and everything

Is covered
By the grey sky

Rest (to KCG)

2009-11-27T10:53:00.001-08:00

Night used to be a cloak
To cover the things
He did not want the Sun to see

Then the darkness
Became a wrap
To rest his eyes
From the light of day

Now it's different

Because the beauty
Of her presence is brilliant
The eyes of his soul
Have further opened

To the Sun that shines
Behind the former sun

Now sleep comes easy
When he knows
Her beauty preceded
And will follow it

One cannot stare at Her too long
Just like the sun

Shells

2009-11-27T10:48:00.001-08:00

Your long fingers are curled underneath the collar
Of my overcoat

And crabs are doing whatever
They must do to loosen their shells

In preparation for an exposed
Scuttle beneath the waves

I sense you are about to peel the shoulders
Of the coat back, and help me

Slip my arms out

While serpents, in darkness
Metabolize swallowed mice, loosening the translucent skin

That once glowed upon them

You undo the buckles of my armor
Your hands find my body

The world sighs, seeking release from
What once covered it

And now you reach into me
And peel off the dead skin

Of my former life.

Beloved

2009-11-21T10:17:00.000-08:00

Behold, she has stopped my tongue.

Behold, she who comes in blazing beauty.

Behold, my beloved cometh out
And she passeth beneath the trees.

Yes, she comes, my beloved.
I call for her, and she comes.

Now the ancient lands can
Let loose their firm hold
And sink into the sea.

Now fountains and rivers can
Sing their songs of joy.

My beloved has now come to me.

Autumnal

2009-11-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

In the first storms of autumn
Leaves are being torn from the trees
Like tears when someone wails with grief

They pour off in wild sheets, the trees
Turn and yield them - some breaking
Lying, shattered and sideways after the gale

After that there is a peace

One sees through branches to a crystal sky
But a few leaves tremble before the
First snowfall, anologous to stubborn
Memories and closeted hopes

Relucutantly falling alone, one by one

Until the winter, when the metallic sky
Surrounds every branch

A discerning eye will catch
The one or two leaves remaining
Unwilling to fall, not giving up

Like an old man's memories of Love

Dream

2009-10-29T14:20:00.000-07:00

It was early morning, when light was
Just beginning to enter the room.

I heard a sound from outside.
The sound of tires on gravel.

I went to the window, opened the window.
It was you there, looking up.

Through those eyes of yours.
With that long red hair of yours.

You were calling my name, beckoning.
I dressed quickly, went down the stairs

Opened the door, breath frosting the air.
I walked to you, where you waited.

You took my hand.
We looked into one another's eyes.

(In yours I saw galaxies, and the world's end.)

You drove us away.
My hand rested on your leg.

We drove far from this land.
And passed through the gates of Eternity.

Him

2009-10-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

Now I am walking with him
I consistently see his face
Looking up at me
He wears a Norwegian sweater

His hair is bowl cut
His eyes are eager
His hands hold a flower
Or he holds my hand

Now I am sitting with him
He looks out from inside me
He is hoping someday
That I will join him

A long time ago
The thing I call myself
Left the thing I call him
But he was all along

Coming behind, following
And I never saw him
So, now he has caught me

And I cannot be the same
Again

Island (Draft 1)

2009-10-16T23:19:00.001-07:00

By the side of the sea, in the steel grey
The wind is whipping, cutting things open
And it tears the waves, from themselves
Making them roll, making them climb

One or two birds fly struggle against it
But over the silver metal rough surge
Where ships can normally be seen, delicate
Black dots of horizon iron. But not today.

Ragged V shapes fly south.

The Church is locked. They closed it
Exactly one day before my Tuesday 3:30
Ferry pulled in and bumped the dock. Where
Windswept bay swells drove water slashing
Across synthetic boardwalk. Leaving seaweed,

And two men stepped down. Old men
Huddled in maroon volunteer fired department
Jackets, weathered, and leaning over their cases of
Liquor/grocery carts. A father, holding his little boy
Who stared atthe whitecaps as I used to. And me.
Studying Russian. This ferry, unlike the others
Is enclosed, sways, is ancient metal. So I thought
Of the men of the Kursk in their dark tungsten tomb.

The house stands delicate against a driving rain.
Rising from a nap, and dreams of her, I put on
The too tight rain jacket, stretched to fit
Over Adam Siegler's fleece. Time to collect
Scrap wood in the garden cart, from renovation
Sites, and some dried drfitwood. I don't want to
Use Dad's or the Siegler's wood in the woodstove.

Sometimes pulling out nails so you don't have to sift
Them from ashes. Four boxes of pasta, unreadable
Chekhov, but not due to any fault of his, an
Ex-girlfriend's gift coffee table book on Manatees
And Dugongs in which her graduate work was cited twice.
At Pennsylvania Station, I did not have enough
To get to Vermont, but just enough for the Island.
The train, the bus, the ferry, and sixteen left over.

This precarious house on it sprecarious stilts on this precarious
Sliver of sand against the silver-mercury-cold violent Atlantic
Is 45 years old. I am as well.

The wind is picking up, rattling walls. There: I lost my virginity
On the sand, then we ran nude, in blankets, back to our bed.
The summer after Senior Year. There : three sailboats, covered
With adolescents, set off for tacking and jybing. And here :
Mom served the roast chicken, all four of us ate, watching
The sky change. Sunday afternoon before the ferry home.
Roast chicken, green beans, rice with drippings.

