February 2012
1 post
“Today I’ll think of all the things I want to accomplish, and enjoy...”
January 2012
1 post
This Is How They Talk
There’s another part, always, that doesn’t want to go, a shape more practiced than my humble sincerities, my tilted resolutions. I forget to relax my knees, That I should soften my jaw, take lessons from the glass, from the sidelong blurs, and oblong silhouettes; take in the everyday words That clatter around my body. I should brush against these threads, learn their girth...
December 2011
1 post
“Can you take comfort in the reliability of your regret?”
November 2011
6 posts
“I used to believe that people never change, but I was a different person then.”
“I will momentarily relax the furrow in my brow, while looking almost directly at...”
“Every time you tell me a story of your day, I wonder why you don’t give it...”
1 tag
Timber
Kicking rocks in a wind tunnel path
A path I never walk,
The domain of busboys with cigarettes
Of foggy file clerk windows.
Something wobbles in me.
It’s probably the heat.
I never am right for the weather.
Walking on Fifth I watched
The city buildings drifting
Over one another,
And I fell out of place,
Suddenly a child,
Pulled into the red and black boxes,
Shut away in the slanting...
“I’m like three people: one talking another out of ever accomplishing...”
Require the Mountain
It’s surreal to see my father behaving like an elderly man. Even now he doesn’t look the part. The grey is only just settling into his proudly groomed-back hair. But he feels closer to his end than his strong jaw conveys. He anticipates it eagerly, prefers it over his rusting facade of life. He bought a pistol some years ago, for protection he said, but I think he had only one target in mind. I...
October 2011
8 posts
“They’re just thoughts. You don’t have to mean them.”
2 tags
1 tag
1 tag
“Life wouldn’t be so hard if we all got together and agreed to go easy on...”
1 tag
Falls
Don’t turn your eyes
You’re here to keep me safe
From the falls and breaks
And trains and wolves
I know will come
You’re invisible to me
But don’t be so bold
I can always tell
When the breadth of sky
And weight of the sun
Are meant just for me
1 tag
“If not for a well-shaped skull, I would never have known the joys of mediocre...”
1 tag
“People across the world from you are thinking warmly of you at any given moment....”
August 2011
2 posts
“It’s better to indulge a man who might be lying than to deprive a man who...”
1 tag
Language
I might as well talk about the rain.
I sat at the cafe, Amici,
Backed into the corner
By the backs of heads,
No more or less judgmental
Than any other surface.
A college-age girl sat
In the opposite corner,
Reading a book
In a black square of leather seats.
There’s nothing like the pink half-light
And a pretty Italian coffee
To bring out the colors in a woman.
I watched...
July 2011
1 post
“I had a dream wherein I easily befriended a woman. If you and I were on the same...”
May 2011
4 posts
1 tag
Safe
Years have passed.
But it hasn’t gotten easier
To say what it was
That I couldn’t reach.
You were too beautiful
To walk alone.
So I kept you safe
On the brown city streets
That threatened to absorb you,
A colorful drop
Of windblown frailty.
I knelt beside you
And held up your hands
To explain their beauty.
It was the first time I touched you,
And you smiled
As if you...
1 tag
Walnut Street
I’m walking on Walnut Street,
Where brick sidewalks
Back the office towers
Onto their foundations.
I’m squinting at the blue
So vast it tells the ocean
What color to be,
And I bump into strangers,
Who remind me of friends
I never bump into.
I’d much rather be sad
Than depressed.
Sadness has a heart.
There’s no drug for it.
You can feel good about that.
But I...
“Today you talked about sunshine as if it’s a good thing.”
1 tag
1 tag
Nomade
This isn’t what I meant to say.
It was like this,
But the words were meant to be better,
And the motivations purer.
This is not the day to say it at all,
But I’m prone to oversleep.
I am the Nomade.
I’m a man made of letters;
The potential for every great word
And every combination thereof,
Faceless and fearless,
Surrounded by princes and brides,
Rulers of their...
