filled into
these forms
that have been
filled out
enough times
to becomes forms
filled into
these forms
that have been
filled out
enough times
to becomes forms
i write it
again and again
learning
nothing new
shaking
my head
like a cocktail shaker
with the same
few ingredients
in the meantime
meeting moments
that come and go
casually, often
enough so that
most space
has a great indifference
to the time
that washes over
such
seen before
in fact
exactly
like this
before
in fact
wait a minute
has anything …
where am i?
less colors
with the lights down
so everything
is closer to black
conforming
and becoming one
until
a revolutionary
non-socialist
morning
when individual
color rights
will have
their day
time rich skin sheets
a little hot under covers
crowded to the edge
baby hogging more
than her half
so side leaning
to make space
and leaving a leg out
to cool off
a moderate
amount of pain
just
to make time
last
a little
longer
i think
in terms
of words
that sometimes
sound poetic
looking up
seeing art
or head down
walking past
what’s there
either way
a lot of the time
it’s just how
the words sound
and not
what they mean
just like
it’s the light
and not
the object
the evidence
is quite
consistent now
that this man
is crazy
and needs to be
treated
every time
i walk by
another
on the other side
just like me
going
the opposite direction
jumping up
to avoid
a chip bag
blowing
in the wind
you might die
tomorrow
but what happens
if you act
as if you will
and then you don’t
give some of my
energy and love
to baby
and some
to my work
and even some
to strangers
remembering that
none of it
is mine to give
—i am returning it
to where
it came from
window drapes
like a dam
after a flood
in the morning
holding back
all that light
wanting in
to wake up
and start the day
thinking
if i can just
put out
this much
and then
i don’t know
but at least
i’ll have
put out
that much
until now
i’m realizing
there’s no end
and you have
to keep
putting out
meditation and poetry contradict because they both take you to the same place but with meditation you get there and keep going further whereas with poetry you get there and exclaim then try to take the meteorite flight back down to earth with the wonder in tow
with meditation
you get there
and keep going
whereas with poetry
you get there
and exclaim
then try to take
the meteorite flight
back down to earth
with the wonder in tow
don’t always
close your eyes
and go so
cerebral
open them
and find what
our primal senses
are more familiar
with understanding
sometimes
they are smooth
like the ocean
sounds
of cars going by
so i sit
on our rug
in the apartment
as if
i was on the beach
in the morning
meditating
listening
to mechanical waves
before
you know it
you’re moved
like driftwood
downstream
with all
the other
debris
that moves
with the river
to the same end
regardless
of where
you started
you rush ahead
wanting more
and more
until you get sick
then you just
want your health
and nothing else
at once i think
of future possibilities
and hope forward
for the next thing
working myself up
to be let down
which is when
i try to find
a real specific thing
right now
like the crystal knob
on the bathroom door
or the semicircle
archway
over the hall
and the morning light
or even just gratitude
to see another morning
i woke up this morning
because i kept hearing
the dump truck outside;
it must be garbage day
really sending
it strong now
feeling fast
and flowing
for the force
of momentum
that drives
an artist when
he appreciates
his own work
this is where
i can write
albeit
uncomfortable
it is the
discomfort
in fact
that picks up
the pen
walking home
with groceries
so i have to stop
every half block
and put down
the bags
to write
some poetry
walking
with a brown
grocery bag
in my right hand
i see another
of about
similar
height and build
and a grocery bag
also brown
in their right
i wonder
is there a mirror
up there
at the intersection
suppose a centrifuge
of square shaped
triangle patterns
filled your sight
long enough
to render regular
seeing things
obsolete as
gills for dry land
a blue
sky canvas
makes things
simple
and clear
what we have
down here
compared to
the simple sky
so you would say
a night’s day
never left from
no time before
still needs some
surety sent soon
in order to even
consider a noon
before a dusk
when it will end
as it does daily
then lately
those waits
have lasted
longer
meanwhile
waiting for
what wasn’t
there before
seeing
my reflection
walking by
glass
storefront
windows
wondering
who is that
it seems to be
all coming
so you almost
want to sprint
even to death
because
this is it
but must balance
with the possibility
there is more
still to come
after a rest
and a meal
so still sprinting
to get somewhere
but not so fast
knowing
there will be more
just staying
the same
for long enough
is enough
to be great
sometimes
a beautiful city
even more beautiful
after you’ve been
away for a while
like the cathedral
unassuming
among victorians
stop
and go
stop
and go
at stop lights
in the morning
when
the stops
are almost
unnecessary
given
the few cars
up this early
except
for the speedster
that might
blow through
and ruin it
clear cold
misty morning
white white sky
seeming all to be
the same white
from a barely
risen sun
that shows some
of its light
but none
of its color
being in
whatever
you’re writing
so when
you forget
what to say
you can
look up
and listen
to what
it’s telling you
something about
having your head
under the faucet
and shower water
rinsing out
the shampoo
brings every thought
you’ve ever had
rushing forth
at once
fog clouds
over the city
like a pillow
with all
the feathers
pulled out
writing what i’ve
written before
because it’s safe
like a freestyle rapper
using old lines
without courage
to risk a mistake
and let everything
come out, as it will
saved by routine
back in the city
settling into
what i know
not so chaotic
as vacation
waking up
each morning
with the full set
of possibilities
—refreshing
for the first
few days
then exhausting
and wanting
to get back
to what you know
on there
open wise
there’s not
much more
than
a closed mind
you’d be
surprised
contrary
to
the wide claim
in a dark room
noting the moonlight
through the blinds
that is normally
drowned out
by the ceiling light
some time ago
seemed like
things wouldn’t
ever change
like knowing someone
that looks different
over time
but you knew them
all along
so they look the same
went
all the way
out here
just
to come back
and see
what i was
seeing before
now
just a little
bit different
seeing
an old world
with new eyes
waiting
for the plane
to board
back
to the city
and take
a car
to the office
and resume
the life
i was living
before
with so much on the line and one step meaning disaster you end up paranoid thinking you could lose it all at once especially when you’ve given up so much to get here but there’s really no other choice some level of commitment and sacrifice required to make progress so the cure is to come to terms with the possibility that you might lose it all up to and including your survival and when you can commit to the work and sacrifice without that attachment to what is gotten then you can really chug along unhindered
like sleep
is the drug
that does it
between dreams
needing
to forget
one world
to see others
if expecting
to write
not being
able to
because trying
to prepare
like making
the bed
for a child
that will sleep
on the floor
anyways
and so needing
to look away
and act
surprised
when another
comes
so long
say goer
sent from
the dream
cherubs
that whisper
so softly
only sleepers
can hear them
working
in the night
as long as
i am
breathing
working
creating
is what
it is
for me
to be
keeping
(or at least
trying to)
a certain
rationality
so even if
a poem doesn’t
sound good
it will
at least
make sense
like roots
grab soil
her hand
grabs mine
the space that i’m in
seems more open
like i’ve only just realized
the bubble outside of
what is sometimes
called “personal space”
and am now
in this moment
a little more aware of
space at large
sunburned
on the first day
of a beach vacation
like tourists
the scruff of beard
rough on my fingers
chin scratching
writing best
between naps
like fishing
going under
to dream
and reeling
one in
above the surface
to unhook
and place
in the boat
then drop
the line
and re-enter
into
dream waters
and wake
with another
on the line
hearing
my heartbeat
clearly
in each ear
my left pinky toe
scratching behind my right heel
my right instep
flat against the fitted sheet
covering the mattress
my left ribs and shoulder and tricep flat too
lying on my side
my ear and jaw and part of my cheek
against the pillow
a slight strain in my neck
inclining to reach the pillow
baby’s forearms
pressed into my back
the second sheet against my right knee like a teepee
and against my right pinky toe too
like a second post
the back of my left hand outside and on top of the covers
folded with my other hand like prayer
holding my phone
typing this
my right index finger on the power button
on the right side of the phone
and my left index finger
on the volume buttons
and my two thumbs on the lighted keys
that i see with only my right eye open
and my left closed
submerged in pillow case
and the inside of my right bicep
slightly sticky against
my right pectoral
and thighs laid flat
like books stacked
not top of one another
dry tongue in mouth
feeling breath roll over
like ocean breeze over
a sandy beach
and slightly chapped lips
a half inch apart
eyeballs behind eyelids
closed while i think
and nose just being there
not particularly felt
other than a slight blockage
in the right nostril
and other parts felt
just being there
like eyebrows and forehead
center of my chest
and insides
and second and third layers of skin and muscles and bones
all being there
mostly unnoticed
expect for the occasional practice
of laying physical attention
fingertips enhanced
with eyes closed
like ears hawkish
with lips pursed
and mind sharpened
with none of the senses
any sense strengthened
without others
to crutch for
its shortcomings
abstract feeling stumbling in the dark feeling blindly for the bed interlacing legs feeling only the warm ceiling of covers creating a home between mattress and sheets and baby’s legs on fire like a heat rock and fingertips touching my own heated chest and back reaffirmed by comfy flat mattress all this with eyes closed feeling for a simple world made up of bed time sensations and abstractly with broad brush strokes telling of a bedroom in the dark just as it speaks to skin absent light or sound
she holds my hand
and i can’t tell
if the rings
are on her fingers
or mine
you go up the stairs into a building and forgot completely about the street so if you’re feeling some way just go up a floor to a different setting and feel differently
a man holding a sign walking down broadway in santa monica past tourists and shoppers reciting bible verses into a megaphone and the sign says something about how there is a god and a man on the other side of the street shouts, get a life!