On the deck of the church, potted plants have been
Set on their sides. The gas grill is shrouded. A small funereal
Outdoor piano. Mary prays in stone, eyes down. The information
Board is missing letters. I'd normally pray there,
And recharge my laptop and phone (the house is the last
in town without electricity).

Wind raises the surf, it curls, looks like titanium talons.
Rain whips the house.

Birds fly south, over the mainland and over the sea.
Tomorrow I'll cross back to the continent
And go North.

Storm Passing

2009-10-16T16:26:00.001-07:00

The sun appeared
An hour before I left
The island. I was sweeping
The sand through a trapdoor

But I could not resist
One more walk to the sea
So in the cold wind
I went up to the beach

There was a savage surf
Coming in sideways, whipped
With foam. Metal grey and roaring
Lapping at the dunes

This is not a sea for swimmers
Not even a sea for surfers
It is only a sea for two classes :
The despairing, or the professional

Before turning back, I spoke to the sea
Seeing two split-screen visions :
One : A man sailing, pulling up nets
Two : A man drowning, disappearing in the waves

Before turning, I spoke to the sea
And this is what I said :

"Not this time. Perhaps soon.
But not this time."

The Rose

2009-10-12T18:48:00.000-07:00

What is the reason
For tending roses?

The flower
We know, will die

In the coming
Cold wind

And yet,
We tend them

On fields
Of ash and stone

Seeing
In our dreams

Fields of
Quivering flowers

Believing
That though our time

Is barren
There will be a day

When children
Will see these fields

Thoughts

2009-10-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

And what
If logic itself is true
But its window dressing
false?

If the prophets
Hand out coins
No longer acceptable
for commerce?

If the horizon
Of the mind
Is narrower
Than a pin?

If the pleasure seeker
Sinks his arrow
Into a very
Misleading target?

What then?

The Experiment

2009-10-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

You are going to do this too
Someday

How will you do this?

Soon, you may hear my knock
On your door

Soon, I may hold my hand to you
I may take your hand

And ask you to come away with me.

Long Weekend

2009-10-09T12:27:00.000-07:00

I saw several women yesterday and today
Several women, and girls
And I was wondering
When you broke those hearts
Which woman were you, across from your opponent
When you held the position of power and choice?
I saw someone sitting
Across from me, speaking sincerely
Who does not wish to be a trophy wife
And I saw your picture on the bookshelf
A girl, leaning on her elbows, and looking for
A good conversation, and if necessary,
a Frenchman for your bed
I felt your foot under the table,
And longed to enter your room last night
Your sleeping 7 feet from me
May have saved me in an inexplicable way
I also saw, on the stone steps, throwing acorns
Without glasses,
Extraordinary beauty under the trees
And today - when you lifted your arms
To hold your hair, to do something with your hair
And we agreed, to walk and to talk
I was dropped like a stone into deep green seas
Elevated as a feather in a mighty wind
Simultaneously
Still, you move and you assess
And from behind fashionable glasses
Even behind inquisitive eyes
You have become my ephemeral companion
For the passage through a narrow strait
Between the cliffs of Time and Desire
As you move, up and down the stairs
I feel the future like a wind
And see you playing with shells
In a dress, the breeze blowing
On the untouchable, unknown
Shores of childhood

The Sun

2009-10-09T09:44:00.000-07:00

A horde of bicyclists moves towards the sun
In yellow vests, helmeted, mostly glasses, fast

And like some salmon spawning, I am out
Running in a different direction

The bicyclists are determined to get to work
Their faces squint, they avoid the direct glare

That is warming my back - I have nowhere to go

Later, when their souls are shielded by tinted glass
And high heels, when they lean forward quietly

That's my time to turn, to stop running
And walk step by step

Directly into the blinding sun.

This Company

2009-10-07T16:19:00.000-07:00

It looks as though
My time on this earth
Is coming to an end

How many days are left?

How many days of song
And of light and shadow?

It has been
A good company
That I have walked with

Strong hearts, brave faces
And true words

Some striking out at the darkness
Some passing through it

Some standing
Others falling on the Way

Now, I never thought
That I would stumble

But you see me
Staggering
By the stone gates

Friend, when you find me there
Won't you please
Stop a moment

And gently place a cool cloth
Across my brow

Before you pass me by?

Leave Taking : Vermont

2009-10-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, I would rather remain here
But I cannot

Skulking under your towers
Imitating your habits

Your virtues and vices
Gathered from the rack

At the second hand store of
Someone else's ideas

A Hindu Sage, some new age prophet
A man with a farm, or a wind turbine

I'd like to remain here
But I cannot

Because it isn't for me
Finding new sexual partners at contra dances

Chattering over the Law of Attraction
Meditating, eating wholesome food

Dreaming, dreaming again as the seasons
Continue their clockwork four-part rotation

I can't stay, while you tune your Subaru
Or address your emotional trauma

Sure - I respect it. I really do.
And it's all very good, stuff.

But I'll tell you something :

This whirlpool dream, this sleepwalking.

Is rejecting me, casting me from its lotus-eating
Mutual spell of agreement.