1 tag
Ritual
Everyone does this sometime.
Everyone like me
Sits in the hippest cafe
And leans over his notepad,
Believing inspiration will come
To choke poetry from the glistening
Channel of creation
In his twitching pen hand.
The coffee is good,
But that is not important.
If it were a bitter brew,
I would pretend not to object,
In case someone is looking.
Is that mocha too hip for you?
I can...
April 2010
1 post
1 tag
Salvage
I was going to buy an old crate for $50.
It said DYNAMITE on the side
And I was going to put it in my bathroom
To hold magazines.
But a minute later I forgot why it was a good idea.
The chairs were better to look at.
They winced and complained when sat on,
As if it were your idea.
But everything was beautiful because it was old,
Because the paint had long since abandoned its claim
And...
February 2010
1 post
December 2009
8 posts
1 tag
Magic Hour
People pass in a leisurely blur On horseback, an odd juxtaposition Of both place and time- a city Where everything is possible And in being so, becomes necessary. A dozen dogs in four hands, soft coats Softer still in the meager sun Of early spring. Joggers test their wrists And happy immigrants talk spiritedly, Trading sips of coffee and bites of bagel. Walkers pass under bridges, Through...
1 tag
Streets of Gold
First memory of a sacred mosque, Salmon-colored in the brilliant sun Of mid-morning, birds flitting in and out Of familiar arcs. On a beach, a man In elaborate robes sells rides on his camel, And offshore I can see an island being built In the shape of a palm leaf, a resort for the elite. An old man in white robes falls asleep On a wooden bench on a shining tile walk. Men in long shirts matched...
1 tag
Woke
I dream the most amazing women. Last night, one simple and lovely- She trusted me, Turned to me in her need, Leaned on me physically, Bent over me, speaking Her perspective into my eyes. She was my friend And I was grateful. With her, I needed no pretense. That was peace I don’t know In the light. So I slept her existent And I was happy, And then I woke her away.
1 tag
Instead
I have photos instead Of memories. I keep looking through my albums- Thousands of images And not a single story. I wonder who I am. I wonder why. All those years I spent Yearning to get out Into the world, Instead of dying, I saw it differently. I thought if I traveled A million miles, I would arrive somewhere. But I’m nowhere. I’m no one And nothing in particular; I’m cold and weightless, In a...
1 tag
Tall Grey Men
Tall grey men with knobby knees Their cultures on their backs One has eyes and the other sees But neither one keeps track Past the bridges and knotted hills Through tree lines, streets and snow One must eat so the other kills And farther on they go Draw from streams a taste of life That cascades over stones Nourishment for withered minds And rest for broken bones Everyday the sun beats down And...
1 tag
Blue Street
I only want enough quiet to read by Silence that I can see in Pale light washes all the color From my skin like paper ash Grey blood through my charcoal heart Hostile buildings spit lamp luster My eyes stinging I rise and pace the decks My knees debate the insistence of gravity As my spine longs to press cold metal A shadow squawks over the black water below Shadows drag men to the edge of...
1 tag
A Murder of Doubts
A crow landed on my table by the bay, Looked in my tired eyes and asked, What is the nature of my soul? Does it grow from my body in lustrous plumes? Does it stretch for wind when I cross the blue? Does it grip the arms of wooden beasts? Does it peck and tear at rotting meat? Does it blink the light from all I watch? Does it rise from me in woeful squawks? What part of me makes me a crow? What, in...
November 2009
4 posts
1 tag
World Music
An American sits at the base of a statue
In the light rain, pushing puffs of smoke
Over his drooping jaw. Others have gathered
In the dusky winter grey, clutching
Umbrellas and each other.
A child stands before them, delicate as frost,
In heavy clothes, a black watch cap
Belying a fluttering brown mane.
She holds a guitar much larger than she.
I lean against the nearest wall, watching
...