hands shaking
like businessmen
under sheets
juxtaposed
with bodies
interlaced
having a pleasure
doing business
words to classify sort and name specifically:
Tom
Lots Angeles
Copper
Twenty-Four
and words to group evoke feeling and express generally:
love
people
movement
time
i tend to find myself using the second class when poetic and the first when story telling
sunburn sends
and peels away
part of an outside edge
that needs to be red
and let go
to reveal
a new shade of skin
showing summer warmth
everything looks the same in a store with rows and rows of clothes so i’m confused when i want to walk through and take a step then have to stop when i realize it’s a mirror reflecting the rows of clothes behind me so on the next turn i’m hesitant even though it’s really a row that i can walk through this time
cityscapes with harsh lines steel and objects versus brush and green overlapping trees with their trunks hidden and even the edges where the mountain shoulders would meet the sky dressed in greenery until you take the mountain road down and emerge into the first intersection where there is a sign with gas prices and boxy storefronts and street signs and stop lights that are all angular and pointed
generally safe
on a two-way
if between the lines
on our side
dependent of course
on the same
coming from
the other side
and nothing
over the middle line
which we can’t control
anyhow
so resorting
to a more relaxed
focus on our lane
and what will destroy us
coming the other way
is out of our hands
several days ago a message would have been sufficient but now that we’re here and it’s upon us without warning there is nothing to be done but to act suddenly which is almost better because the natural response may be better than if we had prepared
looking up
from under sheets
longing for light
that won’t come
until the morning
we feel love forcefully for the first time before it softens and quantifies itself to try and last and be a rational thing of the world that doesn’t spill over its bounds all at once but tries to become more of a lasting and domestic agreement than an all-consuming blaze
body boasting its soft round plumpness to soft sheets plush enough tilting the bed so you slide through the floor into the under dream world where you grow and sprout again into what mixes with your waking reality
at night not mattering
anything except
i can feel baby
and her and i both
exist completely
in the feeling
(muddled by
no other sense
in the noiseless dark)
of her fingertips
tracing the same path
on my bicep,
over and over
until she falls asleep
looking this
and that way
for a piece willing
and confident enough
to present itself
all at once
and completely naked
so there is nothing
left to invent
as long as i can
keep my eyes open
and write quickly
before
the moment redresses
writing at night
on my phone
with baby
in my arms
and only
the light
of the screen
in the dark
and my fingers
noiselessly
tapping
baby breathes
and i can focus
comfortably
lights wired
alongside
pipes with
water running
and rafters
barely sagging
a little more
each year
in a house
built to be
torn down
into a cerebral space regardless of what the senses say where a thought can start itself like a fire without fuel telling stories with pieces from different puzzles and letting a close eyed wanderer leave the necessary time and place of a body into a directionless mind travel that starts and sustains itself even dreaming when the body rests
baby and i
trying to hold
each other closer
pressing harder
trying to twist
our legs together
and wrap my skin
over her bones
pressing so hard
it almost hurts
a phone in bed
is a complex thing
among simple sheets
but the human in bed
is complex too
earlier at the beach in the waves out deep enough so baby could barely stand with her head above the water and especially had difficulty when a big wave would come and when we’d had enough and went back to shore our heads were pounding either from there being water in our ears or from the waves hitting our heads over and over so we tried to remedy the first by laying on our sides to let some of the water out but that didn’t work so we didn’t know but by then the sun had made our skin dry and warm so we forgot about our heads and fell asleep dreaming in and out with the sounds of the boys playing in the sand castle and the waves crashing a constant background noise until i slept for a while and baby woke me up saying she wanted to go so we got back in the car and drove along the pch and the traffic wasn’t too bad except for a short stretch right before we turned into toponga canyon and now we’re back in bed in the studio with a bird chirping outside and our host running the hose to water his bonsai trees and the dog trotting back and forth upstairs
like a bright light
that you look at suddenly
from darkness
and close your eyes
and look away
waiting for your eyes
to adjust
but still seeing
that scar of light
on the back of your eyelids
that is a symbol
of the actual light
you saw
but it is not
the actual light
it is just
the scarred memory
of your eyes
telling you what
you supposedly saw
and more
and more abstract
if you watch it
off in the one corner
of your vision
the edges softening
more and more
until what resembled
a lightbulb
in the ceiling
and then a circle
of light melts
into the general bright
of your vision
at large
as your eyes adjust
you get caught up
in thinking
what is worth it
with a working life
so on vacation
you’re thinking about
how much time
do i have to spend
back in the office
in order to make
as much
as this is worth
until you wonder
if you should
just spend
all your time
in the office
because nothing
is worth what
is required of you
to get it
i make a bunch
just so there’s some
to pick from.