Out, in, out, in, to where answers
Are dug from ground like slender roots

Coveted like nourishment in a famine, in a siege

Cast out from this land of dream pleasures, of polished smiles
Nodding heads, and the sweet, so sweet
Yet ostensibly merciful execution of vinegar drinkers

Out into total darkness,
Outside the radius of the dancers, their stamping feet

Out, out, outside the secure walls
Where I long to be, rubbing flesh with the crowd
Until pale death carts me away

I would like to stay here in your green hills

I wish to remain with you

But something I don't understand

Is calling me away

The Dance

2009-09-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

In the dance hall
One can see two lines

Here, by the banquet tables
The compromisers

There, by the stone doors
The unyielding

Note how the first group stands at ease
Well fed
And listen to them speak

But do not forget the second company
Lean, solitary
Who stand in silence

In this world
Of shadow and sunlight

You will always find them

The children of the flexible
Who dance, and make merry

On the graves of the rigid
Who died fulfilling

Oaths of protection

Fruit of the Stars

2009-09-23T04:14:00.000-07:00

If I would taste the fruit you are sampling
I must let you eat it as well

If I would hold the hand you are holding
I must let go of your own

If I would kiss the lips you are kissing
The way you are kissing them
I must remove my mouth from yours

If I would dance as you dance, sing as you sing
I must take my Mind from its intercourse with yours
I must remove your Mind from mine

And you must go moving freely
As freely you moved when my Soul first saw you
Out and away into infinite space

And when your lovely body
When your pale, freckled limbs
When your grapefruit breasts
Your quivering rear, your red-tufted sex

Enters the galaxies beyond ours

Your long, full orange hair, streaming
By your face and down your alabaster,
Dotted, bony shoulders

Will weave amongst the stars, an angelic nebula
Framing your pale, open, honest face, then

Then

You will smile at me from the night sky
Your hand will reach through light years
To touch me a final time

Before you fade away forever

The World

2009-09-23T04:13:00.000-07:00

It was just yesterday
When I let go the hand of a phantom
And saw light appearing through the window
Between curled branches

It was only yesterday
And photographs from the War
A German family dead : suicide
As the Russians entered Berlin

It was yesterday
In confession to a little priestess
A wild bitch-angel with a snug
Imaginary pussy – that

I came up against the walls
Inside myself

Me, the self-styled wielder
Of the jackhammer of the mind
Me, the one who scoffs
At walls others build to guard

Precious illusions

Found myself reduced to the great
Commonality, and infinitesimal -
Traversing the endless, arced, curving
Grey, impassive edifice

That I meticulously, assiduously
Built around my own Heart

Failure

2009-09-23T04:12:00.000-07:00

Because I have been unable
In my waking existence
To create the life I desire

Because I have been unable to find peace
Joy and abundance

Because I cannot raise the dead
Spontaneously heal the sick and dying
Protect the abused
End war, torture, cruelty and rape

Because I am unable to stare into
The shining face of my beloved

Because my children are distant from me

Because I have not been able
To tap this staunched fountain
Of Love within

I will lay myself down

On a large, soft bed
On the quiet second floor
Of this ancient home
And rest

And I will hope to sleep

If, in sleep, dreams come
Dreams which provide a confirmation
Of the fruition, in some distant land
Of all these barren desires

I will surely accept them

Remnants

2009-09-23T04:09:00.000-07:00

I went over to the ______’s house
To look through my stuff in the garage

It was there from when ____ left me
In the autumn five years ago

The cool wind was blowing
Through the changing leaves

Winter coming

__________’s son was there
And he walked up to the barn with me

We spoke directly, but indirectly
About the situation

I looked through things and found
An old CD, on which my ex-wife

Had written, in permanent marker
With sincere, and childlike script

Our two names, connected with a plus sign

While we moved a few boxes
___________ arrived in her car

And invited me in, so we talked for a while
And didn’t talk, because her son was there

About the disintegration of her family
Or _____________’s many affairs

I told them I would see them next week

The amalgam pavement outside the library

Seems to contain universes
____________, the librarian, knows me and

Indicating the Union soldier statue
We speak about the South

I come to escape a red haired angel/tormentor
To retreat, as self-styled aristocrats do

Onto family land

There is nothing remaining of me
As I unload the car with the detritus of 45 years

In this world, and a lovely woman from the past
Smiles to me as she steps out of the bridal shop

In her face a gentle, frightened, happy, aloof, dispassionate
Gleam of memory

In the local roadways, ground into every mile of asphalt
Ten thousand lives, love, marriage, children

In the windows of stores, the haunting faces of ghosts
Women standing alone in their driveways, at the midpoint

Between youth and old age, between joy and bitterness

And as far as me, as always

Driving, seemingly only at home, only at peace
Putting on garments that pass for the Self, and dressing emptiness

In songs from speakers in the back seats

The Eastern Front

2009-09-14T18:32:00.001-07:00

Two Madmen Were Beaten

Beaten badly
Can you see them?
More importantly
Can you feel them?

And so at Kursk tankers were burnt to death
Screaming within iron tombs

And at Stalingrad
Men perished calling for their mothers
By the hundreds of thousands
Burnt with jellied gasoline
Shot by snipers
Frozen to death
Blown apart

In Leningrad
The bones froze solid
in a three year siege

Behind the lines
The SS herded jews
And tore the breasts off villagers
One by one
With combat knives

Can you feel the madmen who were beaten?
Just little children
When they were brutalized
They determined, both of them
Never again to be humiliated

Others paid for it

Who knows the dark grey green horror
At the bottom of the world?
Who can stop the tanks
When they begin to move?
Or the death ovens
When they warm to exterminate?