1 tag
East of Home
A million blue miles East of what was home, I found myself in an alley once, Both its ends invisible, Hinted at by traffic sounds. Young men on bikes And old women with baskets Drifted by like ghosts. I caught a look that said, One of them, even here. Is there no place left that’s ours? Full of love, I did my best To return a look that assured, I am harmless to you. You would like me if you...
1 tag
The Ache
Lying on the bench of the deck table, My feet propped up on a rail of the boat, I see nothing but a vast sheet of blue, Feel nothing but the breeze and a dull ache In my head. The silhouette of a woman Is suddenly next to me, carved from the sunlit sky. Regarding me casually, no obvious emotion, She steps astride my legs. Young, subtly attractive, Her face made mostly of shadows. I may have seen...
1 tag
Cry Me a Bridge
In the park I saw an average-looking angel,
And her eye was pointing at mine.
I mustered up all of my blood and said,
All the best people are foreign,
From the far side of somewhere else.
If I dig my own grave,
Will you dance with me?
There is no one around here I know.
She said, I’d rather not have my own opinions,
But I can’t stand the silence of stars,
And I can never get used to...
October 2009
3 posts
1 tag
Turn
Turn out that sun For all the good it’s doing Can’t get a feel Can’t understand your face My eyes are low Your neck is twisting Turn off this road For all the distance covered My legs won’t bend My back won’t straighten Fingers flexing Cramping with the weight Turn down this alley For all the scent of roses No periphery Stack bricks against my ears Scuff my shoes...
1 tag
The Bright Empty
I see the silver bay blinking Under the influence of tall buildings, Tossing out window light Like the banter of well-meaning women. They say their good-nights With reassurances of constancy. More light: fire in flight; Fireflies filching firelight In the heart of man. I remember when the night was dark. There were places you could walk to, And once there, you could be anywhere. Nothing grounded...
1 tag
The Day My Brother Flew
The day my brother flew, I prayed for the last time; Asked for his acceptance, A chance to say goodbye. Stood inside the chapel, Whispered through the motions, Knowing in my chest I did not believe. Months gone from that day, I stood inside a basement, Staring out the window, Chainlink in my eyes. A host of white lights came, Gathered right beside me, Waited till I turned, Slowly sank away. I...
September 2009
2 posts
1 tag
Storm Clouds Call Me Home
Grey clouds, pick me up. It’s not safe here on the ground I think. The sidewalk has its teeth in me; I can’t walk straight anymore. Pictures found in frames, Growing crooked from forgotten earth, Show off places I could never go If I flew across the bay. Red sky, raise me up. The world burns and I’m standing here. I don’t know how to be a friend; Nothing’s easy anymore. I...
August 2009
2 posts
1 tag
Go On
It could go on forever from here,
For all I know.
There’s no end that I can see.
Spotless clouds multiply
Beyond finite finality,
Dropping oily shadows
On the saltwater bay,
Shimmying down and over
The misty grey-green hills
That turn back sailors
And wall off my horizon.
They could go on forever.
From somewhere an ancient tune
Conjures a dance in campfire light.
A glance reveals an...
June 2009
5 posts
1 tag
O
O to be young and hoard my wisdom!
To have ambition to match my desires
And strength to achieve my ambitions!
Gangs of children parade by me,
Jumping and punching and loudly observing,
Laughing and popping off like fireworks.
For them to stand at a crosswalk
Is a torment of delay. For me today,
It is temptation to curl up on pavement
With my head against a streetlamp.
Couples still...
1 tag
Farsight
Frames so unabashedly ornate
They might have inspired awe,
Turning in the air,
Carving out polysyllabics
Like flashing gold blades,
Then returning to their mount
With halfhearted resolve
To resume their chief occupation.
It’s a wonder they’re not crushed
Under his beleaguered brow,
So heavy it looks, muscled
From the challenge of toiling
Under the unjust demands
Of all our...