it’s all there anyhow
in one form or another
and you can experience it all at once
if you spend enough time alone
but have to labor getting it down
one by one
and picking the right ones
if you’re going to share it
with anyone else
talking more about specifics like being on the pacific coast highway driving south from malibu to topanga going about forty miles per hour in a white five-seater sedan listening to electric feel by mgmt in the left lane on a section of road with construction where fines double at 4:37pm and the license plate on the dodge truck next to us is 93074H2 at a red stop light at the intersection of corral canyon road on saturday, july 20 and a blue sign on the side of the road says call box and on the other side a P in a circle with a line through it that means no parking and a discount succulent nursery and house number 24818 and a 45 mph speed limit sign and john tyler drive and now the song take a walk by passion pit the singer says i love this country dearly now to malibu canyon road and road work ahead again in a diamond shaped orange sign and the words signal ahead in all caps white letters on the road beneath our tires a sign that says sold in red capital letters for a parking lot apparently malibu lagoon state beach for which a few applies and the singer says rip apart those socialists and their damn taxes a dad running with a stroller and his blue shirt says malibu running across the intersection and a store at the corner that says food mart and car wash
back there, i’m building
out here, i look back
and see, what it is which
i can’t do while in it
like being unable
to figure out the width
of a river
while underwater
sometimes one art is more descriptive than another depending on which sense you’re trying to appeal to – i point to three roads that are relatively close. i am trying to point to the one in the center. i would be better off using my words and saying, “the one in the middle.”
funny that the time 4:21 means nothing on a saturday on vacation but on a weekday back in the city it means it’s almost time to go home
seeing flashes and feeling
movements in gravity
or the ground beneath my feet
so i almost say woah
and topple over
unless i’m seated
then
i just get a weird feeling
supposedly
just saying it
isn’t enough
when action
takes more
than an inhale
and curve
of your tongue
but rather
to spend time
that you only have
so much of
especially for
the sake
of another
is much more
than a few
uttered words
just needing a good sun nap
to forget everything i know
and fry my brain like an egg
so the art comes back into the void
from all around where it lies
in wait even when i think
it’s all gone but it’s really just
because i’ve been hard boiled
and in need of a scramble
after so much time in the dark shadows of buildings and fog walking fast on sidewalks always getting somewhere most often to work crammed into the bus with everyone else doing the same and so feeling the same and so thinking nothing of it or of doing anything differently or least of all leaving but staying concentrated where a desk lamp or an office light makes clear the paper or computer screen to be focused on in contrast to the dark overcast often sunless and cold where the ocean water is freezing so even if you make it to the beach you stay on the rocky sand and still think about work because it’s really not that far away both in terms of space on the coast of town and in terms of time over a short weekend and all of this contributes to quite a lot of production and ego building and economic growth until you get on a plane because your girlfriend says it’s time for vacation and drive in the night so you can’t see up to a house in the mountains and fall asleep exhausted from the work week and stress of travel but then wake in the morning to find a different world where the sun sets higher and brighter and drive down to the ocean where the water isn’t as freezing and the sun not dressed in fog shines so that everything seems to be one and the ego is less of a concept not because of any spiritual realization but just because you can see a thing other than the brightness that melts it all together and makes you want to close your eyes so your not even seeing but just feeling the warmth of the sun and then before you know it laying back onto the sand with a smile on your face and waking up hours later well rested having forgotten everything you left in the foggy working city and thinking my god i could cancel my return flight and stay here with baby and let my landlord figure out what to do with my stuff and be like one of the beach bums that live in their cars that line the pch and haven’t moved for years
letting salt
frothy foam
rip a green tide
brown in between
white capped
blue waves
so shallow
so far out
where the waves
can’t decide
how tall
to stand
at the zuma beach, we ask the parking attendant if she has a map. she doesn’t speak english very well. she says, no, just beach.
one thing
after the other
pushed along
into the next
and the next
needing
more
and more
freeways are
too fast for me
flinging forward
hunks of metal
kept from
killing you
just by
painted on
white lines
sitting in the airport waiting by the window as the sun sets for a flight to los angeles the flight before us deplaning and travelers a little sleepy less apprehensive for a flight not far just to LA at 9pm on a friday maybe tired from a long week in the office and getting away for the weekend like baby and i on our way to topanga canyon and then malibu beach on saturday
there will be
one night
when i get up
to use the bathroom
at 2:21am
or some other
middle of
the night time
and check
the front door
to find
it is unlocked
having forgotten
to lock it
before bed;
i just hope
it is not
the same night
that the burglar
finds it
two bodies
getting comfortable
together
like one body
i think about
screwy things
like nails
nailed into
the insides
of pipes
that touch
whatever
the insides
of the pipes
touch
like drinking
water and
anything else
that shouldn’t
get rusted
it was the head trauma at 267 N. Sumac that caused the migraines that discouraged me from pursuing anything technical like air force academy or wall street because i’d have the migraines any time i’d get too stressed even though i could handle the stress before and just push on through without getting the migraines
in the night
my poetic mind
is greased
without the corners
of the lighted world
to catch it
i wake up
with a knot
in my stomach
that needs to be
untied
with some
deep breaths
there are some days when I think the whole tree is done drilled into particulars and young resign just to breathe and think goodness until the night when I get up to use the bathroom and it open all comes back at once
edited: there are some days when I think the poetry is done drilled down into particulars and resigning just to breathe and look outward thinking of nothing until the night when I get up to use the bathroom and it all comes back at once
i’ll put my hand on baby
in the middle of the night
and she won’t wake
until i take it back
even though
it wasn’t there before
Sitting waiting seeing for it all to be written even though it is always written. All sensory inputs could be described with words. Some inputs we don’t have words for. Imagine looking out at a scene and being able to describe it perfectly with words. So much so that the person seeing the words could see the scene perfectly just as you see it. Or the same for a sound. Imagine being able to describe it with words so the person reading the words could hear the sound perfectly. I suppose that is why we have music. Which makes me think that there is an art best suited for each sense. Music for hearing, painting and drawing for seeing, dance for movement and feeling, culinary arts for tasting. But what sense then is writing for? For imagination? For mental capacity?
an abstract painting
painted right side up
turned left
and upside down
still right side up
the paint
on my fingers
juxtaposes
the mono-peachy
skin
quite nicely
feeling feet
one foot
on top of the other
seeing bookshelf
black against
white wall
hearing motorcycle
outside and
baby sniffling
in the kitchen
and water running
feeling seeing
hearing feeling
seeing hearing
feeling pajamas
on legs under covers
seeing paper
and pen in hand
hearing cars
and bus
whooshing by outside
tasting nothing
dry tongue until
i close my mouth
and salivate
smelling nothing
the bastard sense
along with taste
lying dormant
and ignored
until dinner
Baby sniffling
sniff one Mississippi
sniff two Mississippi
snort snort snort
there are only so many combinations of words, punctuation, and spacing. only so many letters in the alphabet. so the set of things that can possibly be written is finite. it is like our physical earth. there are only so many possible combinations of DNA. a presumably finite number of elements present on earth, combined in different ways. the only difference is that they are already all rendered and out there and the difficulty for an explorer is to go and find them. whereas the difficulty for a writer is that some writings, while possible, have not yet been written.
a building
in open sky
with itself
and no other
buildings
on its edges
allowed
to be like
an object
painted alone
on wide
open white
canvas
several times it went
round and round
returning only to see
if the philosophy
was still true
so long a stray says shorter than the last walk left without direction gone again to the listless less given grace to one not gone astray and stayed straight
it is
what it is
what it is
what it is
having baby allows me to put my sexual energy into my art; my sexual energy for her is extra and overflowing, as it comes from pure love. i suppose my love for my art should be the same way. this is interesting. not motivated by popular opinion for my art. just by love for the art itself.