Jew? Russian? Nazi? Partisan? German soldier.
Child.

A child dead in the street.
A child picking through corpses.
A child on the last German lines in 45.
A child rushing through the Russian winter night.
A little girl raped, by whom?

And does it matter? Because the rapes, once started, never stop.

Who will stop it?

Will you?

Can you?

The Last Night of Nocturne

2009-09-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

And what is the significance of This?
And why is it that we do This?
For when, heads down, in the rain
We hear the recession of an endless train
And know that the empty tracks will so soon want
The heavy comfort of wheels again
So why is It done?
And why is it completed?
For when, heads down, they leave in the rain
For home and hearth, for pleasure
For work, for life and death
What is it they carry, and what retain?
And what is the reason, the reason we did this?
Your reasons are yours, and mine are mine
If reasons there are, if reasons you find
As for me, into the soaring night it flies
To eternity, upwards in the wet-drenched skies
I know that on the narrow track of the future
No significant answer will be found
And in the echoing caverns of the past
Mere clues, mere trails scratched in hollow ground
So I go, on the curving upward bending street
Beneath a ceaseless, steady rain
Under the beat, of the Heart of the world
And its bittersweet, ephemeral kiss
It was not for then, not even for now
But it might have been for This

Nightfall

2009-09-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

So now night has fallen
The day is over
And your work is done

Tomorrow will require
Other things
And there will be other things to do

In the thread of a day
It may be possible
To hear a whispering logic

Of direction
But to hear it and to act upon it
Are two distinct things

Tomorrow there will be an opportunity
To take up your burden
And act upon it

Love and War

2009-09-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

Nations in diplomatic interactions
Are smiling and handshaking
Sometimes grinning

But in the background
They assemble weapons
Maneuver armies

So they are showing the face of peace
But their actions betray them

Men and women in the public sphere
Are smiling and handshaking
Sometimes grinning

But in the silence of the mind
They are sucking, fucking
Moving in, moving out, leaving

So they are showing the face of decorum
But the Truth betrays them

The Light of Death

2009-09-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

There is a light streaming
From emptiness

Streaming across us
Pouring over my face

Will you take my hand
And step out, into emptiness?

I was watching You
Like some speeding vessel

Passing by your own sound waves
Into the land

Where you can no longer hear yourself
All Sound

Is left behind

And now, You fly alone
You are moving beyond all sound

You have let loose my hand
And are streaming towards emptiness

Grief

2009-09-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

They will pass it by
They will lay down quickly
Or smoke
They will drink, screw, watch television

And leave you to bear it.

Now

2009-09-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

I thought I was lost before
Now I know I am

I thought I knew grief before
But I did not

You can cast a thin line in the ocean
And fish for a great whale

You can leap from the top of a hill
Countless times, trying to touch the moon

You can skate across vast frozen lakes
With a can of juice and a snack

But you cannot correct foolish errors

And when someone really goes
Nothing in the Universe
No power in Eternity

Will ever bring them back.

The Secret

2009-08-29T17:37:00.000-07:00

Someone tell me the secret
Of how to love another
When you have left them
Or they have left you

We are all already gone
All of this, is already gone

How do you do anything at all?

Your Car

2009-08-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

Was down by the food coop today
So maybe you were shopping
And when I walked through ducked away
Behind an aisle, or a display

But you might have been using it
To go to a meeting of yoga teachers or
Take a walk and get a meal with the man
You're with if you're still with him

Or the next one, or the next.

Do you know at 12:30 at Davis Park
When the siren wails and everyone picks
Up their heads for that second
When the world might be cracking open

And then goes back to business?
Well, you have gone, you really have
Though I refuse to acknowledge it
And in going you set loose the twin chained

Animals of my sorrow and loss
You set them loose

And drove off in a metaphysical motor home
With 6 new men and my shattered life

That 12:30 siren is wailing through
The hills and dales of my being

I've been defeated.

So even though this poem sucks. It is sincere.

Mentally Ill Men and Young Women

2009-08-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

Two mentally ill men smoking cigarettes
On the corner by subsidized housing
Near the crosswalk

One young woman crossing
With a bag from the food co-op
Halfway between curbs

Brutal rape, coitus interruptus,
martyrdom on the cross

Or an indifferent glance?

In 7 seconds we'll know.

Dogs and Men - Draft 1

2009-08-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

Main street : noisy, dirty, close, hot

Dogs circling, sniffing crotches

Some under awnings
incapable without coffee. And also
Incapable with coffee

Women passing by

The teacher who was with the woodworker
Was walking with a wide-hipped late summer
Fucker

The builder who has snowmobiles
Is now fucking the woodworker

Instead of his wife

Late summer on Main Street
Hot, dirty, cheap, and transient

Come looking for dogs
You will lack nothing

Come seeking a man

And you may leave disappointed

The Theater

2009-07-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

I wonder who it is
That is tearing off that one's mask right now
And who is it
Who is putting the mask on the other one?

