bleh

filled into

these forms

that have been

filled out

enough times

to becomes forms

cocktail poem

i write it

again and again

learning

nothing new

shaking

my head

like a cocktail shaker

with the same

few ingredients

metaphysical nonsense

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

where am i?

such

seen before

in fact

exactly

like this

before

in fact

wait a minute

has anything …

where am i?

revolutionary morning

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

under cover

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

rando

every time

i walk by

another

on the other side

just like me

going

the opposite direction

karma

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

drapes like dam

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

productive

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

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

go so cerebral

don’t always

close your eyes

and go so

cerebral

open them

and find what

our primal senses

are more familiar

with understanding

cars like waves

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

like driftwood

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

present specifics

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

feeling myself

really sending

it strong now

feeling fast

and flowing

for the force

of momentum

that drives

an artist when

he appreciates

his own work

grocery poem

walking home

with groceries

so i have to stop

every half block

and put down

the bags

to write

some poetry

walking home with groceries

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

fish shapes

suppose a centrifuge

of square shaped

triangle patterns

filled your sight

long enough

to render regular

seeing things

obsolete as

gills for dry land

send some surety!

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

sprinting a marathon

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

beautiful city

a beautiful city

even more beautiful

after you’ve been

away for a while

like the cathedral

unassuming

among victorians

morning traffic

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

barely sun rise

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

method writing

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

shower thoughts

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

old lines

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

city routine

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

close-minded

on there

open wise

there’s not

much more

than

a closed mind

you’d be

surprised

contrary

to

the wide claim

moonlight

in a dark room

noting the moonlight

through the blinds

that is normally

drowned out

by the ceiling light

nothing’s changed

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

new eyes

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

back to the city

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

commitment

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

sleep drug

like sleep

is the drug

that does it

between dreams

needing

to forget

one world

to see others

temper tantrum

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

rational poetry

keeping

(or at least

trying to)

a certain

rationality

so even if

a poem doesn’t

sound good

it will

at least

make sense

extra-personal space

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

dream poem fishing

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

feeling

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

any sense alone

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

stumbling in the dark

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

go up a floor

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

bible beater

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!

two classes of words

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

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

walked into a mirror almost

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

green mountainside vs. commercial roadside

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

two-way traffic

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

upon us

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

domestic love

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

dream world

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

baby baby

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

write the naked moment

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

cerebral space

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

together

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

vacation with baby

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

eyes adjust

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

share some

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

some more specifics

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 vs. out here

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

superior sense

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.”

vertigo

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

actions speak louder

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

art is like an egg

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

sf vs. la

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

zuma beach

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.

freeways

freeways are

too fast for me

flinging forward

hunks of metal

kept from

killing you

just by

painted on

white lines

flight to LA

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

burglar

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

screwy things

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

maybe

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

greased

in the night

my poetic mind

is greased

without the corners

of the lighted world

to catch it

some days

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

night hands

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

each sense has an art

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?

senses 2

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

senses

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

writing is like exploring

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

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

still true

several times it went

round and round

returning only to see

if the philosophy

was still true

stray-sayer

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

love and sexual energy

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.

art is dead

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)

tried to stream of conscious-it

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

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

morning bus

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

overreacting

one thing gets

just slightly off

and i wonder if

the whole world

has changed

and everything

i knew, was a lie

wide world

the world is wide

and possible

placing parts

where new wholes

change your view

from few

to many

busy man

like a man used to

the chore

of having multiple people

need his attention

he deals with each

in turn

bus noises

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

shaky bus

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

boat party

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

messy hair

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

one speed

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

the same hardwood

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

nope

peaceful placed

where restful minds

look no farther

than what might

disturb a peace

meant for this

drunk in line

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

self reminder

when you’re sad inside you have to get outside and live in the joy of others and the beauty of your surroundings

bus meditation

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

writing depends on my feeling

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

word sex

an idea starts as a word

which then multiplies

further describing

its original self

with more words

seeing beauty

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

nope

a frown at face value

for sadness not looked past

facial tissue merely masked

over a technicolor soul

an itch

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

one lousy poem

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 new

anything i’ve seen

or heard before

makes me

want to jump

out of my skin

and into

something

anything

new

marginal

it’s marginal

what makes

the whole

such that

a fingernail

claws the body

over the edge

sad writing

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

forcing it now

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

depressed painting

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

bus ride home

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

too many arts

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

scared

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

cheap art

a little cheap art

that doesn’t mean much

but is still pleasant

enough to make

an economic invalid

worthwhile

all of me

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

traffic after 5pm downtown (7/9/19)

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

reach up

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

shadows

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

section of light

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

typing on my phone looking out the window of the lyft at 7:40 on july 8

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

get lifted

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 love art

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

words can’t be trusted

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

spending time

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

bus poem

i write poems

between bus stops

because i know

there is nothing

else to do

during that time

ocean reincarnation

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

muni bus 5 westbound on fulton

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

both sides

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

two maybe three

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

trying not to stub my toe

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

baby and i hanging art

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

happy poet

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

expensive art

at the gallery

wanting to buy

expensive art

but having to

compromise

our artistic

preferences

for what we

can afford

selling my books

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

fuck

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

first step

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

too strong

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

long fast race

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

train hopping

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

deeper

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

morning light

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

trying to be myself

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

city window

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

bookshelf

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

cotton sheets

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

ruminating about art in the apartment while eating an apple at 2:31pm (7/5/19)

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

Walking down California to the thrift store at 12:24pm (7/5/19)

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

speech to text while pan frying flourless banana pancakes at 9:31am the morning after July 4th

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

emotional castle

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

pillow case

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

unplugged

a cord hanging

from the shelf

unplugged

like a fishing line

looking to hook

an empty outlet

dog on a leash

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!”

open window

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

july 4th

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

too high

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

parentheses

perfectly placed

parentheses punctuate

a thought within

another thought

impregnated

and unable to live

on its own

smoking in bed

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

what a human can do

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

bony baby

where bone

raises skin

giving structure

to outward beauty

like fingers pressed

from the far side

of a bed sheet

baby standing on the stool

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

four things

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

getting out of bed early to walk on the sidewalk (7/4/2019)

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

 

 

dirty bird

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 poem

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

getting distracted while meditating

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

be yourself, whether that is an individual identity, or part of a larger community

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

scared of the night light

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

trying not to think about work on the weekend (7/3/2019)

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 (7/3/2019)

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

laying in bed at night at baby’s the night before July 4 (7/3/19)

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

accidental style

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 homes food

parking meters

poke between

parked cars

staircases

up into

slanted homes

lights inside

restaurants that

make their money

on friday nights

painted city

trying to

write the city

but mostly seeing

and so thinking

setting sun

on buildings

and faces of

people sidewalking

would be better

painted

around the corner

store windows

show through

and out of

store windows

on the other side

so you can see

who’s coming

around the corner

give and take

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.

domestic art

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

city sights

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.

spooky light

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.

staying the same

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

light tea

a light tea

actually quite bodied

pleasantly tasting

like more

than just water

and hot to boot

once worded

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

sharps in the ball pit

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

modern poetry

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.

baby in mirror corner

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

words work right

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

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.