i’m dead and all the art is out of it and there’s nothing to be said
(when i write this into the blog they seem kind of funny because i see the art before and after it and know it certainly wasn’t all out; but i treat these seriously because i know i was really feeling down at the time and had to push through to get the art out)
a pleasant sensation of numbness as my fingertips melt into the cement bench and my forearms stretch leaning back and looking up at the sun there is no discretion between fingers …
blurred colors come into vision
like the sliver on rings on fingers
and the green on leaves on trees
spinning around in the park
and the peach of fingers typing
on phone screens and blurry streaks
all of it like paint strokes with colors
that run and melt together
i see simple things
like a hand
grabbing a yellow rail
and a button
that says stop
on the bus
in the morning
packed with people
trying to relax
before work
one thing gets
just slightly off
and i wonder if
the whole world
has changed
and everything
i knew, was a lie
a tree branch
with leaves
through the grate
through the window
bobbing
in the wind
at night
the light hits
the window frame
just right
so the red and green
guide traffic
in my dream
the world is wide
and possible
placing parts
where new wholes
change your view
from few
to many
like a man used to
the chore
of having multiple people
need his attention
he deals with each
in turn
buchanan slow down vrooom
webster slow down ch-kkkk
please hold on beep vroom
fillmore slow down stop go
ch-kkkk beep beep click click
doors are opening ch-kkkk
please hold on beep beep
steiner and california click
click-click click-click (turn
signal) click-click click-click
doors are opening stop go
please hold on vroom
vrooooom (speeding up)
pierce click ch-kkk beep
please hold on vrooom
stop (stop light) go divisadero
(my stop) doors are opening
the whole bus shakes
riding over construction
unpatched bumps and
potholes in the road
rattling squeaking
like an earthquake
really more than
you would expect
like the whole thing
could fall apart
i close my eyes off into musical light ecstasy dancing to the rhythm of abstract shapes moving colorful behind my eyelids before opening my eyes to meet a harsh defined reality where colors are bordered in definite shapes and move again according to math instead of according to the feeling of dance
my outward appearance
isn’t my art right now
while my aesthetic attention
is placed in painting
and moving words on pages
so i look like a bum
with my hair disheveled
and my baggy shirt untucked
nothing slows down
like you expect it to
when things get out of hand
and you can’t keep up
but you don’t worry about it
because sometime soon
you’ll have a hold of it
to put things in their places
and make sense of what
comes so fast
you can’t hardly tell
what to do or who you are
but it’s still not worth
sacrificing the newness
to stop and piece
together the oldness
judging my life
only by production
so when
the production stops
everything stops
and ceases to matter
hanging head
upside down
off the edge
of the bed
wives get weird names
when they grow up
and marry lasts
that weren’t meant
for their firsts
a little drunk
so normal things
let me lean in
past sober rules
like good posture
cars whoosh
by outside
the stop light
changes colors
in the window
the hardwood
stays put
for the most past
so one thing
in the world
stays the same
peaceful placed
where restful minds
look no farther
than what might
disturb a peace
meant for this
drunk a little
left in line
waiting for
i’m not sure
what just
comfortable
to stand here
otherwise
inappropriately
drunk, but
here in line
perfectly
in place
when you’re sad inside you have to get outside and live in the joy of others and the beauty of your surroundings
eyes closed
on the bus
feeling the inclines
and turns
stopping
counting stop lights
trying to guess
how far
and which stop
i need to open my eyes
and stand up
to get off
i write something
when i feel bad
even though
it might be
the same thing
i would have written
feeling good
i’ll throw it out
and only if
my good feeling self
digs in the trash
uncrumpling and
exclaiming, framing
everything that my
bad feeling self
threw out
but the point is
the lens is more
for both reader
and writer
than the writing
itself
an idea starts as a word
which then multiplies
further describing
its original self
with more words
looking from one angle
and seeing no more beauty
so thinking of leaving
to find more elsewhere
then seeing from another angle
and finding abundant beauty
right where you found it
from the beginning
and so feeling foolish
like a boy with no loyalty
who can’t remember his promises
two words
and a new line
read silently
to oneself
and spaced
with a rhythm
a frown at face value
for sadness not looked past
facial tissue merely masked
over a technicolor soul
an itch
turns into
something else
when left
and watched
with eyes closed
an annoyance
then a pain
that calls
for attention
a bug
perhaps
that has landed
beneath
the eyebrow
asking
to be scratched
i dance around the room and lift up the rug and make some food and leave it in the pot to take a shower and rub my eyes to see abstract shapes until my skin prunes and turn on music genre after genre until i’d rather have the silence and then eat the food cold and go stand outside and look at people funny and walk with my hands in my pockets and worry about how i look and sit on the bench just to find one lousy poem that starts out like this …
anything i’ve seen
or heard before
makes me
want to jump
out of my skin
and into
something
anything
new
it’s marginal
what makes
the whole
such that
a fingernail
claws the body
over the edge
sometimes
when i’m happy
i wonder why
have i not
written any
when i’m sad
now that i’m sad
i know i can’t
write like this
several separate times
tend to show space past
premature dreams
really can’t
forcing myself
to write this poetry
can only paint i guess
while depressed
be what it is
say what you feel
stand while you can
look and see
leave what’s behind
there’s no way to describe
with exacticity the melting feeling
of depression other than
the paint that i drop in globs
on the canvas and let run
by titling the canvas side to side
wasting my time
and dreading the morning
crowded on the bus
germy yellow hand railing
everyone looking down
at either book or phone
phones mostly
a few looking out
of the windows
the whole bus creaking
and parts shaking
crawling up
and down
san francisco hills
cars passing by our sides
stand clear of the doors
says the recorded lady
but the doors don’t open
and we keep moving
stopping and starting cars
on either side
so you can’t tell who’s
moving and who’s not
so quiet on the bus
just the ventilation
the bus stopping in traffic
and then starting
with a jolt
a dog bark
on the sidewalk
two motorcycles pass by
the fare prices posted
three dollars
for an adult single ride fare
and other ads
some peeling off
of the diagonal sections
between the windows
and the off white roof
out of downtown making
some progress now
my hand getting sore
from holding on
a beep, then two more
please give seats to seniors
and people with disabilities
says a recorded voice
a man this time
and then in other languages
the same message
presumably
doors are opening
says the woman’s voice
almost forgot
to pay attention
to whether
this is my stop
it’s not
but i better pay attention
getting off
at divisadero
everyone looking smug
to live in this neighborhood
trying to see too much art
and your lens gets muddled
looking at a tree stuck between
being painted and written
same as between a world
being worked or recreated
a light open lunchtime world
outside at high noon
with everything bright
and seeing for distance
other people around
and voices can be heard
and everyone awake
unlike last night
in a dark room
close down under covers
hiding from the abstract
dark monster peeking
through the bathroom door
from the top corner
of the mirror
giving me terrors
in the delusion of having
woken up
in the middle of the night
and being scared as hell
without even knowing
what i’m scared of
but certainly made possible
by it being dark and nighttime
inside a small room
with nobody else around
a little cheap art
that doesn’t mean much
but is still pleasant
enough to make
an economic invalid
worthwhile
i don’t have the energy
to pour out like that
leaving nothing behind
while all i’ve got
is just enough to get on
nothing extra for art
that requires survival
and then some
i have to get
my worldview right
before i can make
art out of it
keep writing carefully craft odd to 17 long straightaways shooting a lock side segment Rhodes Ryan with White Dash Ally is leading into intersections that turn in all four directions and clog with cars especially now after 5 PM when everyone moves at the same time showing Salads at a commotion of a city kept under fog it it’s on Lucid glass globe Jamie world