There are entire communities
Whose masks are being torn from them
And other nationalities
Who are putting them on

A sea of pale faces
And glittering eyes behind them

Colonialism

2009-07-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

Now Mrs. Payson’s house is being sold
She has gone to a home in the South

Also, Kelly’s father just died of cancer
And he drove to Keene for meditation group

The Greenes couldn’t sell their home
But they are renting it, so they moved to Lyme

My cousins’ dad’s girlfriend was distributing
Clothes out of her BMW, none to me

My cousins’ dad was attending to his small new dog
The one he sneaks into restaurants

We all took a hike up Gap Mountain
And one of my cousins’ kids deposited diarrhea on the trail

My other cousin’s wife is pregnant
And can’t eat the things she likes to eat

My Mom’s friend called from Connecticutt
About the 1959 Swarthmore Yearbook while we planned

The visit of my children to Fire Island

Dad was wearing his orange Ukrainian
Democratic Revolution tee shirt when we went swimming in Gilmore Pond

And me?

I just drove

Drove the winding roads of town and mountain
Shuffling through radio songs, looking for the right one

(Life is simply too much
And it’s far too long)

The Coming Storm

2009-07-24T05:50:00.000-07:00

If you watch for the signs of the animals
You'll see them, quivering, eyes to the sky
Turning to their burrows, turning to their dens
In a darkening afternoon - listen
As a hoof stomps nervously, and to the grasses rustling
As the herds swing through narrow canyons
To places more familiar

And men also, and women
Whose worlds are at the same time more wide
And more narrow than those of animals
Some of them are also picking up their faces
To the tired sky, out of their common dream
To the greying horizon where night now stands in
The core of midday - so in silent places

Where antennae quiver you can hear a dark haired
Woman lean to speak with an angular man

She says to him : "there is a storm coming"
He, nodding, saying nothing

While they turn for shelter.

can you

2009-07-22T13:37:00.001-07:00

can you tell when the next cloud will disappear?
can you count the drops in the sea?
can you number the blades of grass
on the sweeping prairie
or the dimensions of your lover's thought?

can you box regret?
can you chain the sky?
can you sit in the core of the earth?
can you breathe the vacuum?

can you collect the petal of a flower
and simultaneously keep it alive?

can you really tell me
why she is no longer beside me

or when these tears will cease?

no words

2009-07-22T13:33:00.000-07:00

there is a deep river
running underground

it's the river of sorrow
and it runs
under the ground

everyone who has ever
will ever
cry a tear

has watered this river

there can be no more tears
there can be no fewer tears

and now
on this underground river
i have set sail

with no known destination

Number One

2009-07-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

They call me
I was standing in the stream
There were stones, and water flowing by them
I was asking

Where are you, my number one? Where are you?

You whom I adore
For whom I fight
and
For whom my tears flow

Last night in a dream - I went Mad for you

Where are you, my number one?

They are calling me back
But I am standing in the stream
My hand is clutching for you
To hold yours, the hand

Of my number one

The unearned things are going
The unearned thoughts are going

But the heart's desire remains.

The Wasteland

2009-07-19T18:53:00.001-07:00

They came in low over the cratered hills
And released their munitions
Flew screaming past in a glimpse
Of light, sun, and metal

Hours later, I picked my way through the ruins
Of this more contemporary wasteland

There was no flourish here
There was no linguistic self importance
Masking impotence

There were simply steps
And people checking into motels for sex
And children being ushered into empty rooms

In the Wasteland

Turning

2009-07-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

The birds are wheeling and turning for you
Conspiring to center into you - you at the center of the circle
In the image, the jets wheel inward on a circle to you
They fight for you, the men obey your commands

Troopers converge on a target, in a spiral
You move in with them to make a kill
Seeing the flames silhouette a running man
And knowing that all of this vast galactic turning

Is for you, in you, and at your command
You close your fist with the lust of mastery
Then open it to release the dove of a new world

Ascendant

2009-07-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

Now the eyes that were inside
Are outside
The imploring eyes
The quizzical eyes
The kind eyes

Have risen high into the sky
And now the eyes are in the clouds

Those eyes have become
The eyes of the entire World

Who Gives a Shit about the Way of the Samurai

2009-07-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

Above all, when the enemy is scattered and disorganized, you must...

Hey! Wait!

Who gives a fuck about the Way of the Samurai

You dumbass arrogant fucks, get a life and stop killing people.

this poem

2009-07-07T15:28:00.001-07:00

this poem is not good
because it doesn;t say what i want to say
about what i learned today

never

2009-07-07T15:25:00.000-07:00

ill never again make love with lisa

and i'll never again write a poem
like the poems i have written before about lisa
i'll never again lie with her and watch her move with me
i'll never be able to do that again
and there are some ways of writing poems
that i won;t be able to do again

i can see her body moving as i insist it moves
as though it was some dream

from which i had to awaken

lisa

2009-07-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

lisa come here
please
im alone in this apartment
come here please

but you wont be coming here tonight
because you are driving
to sleep with your new boyfriend

so you wont be here tonight

when i see

2009-07-07T15:19:00.000-07:00

a beautiful woman or a white car
i think of lisa
with whom i shared a year and a half of life

i miss her - my best friend
i was able to talk to her really
about anything at all

now she's not here anymore
i didn't even see her today

the man she now makes love with
is not from this town

he is from another place
and that is where she goes now

new poems

2009-07-07T15:16:00.000-07:00

these new poems are not the same
as any of the old ones
i really miss lisa
when we made love
i can't even speak about it
but i remember it very well
making love with her
for many hours at night before sleeping
lisa was once with me
and i remember lying
close to her

