Poetry & Prose
The Robin
The full weight of a robin lands on a reed. The reed takes the robin’s weight seriously. The reed quivers and bends. The full weight of a poem lands in a mind. The mind does not take the poem’s weight seriously. The mind neither quivers nor bends.
Commitment to Silence
Dying requires an unwavering commitment to silence. I am not ready yet to make that commitment.
Zeno the Stoic
When something he wanted to happen didn’t happen, he was not disappointed. When something he didn’t want to happen happened, he was not angered. When something he wanted to happen happened. he was not gleeful. Zeno the Stoic taught us to lead well-tempered lives. Zeno...
The Necessity of Absence
Death reminds us, absence surrounds. For years my parents were present. Now they’re gone, their presence a memory, a different kind of real. Everywhere there is nothing, vacancy abounds, between letters...
Personal God
Prayer, whistling for god, a summoning, a song, the Big Cozy comes panting, eager tongue dripping elixirs of belief relief, needs me, needs us all in order to be, well, God, keeps busy day after apocryphal day, no divine fun without the anthropocentric mess to fix and...
Poems Are . . .
not messages. not in a bottle not in voicemail transformative not informative only dismantling semantic certitude with lexical hurricanes linguistic earthquakes verbal volcanoes dialogic tectonic plates or even your hand held to the sun casting a useful shadow of...
Self Reflection
When I look in the mirror I see what I think is me. But only my face faces me. If I want to see more, I must seek out the company of disagreeable people, I must choose the longest line at a grocery store, I must pick up a twenty a man drops in the street, I must...
Political Dis Aster
bully order, no teetering, no tottering, farewell to faltering, stalled in a stable world even pulsing stars, apparently stay, avoiding dis aster
Conventional
The political convention is over, good talking people talking good. applause, shouts of approbation, all resolved in promises of action. If they do what they say, I’ll like what they do. Yet, tonight - another darkness, and tomorrow - a new sun.
Wood Working Shop
Our appreciation of the power of poetry would be better served if poetry was taught in wood working shop where tools are valued and things are built and taken home, than in English class where things are briefly thought about, then left behind. Poems are...