left-leaning long time into words I will pick up whatever they want anyway pouring over loud noises heard yelling at the tight loudness until we spring in the open ducking head past people who walk bye distracted constantly by billboards and try not to get hit creeping past wall art of cars of all shapes and sizes and colors underneath bridges it over shop windows a maze of homes and places and paths to walk through so many cars in an auto shop hard to think how they got the ball in there dirty sidewalks
wondering if it doesn’t matter if my words are to change anyway if it’s really the machine that’s making the yard so I can really say anything as long as I keep talking and the successful man nowadays it is one who leads deepest to division letting most of the work be done for him without him push of the button that’s Aussie does the right button to push it’s a Holick these devices that have so much power at the key nowIs to unlock the power of the device sometimes more is in the power of the Madame self
you can’t always hit hot spots
hoping beyond canyons walls
when crevices down deep enough
that the sun could set across the whole sky
and you’d only see for one second
at high noon and even that would
be enough to notch
one more step in the rock wall
and reach up
what shadows appear
when the lights are turned off
hidden before in a general bright
appearing now from
a more focused light
framing the doorway
from the streetlight
beneath the drape
ceiling showing light
passed through from
the bottom eighth
of the kitchen window
uncovered by drape
showing a triangular
section almost white
like a car headlight
shining at night
morning through car window in city watching man sip his coffee slowly and auto shop attendant sweeping out the garage yellow lights on the back of a parking patrol vehicle people waiting at the traffic corner with their dogs on leashes for morning walks man walking in one direction in his turquoise scrubs and another man walking in another direction in his vest more people on the sidewalk as we get closer to downtown trash cans waiting by the curb signs outside or storefronts some of them already open at 7:27am jazz playing inside the car giving a soundtrack to this window movie a man in a suit carrying nothing maybe going to an interview a white van coming out of an underground parking garage with its left blinker on stopped at a stop light the sign on the building to our left says the ross building turning right a dozen people waiting outside in line their backs leaned against the building one man crouching most people walking with bags over their shoulders and headphones in their ears stopped again at the intersection of market street missing some things as i look down to type on my phone and the car keeps moving now stopped by the richard stephens building mailboxes blue four of them lined up next to each other neatly trimmed small trees in large yellow pots a construction man with a yellow vest waking around in the bed of his flat truck another construction man on his phone with his hard hat on a blue bucket lift with the bucket raised a large construction site about a quarter of a square block with a large cable crane already working and many men in yellow yellow and orange vests waiting to right turn the corner as predestinarians cross the crosswalk
a pocket
opens up in time
like waiting in line
at the laundromat
watching the whites spin
hearing the machine hum
i wonder about
where the socks go
i get lifted
off into where
there is no
balance sheet
or rulebook
to tell me “no”
or slap my hand
which i need
sometimes
to stay grounded
i dip in and out
dancing over lines
that separate
trying to be
two people at once
one california
to gough
and clay
i hear
the same
bus stop
outside
all day
writing
what i feel
sometimes
results in
not understanding
what i wrote
when i read it
later on
delicate enough
to take
the right amount
and not more
and exacting
enough, to take
no less
i love art
so much
on the weekends
that some
sunday nights
i think i won’t
go to work
when i wake up
on monday
but then
soon remember
the yin
and the yang
the day
and the night
the dance
and the sleep
art is the leap
but there still
must be
the landing
and the takeoff
which must
go well
before
and after
the air time
that is art
and can go
just as it will
but money
and survival
and physics
and rules
and relationships
are still there
when you land
you read into words
too much
which is when
they mean more
than they were
meant to
limited as they are
they can only
be trusted
so far
to convey
what is trying
to be said
when dissatisfied
with the present
i look to the future
mistakenly
as the future
has no cure
for present ails
other than
to surely spend
presents
and shortly after
spend presents
that were
futures before
i write poems
between bus stops
because i know
there is nothing
else to do
during that time
i was born a goldfish
as much as i could
have been
born an octopus
i try to return
to the consciousness
i was before
i was born anything
taking the muni bus
5 westbound on fulton
toward ocean beach
on sunday morning
to play soccer
i watched an encounter earlier
when i switched from
the twenty-four to the five
where a woman wanted
to bring on a trolley full of
recycled cans and bottles
two trash bags full
but the bus driver said no more
there were already some
folks on the bus with trash bags
full of recyclables
i figures the lady would just
wait for the next bus
but she was shouting
in a language i didn’t know
and then another woman
that was coming onto the bus
aided the bus driver
in pushing the woman
with the bags, off the bus
i felt bad about it
watching from the bus stop
at the other side of the street
but didn’t know
what i could do
the pick-up game
is normally in north beach
by the ghirardelli factory
but the pitch is different today
on account of it being
july 4th weekend
we’ve gotten to 8th avenue
in the time it’s taken me
to write this
i’m looking forward
to playing
and not thinking
about anything
i check my bag compulsively
to make sure
i brought both cleats
not that i’ve ever brought
only one before
but just to make sure
i get overwhelmed
on both sides
thinking it bad
sometimes
and other times
thinking it good
as long as i don’t
go too far
in either direction
things get done
around the house
and i can’t remember
whether it was
me or baby
i feel things
and can’t decide
if their baby’s
feelings, or mine
i know i can
do something
but am probably
accounting for
baby’s abilities
rolling over in bed
and feeling with
my one leg
another leg
and not knowing
if it is my second
or baby’s
making dinner
i worry about
making for baby
what i wouldn’t
make for myself
deciding and
considering now
baby’s desires too
looking for cars
with two seats
and maybe three
one day
stumbling to the shower in the dark i’m feeling like i’m out of mind where all is abstract without edges shown to me it is only the fuzzy loose and generally vague feeling that tells me i am still a sensing thing so turning the faucet and having the cold feel accentuated in the dark and waiting and having to leave for baby to use the bathroom and coming back to find the water hot and all this stumbling blindly with my hands out in front of me and working from memory of the apartment trying not to stub my toe
my lips are faster
than my hands
as a medium
between my mind
and my words,
so i started
to speak my poetry
baby and i bought art today
and argued about how to hang them
without any objective correct placement
to act as a third mediator
so left the arguments be
and all the paintings on the floor
i think baby will probably
hang them herself while i’m gone
better that way
she’s probably right
about the placement anyway
i was as productive
as a poet can be
those months in san francisco
with baby supporting me
in her apartment
on the corner
of california and divis
on top of the wild hare
a bar that shut down
and the bakery with
a constant twenty person line
i say months because
it has only been five
or maybe a few days more
but not even a half-year
and i talk in the past tense
from the perspective of
an old poet
in another city
having lost baby
because i see that to be
the probable outcome
by no will of my own
but the will of the world
that has moved my life
up to this point
for the most part
at the gallery
wanting to buy
expensive art
but having to
compromise
our artistic
preferences
for what we
can afford
for long last
does time pass
tentatively
taking on more
space spread
out over what
came before
walking around the mission
with a backpack full of books
selling for 50% consignment
which is about four dollars
expect for the store that
told me to sell for more