i miss lisa

2009-07-07T15:14:00.001-07:00

and i wish i would see her on the street
and then she would come towards me
and we would meet, like in my dreams

i really miss her right now
because this is her town
this is not my town, this is her town
this is not my world
this world belongs to lisa

i don't know where you might find
a world for me

thanks

2009-07-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

thanks for reading my poem
whereever you are and whoever you are
you took the time
to read my poem
i am glad you are there
i am glad you are reading this poem

and i want to thank you

never

2009-07-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

i never wrote a poem
before i wrote this one
thanks very much
for reading this poem
i never wrote one
before this
so this is the first poem
i ever wrote

Goodbye

2009-07-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

I don't want to say goodbye to you
But I guess I have to so this is it
I'm going to say goodbye now
Maybe someday I will see you

Now, after I say goodbye to you
I'll have to take a very long walk
For a very long time

inside

2009-07-07T14:57:00.000-07:00

the birds hopped from branch to curling branch
and he stepped inside his home

stepping inside his home, he found
the birds hopping from branch to curling branch

and he stepped inside his home
and there were the birds on the branches

through the gateway, through the door
into the place where the birds were hopping

from one branch to another, stepping
into his home to find that the birds were hopping

Now

2009-07-07T14:54:00.000-07:00

Now I can't even stay here for the three of you

even though one of you reaches for me in a dream of the sky
and another tells me how she is learning how to do handstands
and your eyes are direct, loving, like the sea

now I can't even stay here for the three of you

At the Monument

2009-07-05T20:12:00.001-07:00

Twirling on marble - studying
Arts martial
Receiving kind words from Tennessee

At the monument for the Union armies
Who fought against Tennessee

Reading the names of the generals
Reading the names of the units
And thinking of men, moaning and bloating
Blown in two by cannon

Fighting Tennessee
Calling out for the mothers, dying
Against Tennessee

While receiving, as I twirled
Studying martial arts

The kindest words I have ever heard
Coming from Tennessee

Rolling Up His Sleeves

2009-06-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

He was rolling up his sleeves
While he did this, carefully
He raised his eyes to the sky

He was going in, out of duty
Or out of blindness
Clarity, or ignorance

There was a small cloud
Obscuring part of the moon
A tiny bird across it

Flitting and darting
Chasing anything, something
Through the night sky

He saw the bird
He rolled his sleeves up,
And stepped

Over the threshold.

In the Slaughterhouse (no good but draft i need up to work on)

2009-06-22T22:14:00.000-07:00

I came into this slaughterhouse
To walk a narrow line, to speak the truth
And to utterly refuse
To shirk the opening of the heart

In this brutal killing ground
Men and women are broken daily
Scattered by the wind, broken
Ground into cowardice and into abandoning

What they know is right

But this I will never do

In this dark cave of foolish lies
Where a man will sell his brother for an extra day
Or for a profit, or for pussy
I was unwillingly deposited one day

44 years ago

So watch. I won't give in.
And I won't take the easy road.

Watch.

The World

2009-06-20T11:01:00.000-07:00

Some say the world is merciful

They point to shaded patches of grass
Where we sit, beside flowing water
They point to the fruit trees, bearing gifts
They point to a breeze blowing across your lover's body

Some say the world is merciless

They point to men rotting in alleys
Ground under
They point to mothers grieving dead sons
Mutilated on the steppes, and to betrayal

But I say :

The mercilessness of the world
Can be merciful, like a cool cloth during fever

The mercy of the world
Can be merciless, like cold steel cutting a tumor

That's a bit of what they say
And a bit of what I say

What do you say?

To Women

2009-06-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

We're supposed to want them
We're supposed to want them panting, cumming
We're supposed to want to buy them things
Build them homes
We're supposed to yearn for them
We're supposed to imagine them stretched before us
We're supposed to pledge to them
We're supposed to look at their exquisite bodies
We're supposed to share with them
We're supposed to dream of being with them, inside them
Tangle and turn them upside down
And make them scream, pull their hair

They are not the same as us
They are curved in the sunshine in a certain way
Their breasts, their hips, their asses are supposed
To tempt the abandonment of reason to
The animal

And their faces, eyes particularly
To tempt the superhuman

Left Lane

2009-06-17T18:09:00.001-07:00

This is the speed of things
At 6:40 A.M. the bay is silvered
The ferry came across, seemingly
For me alone
While on the other shore
I had to drive, for hours

I was born into beauty
I was handed beauty

Cities become dreams over my shoulders
Tank trucks become duellists
Broken, grey buildings
Are spotted with sunlight

Born into beauty, but
Temporarily had to run,
And so began running.

Why? I don't know.

I really do not know why.

A Hole in the Sky

2009-06-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

There is a hole in the sky

The sea washed the sand
Rhythmically and sensually
It will never cease that massage

I walked at the boundary
Of the land and sea
Beckoned forward

By the hole in the sky

My arms felt as though
Puppet strings called them
To throw, like a round ball

Everything into it
Particularly those things
Which grieve me

I suddenly came to know
That the hole in the sky
Was also calling for me

Someday I'll fly through it
Drawn upward on puppet strings

And be gone

Transition

2009-06-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

I guess now, she will have those men
Those good-looking ones, with
Pressed pants, and clean cars
Seeing me, she will recall other things
But surely, she has returned
To good-looking ones now.