so i got five dollars there
and not counting the copies
that got damaged either
in my backpack
or from baby thumbing
through the copies at home
—those copies i gave
away for free
where to place the word
fuck, or fucking
to add emphasis
is a word that means
nothing, other than
pure emotion
as if to put the word
that follows, in ALL CAPS
sometimes i step
up onto a chair
just to get into
a new headspace
a little higher
you did a hard thing
which is getting
your first step
out there
and so now set
a course to continue
keeping on stepped
in the same
general direction
as progress
of some sort
is all that really matters
just to keep from
getting stale
and stagnant
i expected
to be met
with resistance
but passed
easily through
that point
and even
overshot
my mark
with extra
force saved
for a greater
adversary
time is so full
and passes
quickly which
seems to me
an oxymoron
as i look back
and see not
so long ago
on the calendar
a moment
which marks
the starting line
of a race
which seemed long
yet not so
strenuous
even though
much was seen
and great
distance covered
so i wonder
which is best
to pass life
full and fast
or slow and
more empty
maybe it evens
either way
bones crack
like gears turn
without grease
to creak on
playing the music
of age
nascent never tells me
about itself until it’s already
halfway down the road
and surely a good one
i can see clearly now
but now so far past
i wonder whether to
run on after
or wait here patiently
watching cars counting
drops from the faucet
seeing when the next nascent
will rear its head
and hopefully catch on
early enough this time
to hop on like a train bum
making the leap
just to get on board
then laying back and
lacing my fingers
behind my head
as the right nascent ripens
and i’m just
along for the ride
when to stay
and when to
float away
to some-
thing new
how to tell
if it is written
and dug out
deep down
so fully explained
and all told
so there is nothing
more here
like an empty
gold mine
for a miner
or a dry glass
for a drinker
but wondering if
it is ever this way
for a writer
or if one thing
can really be written
over and over
and never
running out
of things to say
if you write
deep enough
creeping morning light
between the drapes
into the living room
brightening the edge
of the white rug
and putting a shimmer
on the hardwood floor
giving to my eyes
information for what
in the apartment
needs to be done
and pulling me out
from under-
neath the sheets
caught up and moved along like a pebble on the ocean floor stopped being myself for so long and just went with the waves that are my emotions and the luck of circumstance and the demands on me from others and ended up here now as a product of all that which is also what some people call the self and not really sure if what i was trying to do before being myself apart from everything else was any different or superior in any way or just unnatural and spinning my wheels against the way things are
when it gets too hot
in the apartment
you have to choose
between sweating
and opening a window
to let the city in
with the cars and
the voices along
with the cool breeze
we bought a bookshelf today
i built it with the manual
following every step
so all the books
(over a hundred of them)
that were stacked
in not so short towers
on the living room table
and beside the table
and underneath the table
are now all leaned up
against each other proper
in four compartments of
the newly built bookshelf
sleepy time tea
hot enough to
force a window
open to cool
the room from
hard to breathe
to open nose
inhale clear and
crisp enough to
stay under the
sheets silked over
with too much
i tell baby that
we should have
gotten the cotton
gone in
to genuflect
for tears jerk
against my
better
judgment
i’m exhausted by the constant need to create conversely kept inside all this time waiting to be formed into words what touch his skin and glaze his eyeballs so that there is a balance between tiredness from saying and overflowing from remembering best left Lewis to come as it willAnd I think about much other than staying alive and letting him know as it always dies and everybody just from getting out of bed and walking out the door and hearing and seeing and trying to have read enough to put that into words
me and baby making furniture together and unpacking boxes finally feeling more moved in a sense of building a life and settling and establishing it domestic existence that I am in complete control for the first time being here with baby and feeling like that scene in Benjamin button where they live on the mattress in the middle of the floor in the empty apartment and wondering if I think back years from now on this having been the start of the rest but more than anything happy to have come this far baby doesn’t like the legs on the bookshelf because they’re plastic and don’t fit the aesthetic of the rest of the apartment she wanted me to build it to see it first but I have a feeling she might see it and say it’s OK for a day but then see the plastic legs a week later and want to get rid of it but I am happy to build it either way baby laughing at me as I say this in my phone I’m also excited toMove the stacks of books off the living room tables into the bookshelf
leave alone so the art can recycle itself and come back to new ways of looking at things with enough time to have seen and heard novelties not yet conceptualized
talking so much in abstract terms as opposed to what is specific like the word peers printed on the curb that borders Pierce Street and the cement and the bus that says wine clean air vehicle California plus Gary in the parking it’s only for two hours from 8 AM to 6 PM in the redfin real estate company in the Zephyr real estate company at the gas station has prices of 399 for regular gas and 409 for price and the clearance for the gas station roof is 15 feet and 0 inches and the license plate number 7WMF175 on a Chevy
The feeling that everything is going well ups and ups punctuated by self doubt and downs until a resilient light or an unexpected Bright brings you back on the up and sometimes not even and up on the net is necessary but just a change in direction from going down down and trying to get off this like the Buddha would tell you not to be attached but finding more and more that if one is to be part of the world part of the family a friend one who hopes and strive to succeed what is it in it inevitably and thus emotional because there’s the emotion sometimes that makes art (edited) good and friendships worthwhile and loves passionate so the ups are worth the downs
baby sitting in the sunlight steam from 2 cups of tea coalescing the sound of bus brakes stopping and starting always outside the pancakes on the griddle sizzling made with oats and bananas and no flour steam and heat from the griddle making my face hot This is all doling quieter until the spatula flip turns over to the other side and this is always louder a little more burn on each successive pancake as the griddle gets harder and harder and less oil
so my style it seems has gone from poetic to more storytelling which is interesting specifically used for speech to text because with poetic the misspellings and words that go in differently are all right because within the context of poetry there’s more flexibility but with the style that is more storytelling it seems to be a little more important that each word is correct otherwise the context doesn’t make any sense Like the word harder instead of hotter but even then it is not totally misunderstood and still some value in telling a story not even thought of
steam and smoke in the studio kitchen so I asked baby to open the window washing out the remaining batter in the griddle quieting down the Fossett dripping and the sound of water farther down in the sink pipes car is always car so much that it’s monotonous at this point but interesting because it was only when I started to try work writing what I hear that I realize it is always the car is the Phillies are here in the cities
after only hours
empty hearts are stored
with mind’s memories
racing past
logical parapets
to an emotional core
keeping sacred
time spent with those
two and many
almost becoming one
for the times that
walls and moats recede
for hearthy warm
merriment
remembered fondly
a pillow case
soft as skin
for its belly feathers
to deliver their
plush softness
without being exposed
to contact with
the rest of the bed
and baby’s hair
especially
a cord hanging
from the shelf
unplugged
like a fishing line
looking to hook
an empty outlet
dog getting antsy waiting on a leash with her owner pulling whimpering waiting leash packed taut for the light to turn green leaning forward up on her back legs so the color pups into her neck jumping barking until her owner with a finger tells her “no!”
what a window
wide open
letting light
like a painting
framed from
outside into
the dark attic
so that
the window
and the shadows
it casts
are the focus
in a diagonal
wood rafter
attic otherwise
dark and musty
if not for
this window
breathing air
and light in
a purse full of mushrooms and cocaine from pen caps sitting near on open window in the attic of the officer’s quarters in the presidio. waiting for fireworks that we might not be able to see because of the fog. chase said last year the fireworks were just red and blue clouds through the fog and even the booms were softened. brick chimney and wooden rafters in the attic all of us sitting on the floor and hand me down furniture. people talking as loud as the music is my favorite part of a party when everyone has had enough to drink to no longer be strangers even if they only met an hour ago. all gathered by the open window in the whole wide house that has 10 bedrooms and four floors but we’ve all gathered here naturally in the uppermost corner of the house after being on the porch and in the front yard and all spread out throughout the house before. baby and i in the love. my legs rested up on the couch and her legs over mine. keeping cool from the breeze coming in through the open window
a very foggy spooky night where car lights show suddenly crept through unseen yellow light tunnel haze taken the highway to divisadero with baby’s hand in mine resting on the leather backseat radio plays softly and driver politely offers water in a river of straightaway stop and go lights and cars like ours following the rules waiting patiently having coming down from the presidio now so you can see farther than 10 feet ahead lights are really all that shows the eyes other than dark and in that way the fog is more like the dark hiding parts of the city view on the car ride home
Dark to bright light eyes adjusted so some shapes could be seen at the outer edges before but now everything information overload color all at once just long enough to get paste on the toothbrush and then light switch back off but still not quick enough to avoid peoples contracting and now in the dark even the outer edges disappear so the dark is really complete and I have to wait a moment beforeI can see the edges again and find the faucet (edited) handle to wet (edited) the toothpaste
i follow my train of thought
so aggressively that i forgot
i have a body; i come out of it
like a dream and say something
that doesn’t make sense
perfectly placed
parentheses punctuate
a thought within
another thought
impregnated
and unable to live
on its own
baby blowing smoke into my lungs so music sounds better laughing laying on top of a made bed in the afternoon when we should really get out but perfectly content here with outside coming into us from sunlight pouring in through tall windows framed by drapes
abstract rubbing
closed eye patterns
seeing shapes and colors
that remind and then melt
into memories and draw
the attention away
from eyelid backs
and drift off
opposite of
the comma
is the word “so”
letting reader eyes
pass on like
a green light
you’re not really living
left to the devices of systems
that move without you or not
and take your humanity
and cram it into inanimate processes
of production and eventually calcify
your joints to move in certain
mechanical ways you get out
and stretch and remember
what a human can do with
some open space and time
and now on the weekend wishing this
would remain and the week
and its system wouldn’t come again
where bone
raises skin
giving structure
to outward beauty
like fingers pressed
from the far side
of a bed sheet
little foot marks
on the stool
where she stood
higher
last night
framed by
the storefront light
coming in
through the window
holding the drape
pull string
twirling and
dancing
smiling at me
A nice car gets out to drive early in the morning when it has room to run
A night owl opens it eyes in the dark to keep from being seen
A tree grows at mid day when the sun is mostly there
A man eats in the afternoon after work is done
weather Waze one says shirtless stays like the nightfall walking alone talking to myself all baby sleeps keeping careless words kept unheard convalescent collected oh man the morning smells fresh and good getting out of the apartment so baby can sleep she’s tired from the long week of work going whatever way is the light turns so open on the sidewalk being able to talk just myself a walk now just to let leg stretch walking faster I realize for no reason I slow down The wind is so cool at 7:37 AM and so few cars a white fog overcast so all I can see what I look up is in Erie white consistently the same way in all directions and going up and up forever it seems Man the morning is it Great Erie odd place in the city were so many are usually walking casually strolling enjoying do still in the air wearing a shirt with a neck and a flannel and pads to stay warm feeling cozy in the secure barrier between the apartment door and the rest of the citySeems unimportant now that being outside to see him safe and at home
left a little longer like a moon drawn stare standing at the corner looking at numbers counting down telling me I only have so long but no matter for a direction this man as the numbers on the other side will start to count up after the other numbers have finish counting down and so the white man that I always listen to for fear of being hurt tells me I can crossShadows from an odd forest of the city where trees have grown to go to Hall
left lopsided lazy lake left lopsided lazy like left lopsided lazy like left lopsided lazy like a broken record who’s break isn’t all together on welcomed thankful for some repetitive NessFor a world that stays the same but we try to catch our breath from the dance
between Peers and Scott on California sitting on my favorite green yellow bench that one of the homeowners has been so kind to leave out to tired pedestrians I can just sit here in the morning when nobody else has woken up but the sun is surely out and the air is as good as it will be all day like my dad used to say; It still says it I suppose I just haven’t been home to hear him in a while
looking straight there is the empty street and cars parked all along the curb looking slightly up there is the second-floor windows and slightly further out there are wires in the tops of punctuated trees and then the roofs and more wires at the tops of telephone poles until the never ending overcast white sky that truly has nothing not even a bird so differentFrom the four-story world beneath I am Magine if I were a painter I would take the higher whereas if I was a family man I would take one of the four stories
Green leaves on the bush look classy like Willy Wonka would say you could pull one off a need it they Russell and make contact with her neighbors like they are communicating to one another that the wind has calm I cannot hear this Russell with cars pass by which makes me wonder what it is like to hear what only nature has to offer even in the city we here sometimes but all the people in cars and buses in factories and shop orders and construction workers and sirens and everything else is quiet down we hear the wind of the leaves that are more natural
breathing brisk through my nose summer starting to wake up now so I have to share the morning wonderworld not binding especially because I would like to know the others who regularly and why and where they are going on a trip or to the gym or to meet someone else to weeks early I am glad to sacrifice the clean air for some of their companionship
other pedestrians walking by wondering why I am just sitting on a bench looking at me like don’t you have somewhere to go Mr. even more odd when they see that I’m talking to my phone if I ever say something like be there soon babe just stepped outside or have a great weekend see you on Monday or something else that is normal to say to your phone but not saying poetry to your phone that is not normal
Remembering that today is July 4 and I have a greed to grill burgers and Brotz on the beach with Greg and Devon and so now having a purpose again and getting up off the bench to walk to the grocery store to buy the supplies it is a bit harder to think of poetry when you have your purpose and your mindset but one good for the other to go back-and-forth I think
it always strikes me now when I walk by another person with all their clothes on and carrying many bags talking to them selves seemingly saying nothing but no difference between them and I such that I would like to turn on my speech to text and walk with them and let them talk into the microphone and hear what poetry they have to say
still connected
until off
and out of touch
then disconnected
until touched
back down
spread out
in open air
while up
and away
until tunneled
and dug deep down
upon a return
earthward
left in all
directions
with wings
while met with
the resistance
of mass
that requires strength
to push away
what has taken
the space already
so needing the light
lifted wing nature
of a bird
to live a life up
and out of it only
to return and find
your wings useless
for pushing aside dirt
and debris, needing
to eat and weigh
yourself down to life
in a world of mass
heavier than air
bus whirs outside
arms catch on wires
brakes let out a breath
rest at the stop for a second
eat a few passengers
regurgitate a few others
some stops are a big meal
swelling with a stomach full
until the stops downtown
provide some offloading relief
crawling all over the city
always demanded
and even chased after
until broken and then fixed
and put back on the schedule
born into a purpose
of making the city run on time
right after thinking
of nothing
then something
pops up
so thinking of it
for a while
until gradually
thinking one
after the other
before remembering
to think of nothing
back and forth
like this
until the somethings
grow shorter
and the nothing
takes over
keep with what exists already
wanting after not so many other
derivatives and replicas and slight variations
that may seem to please marginally for a second
but really just bleed a strong self into boundless life
either of which works well enough
unless you planned to do something by way of “I”
and risk forgetting you are part
of everything like a colony ant
while having a higher chance