Trembling

2009-06-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

Lying on his back, he sees
Branches arcing to the white blank sky

Leaves coming off sets of branches
Pterodactyl bones, x-rays
Of a fin, or a hand, or a wing

From the bones, come coin sized
Leaves in layers to the white blank sky
Shivering in deference to the breeze

This is a love poem

The heart of one who loves shivers
In the same way those leaves do

Trembling in a silhouette
Against nothing

In The Storm - Draft One

2009-05-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

Jennifer, welcome to the storm.

Why did you think we were so rich
When I drove you to real mansions?
What was it like to be tied and beaten?
To be choked? To be proposed to.
To be loved. I feel your hand in mine.
Sit again on your stoop, with that cigarette
Glowing under the moon.

Melissa, hold the mainsail.

And make love with me under the stars
Out in California, and in that large bed
Inside plate glass, and why didn't I
Know that the one you will have
You will have, and the one you won't, you won't.
It was not the time, I beg your pardon
For that error.

Kim, steer this vessel.

Kim, in 100 motels, in sailboats.
All through the country. Kim
Mother of my children. Kim, savage and
Tender and light years from me
Kim whom I never knew, who made
Men groan when she entered a room.

Malia, swim in the frothing sea.

And look at us through a child's green eyes
Alongside my infinite ignorance lay some
Some sort of compassion, for the thrashing
Of a deafmute and his blind lover.
Animals tied to one another, we could
Not help but exchange cruelty, and
We regret it.

Paula, lie ill below decks.

You magician. To fuck you was to fuck
9 women at once, a coalition.
I still hear their voices - all of them.
You moved me in, you removed me.
Just as sometimes a man may glimpse
Through an unintentionally open
Door : a life destined for another.
But I still burn for you.

Elisabeth, keep watch.

On the prow, and see where We
Are going. Come stand beside me
Near my chair, when the evening falls.
Walk with me, by the shore.
Let's swing our legs under the dock, sitting
On old rough wood, and watch.
The sun setting. At night our bodies
Will sing together in the stars.
I'll see you over on the opposite shore.

Yes, friends, all friends.
Love for some is a harbor,
For some, an ocean
For some, a storm.

I wait for the one who will stand by me at the helm.
All the way through.

Children and Dreams

2009-05-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

There are only two guides.

To the One residing in the central square,

Children speak from one side
Actually from inside
Their voices come from somewhere
Wildly sincere. Eyes
Are interested in seeing what We do
With what They request of us.

Dreams on the other hand
Are the premonitions of Unity
As that Thing which so long ago
Was shattered from Itself
Gropes uneven ground, sliding Pieces
of Itself against Itself. Until
Its hands glide across smoothness.

In Darkness

2009-05-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

In a dark wood you come walking
Shadows all around

And the shadows are deepening
Across the land in evening time

You are not walking
In the darkness of grief

Not covered with ashes under a leaden sky

Nor are you walking
In the darkness of fear

Not constraining yourself in imagined prisons

You are not walking
In the darkness of evil

Turning your back on simple commands

And you do not walk
In the darkness of ignorance

Because this darkness goes beyond fact and fiction

What you are walking in
Is just darkness

And all you are able to do
Is feel your way through

A Bridge

2009-05-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

I will go to sleep tonight
And fully anticipate dreaming
Perhaps standing in the middle
Of a slender bridge, spanning the stars

On the far bank, that shining one is disappearing
My left eye is tearing : jewels for her
On the near bank, her younger sister is beckoning
My right eye is tearing : gems for her

The present is a vice, is a rack, is a sweet vice
The present is a demon, an angel, is
My longing for You

Evening

2009-05-06T14:23:00.001-07:00

He was busy
The entire day

He got things done
He did them well

But now
Evening is coming

And

It settles down
Tenderly, on their shoulders

They cannot fight
They are stopped in the

Fading sunlight
And they pause, taking in

The change in the light

Everyone pauses
And everything is forgiven

Before the darkness

Lies

2009-05-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

She said to my friend that she really didn't want to date
Right? So was breaking off the engagement

But she had been seeing another man
Did she start before or after she left him?

Either way, she was lying

He said that he would respond to my email by X
And used the word promise
But he failed to honor his promise

He was lying

She said he was too old for her
That she was just climbing with him because he
Was a good climber

And I said to her - within two weeks you'll be fucking him
Who was correct? I was.

She was lying

She said the contra dances were a nice happy healthy place
To go dancing, to enjoy the community
I said they were a meat market, a sublimated sex club

And she ended up dating and fucking
My ex landlord, who goes to those dances all the time

That's terriffic

I wonder : why does he go
To those dances all the time?