of accolades for being something like a lion king
in the dark world
nothing scary
if remaining dark
only scare
for what comes
out of it
so dark forever
is not so bad
save what
the light might show
in the dark
sensing
by touch
i realize
it is the cause
of light
that i have
been writing
with my eyes
in the dark nights
open mouthed yawning
dreamed upon
days not yet
woken
i leaned back
and sighed
i felt so good
i forgot
i was standing
and almost
fell over
hair like a mop
for shower water
wet in bed
towel covered
pillow case
for a fifth of the time with which was spent watching clocks counting the first four so much that when the fifth started all the time was spent remembering the four anyway a shame for the four were spent expecting the first so the only time they’re really wise when they handed some small point crossed over the four
come on over as it wanted to be my poetry dries up work having been so much recently and wanting really only to write but knowing money is needed for everything I have and so feeling this conflict at times honestly but not wanting to speak so honestly is this when trying to write poetry knowing that world is different but not being able to write anything else because this is what I am thinking ofAnd just hoping it will only take a night to get into the artistic flow of the weekend especially this weekend on the eve of the Fourth of July when we have a long weekend to really get into life outside of work which is the reason why we work now baby going to bed
naked baby looks like all the life I ever wanted wasted lotion skin and shampooed hair curly dark on Carmel shoulders back rib bone showing through bend over breasts dressed in curls collarbone framing small neck holding throat hands twisting hair
epic eventually owning what would have two lips tear their seeds away from Stamos grass cut deep in the soil without limits between roots blood into the open air that separates nothing sky from something ground offering what little color there is to take form Against a never ending blue or gray or night darkness it seems to take up all the space other than what we can sense immediately sending started to distance planets that one Shirley explodes now
same with speech to text as with the lines certain words sad but recorded differently makes me wonder if the original words were any better than the speech to text replacements and so you start to speak quite freely wondering if your word will be recorded correctly anyway and then wondering about the skill of your craft as it seems any wordAnd any line placement will do
arched doorway just tall enough bent into the lines of the apartment human size build boxes stacked between streets blocked bordered by sidewalks in newspaper stands in parking meters and light poles like tracks and tables and steps and darted lines in straight lines for things to all get going and keep going and avoid running into and stopping anything else from going jazz plays lightly across the street punctuated by undulating cars that come from far away and then near and then far away again now past I am realizing when I always listening is the cars you constantly here in the city and the sidewalk and street that you always see unless looking at the sky for long enough and then you can forget you’re in the skate city all together
it all melts away and folds apart past raised edges that all of them self just enough to be differentiated from what lies on top and bottom and to the left and right and maybe even behind and in front if you move around November 3 dimension realizing now trying to make order and say what makes sense without flowing and shadows that right circles in depth of lines that really just flow when you are trying to find words
like it ever meant anything before past poor old defined words that I wish to keep abstract not wanting to capitalize the first letter names needing it to apply to all and not a time place or person that a reader might not now let alone my future self that might look back and forget referring it to be so general that it almost comes to a point where there would be a one word poem and that word would be all or this or is or it or some other short and abstract and all telling noun for that is how I feel when everything opens up and lays it self there such that one who tries to describeFines is not more words but less that describe accurately all of existence that tells of itself all at once
some light shows what I’ve seen before trying to see news so that I have something to write about but seeing the same an apartment that I know alcohol home with baby here and plants that make it like home home that many generations ago would know stacks of books and rug and couch legs all on hardwood going together like the magazines would have it and impressing upon ourselves mostly but also just in case the visitors that come to her three times per year as long as laying in bed behind drapes that won’t open it till the sun is allowed to shine star Kadian rhythm be damned wildlife in the city is so made by man anyway
It is interesting when the line breaks are set by a poet in a certain way, but then one or two lines are too long when put into type, and they spill over onto the next line—such that you wonder if the poet was correct in his line placements in the first place, or if it’s even better with the words accidentally forced onto the next line by the formatting.
parking meters
poke between
parked cars
staircases
up into
slanted homes
lights inside
restaurants that
make their money
on friday nights
trying to
write the city
but mostly seeing
and so thinking
setting sun
on buildings
and faces of
people sidewalking
would be better
painted
store windows
show through
and out of
store windows
on the other side
so you can see
who’s coming
around the corner
simply seated
so enough
passes by
to keep me here
paying attention
young people spend so much time looking inward. people want to read what is outward. it is easier to look outward and write outward as you get older.
You get taken a little too much
by the world that wants and wants
and never stops.
Without waiting to see
what will come to you anyway
and only going after it all the time
trying to grab what is there.
Some still to start
until less and then
eventually nothing
because you were only grabbing
and not putting any back.
So learning I get to stay still
and listen for the world
to be something again.
And then really realizing when
it is yourself that must
make the world what it is.
the light
from between
a barely
open door
and its frame
cast upon
a carpet floor
in an empty
dark room
abstract yet
so defined
and clear
Walls of leaves shades of green
like what is inside there
must be teeming with life.
Adjacent skyscrapers
bursting into the sky
like what built these
must have been godly.
Commotion uncontrolled
in the streets of the city
like what lives here
instigates itself.
Cars constantly revving
until waiting at lights
like mufflers are talking
to one another.
Signs glowing prices
even without buyers
as if the glow itself
is commercial.
Graffiti art started
sidewalk parted
like the leaves grown
over the half of it
were on purpose.
Steps of so many
pedestrian walkers walking
like the place to be gotten to
is always moving.
Construction noise
in a new foundation
unveiling dirt a rare sight
that will soon return
to being underneath cement.
Pigeons pecking together at scraps
like city trash vultures.
Such is the spooky light showing some shot shadows admit days straight away into the tree line interspersed with buildings more buildings than trees actually seeing only so much that’s not so different than the other times I’ve walked out what do it what else I haven’t noticed.
i get out and into
a slow mind
before returning
to a fast body
with feet
moving somewhere
that a slow mind
has forgotten
just so they
can put their finger on you
is part of being remembered
or commended
otherwise they see once what they like
and then go back looking
but even when they find you there
standing in the same place
if you’re saying something different
it’s not the same to them
and you might say well look
a new crowd has gathered
but for them too
it will not be the same
when they return
so part of being remembered
or commended
is just staying the same
a light tea
actually quite bodied
pleasantly tasting
like more
than just water
and hot to boot
something so
universal
so well
explained
what so many
have experienced
many times
without words
to recall
and name
or otherwise
classify what
ceases to be
experienced
once it’s
been worded
the prize winner
for popular demand
and sacrifice of
everything sacred
about the self
a spooky order
made out of chaos
that would have
been better left
misunderstood
i remember that
my parents said
to be careful of
sharps in the ball pit
i’m still cared
of ball pits
even though
i didn’t know
what sharps were
at the time
the time intervals
with which
you measure things
grow longer
as you grow older
by the time i get enough
knowledge to be useful
by then i’ll be dead or senile
modern poetry is something different; it is not like Shakespeare and rhyme scheme. it is literature more well suited for modern thought processes that have become brief. it is micro fiction without the necessity of plot or character.
in my finest
moments
i’m good as ever
in my darkest
moments
i wonder if
i ever was
so great
to come into
a warm place
from the wind
leaned over
washing
my hands
in the sink
glancing up
through my
eyelashes
to see baby
in the corner
of the mirror
framed by
the doorway
sitting on
the couch
in her grey
morning gown
looking beautiful
as ever
say what works whether it’s a word or not working only by the music and finding accidentally that some words both sound right and end up meaning something that fits the context or at least makes you think of something that you mostly would have said but now it sounds more harmonious and adds a a dimension which brings along a new perspective
poetry, for me, is more of a lifestyle. it wouldn’t work as a job. i need my life to gather inspiration. it is a commentary on everything else more than a thing itself. it is a lens through which to record things and express myself. i am not so much a poet first off as “i am” and then that is defined in terms of poetry – whether that makes me a poet after the fact, i don’t know.