Hey, you people, when you open your mouths
And say things
Remember that there is One who is listening
Who actually believes

Your words

The Waterfall

2009-04-26T07:38:00.000-07:00

We saw the waterfall
We were sitting in the canoe
It came down to join the larger river
In an uncomplaining way

Downtown, a few branches of the river
Cut unobtrusively
Through various main streets
And carry things away dutifully

The people were meditating
As they moved, I thought of trees
And against the change of seasons
And nations, I felt an underlying current

Of water

Comprehension of Love Poetry

2009-04-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

You think that in loss in Her
I won't find my Self
So you don't understand my poetry

You apply a psychological category
Which is like using braille
To find the rivets on the Titanic

You just missed the smokestacks

You really don't understand
My love poetry at all
So, I don't think

You understand Love either

The Evening

2009-04-25T17:40:00.000-07:00

The tears come at this time of night
They come as the sun drops below the horizon
When there is nowhere to go but home
That is when they come pouring down

Simple

2009-04-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

In the warm evening of April
It is uncommonly warm
And everywhere women cleave to their men
Men eye their women
In preparation for
Consummation and the Harvest of love

At around this time
When the red clouds speak of the sun's going to bed
I see Your face, and I long for you
Maybe we could walk by the running stream
Maybe we could stop and get something to eat
Maybe I could be with you tonight

There are some things I want to say
That I couldn't say before
And now
Now I can

Motion

2009-04-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

It opened and out you came
You spun in joy
Until you learned how to love
Then you loved
Until you found the Lover
Then you lay together
And you made a child

So you were three
And your meaning was one in three
And you became lost
Believing you had found yourself
In side streets where the angles
Cast favorable shadows for
The projections of Heroism

So the Lover and the Child
Stood on a windy seashore
When you grasped your tiller
Setting forth into the Sea

For centuries you sailed, finding islands
In storms, in calm, resting with strange peoples
Traversing the coasts of full
Continents, listening to the creatures
Of the sea, and learning
The way of the starry night and its direction

Until, the voyage complete, you stepped
Again to a new shore, finding
Your lover awaiting you in bed, arms open
Legs open, to retake you

You lay beside her, breathing the voyage
Through skin and scent, not through words

Waiting for the Child to come home

Liberator

2009-04-20T15:37:00.001-07:00

She came in afraid
She was a deer, an antelope
Her fears the hunters
Of her children

So she herded them
And she covered, guarded them
And then I came
Circling, not knowing

That I was circling, uncovering
The children, and I taught her
To cut, and she cut

So then in a dream
Setting forth by my side into the night
Making use of her new-found skill
She cut evil men apart

She thanked me for this
She began to carry her sword, proudly
She grew tall, she grew proud
And began to look at me, in a different way

Until the inexorable logic of life
Which brought me to her, which uncovered her
Which killed him, caused her
To draw her sword and cut me clear down

She cut me down, and falling
I fell out of this world

Love and Death

2009-04-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

Soren danced by the water

And yes, in the glittering light

I love her

Daniel skiis ahead of me

Into shadows under the pines

I love him

Susan drives us children

To the ferry

I love her

Steven talks with me

About things we know

I love him

My cousins share the sun with me

I love them

My friends share the mountains and seas with me

I love them

Kim gave birth to my children

I love her

Jennifer showed me my body

I love her

Melissa laughed aloud

I love her

And Elisabeth

Elisabeth

She broke my heart

Yes she did

Untimely

2009-04-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

You set boundaries
And sitting in the grandstand
Certainly, I applaud you

Delicately - like the crowd in England
Watching tennis

And you decide to paint something
So I speak about your work

With tact, like a professor

Then you find a job, and
In the fullness of time, a spouse

At the wedding, I smile, joining the toast

All the while, I am loving her
All the while, I am preparing myself

For the grand sacrifice

You label it madness
But when you reluctantly reach
The gates of oblivion

You understand

Birth

2009-04-16T19:57:00.000-07:00

It is coming out of my body
It is crawling out now

Its hands, though soft
Are like steel

And it cuts me open
Lays me on the threshing floor

Of memory
And cuts me completely through

From the intercourse
Of my heart and my mind

It came into being

Now, in order to be born

It is going to kill me

The Heart

2009-04-01T21:48:00.001-07:00

The belt moves horizontally
Watching it, grey ones shuttle
From one side to the other
And colored ones dance here and there
But although they veer left
Their position always moves right

If you step off the belt
You find a second belt, and after that
Belt opon belt
And all the belts taking all of us
Off to the far horizon and then
Looping back for the different ones

And you leap, and you leap high
Thinking, just now, I'll get off this
And just now, just by giving myself
To this, or that, or to her
I'll break down
These long grinding machines running
This thing, long running
Machines, that don't stop

And so you tell yoruself a story
A story that pleases you
About those who can lay themselves down
At the feet of another
And who can then be swalloed in the gears
Never to return again

Alone

2009-04-01T21:44:00.001-07:00

The faint humming song
Is growing now

In the trees
And by rushing water

The weeping man
Moves silently, and moves

Through life and seasons
And loses himself

Across the threshold of himself
He looks out into the sky

And finds all the shells
Broken against great stones of time

44

2009-03-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

Standing by the stream
Looking back, seeing colored images
Looking forward, seeing darkness

Standing by the stream

Rest

2009-03-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

I will lie down
And I will give up

Nothing will remain
Of anything

That once guarded my heart
And then all that will be left

Will be my body
And my love for you

Beneath all of it
Is my love for you

Which never ends

Knowledge

2009-03-19T20:14:00.001-07:00

As I write
I can hear you panting

He's fucking you tonight

I cannot see his face
Darkness covers his face

He's fucking you now

Where once I was
Now he is

Now he is

That which I once held
Now he does

Now he does