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My Poetry and Commentary on Life

  • This Writer’s Beginnings: EarlyYears
  • Bread Loaf Influence
  • Rock and Roll High School
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  • subtraction

    by

    dissatisfaction, life, lists, poetry, tension, traces
    tension forms an absence
                like clay
                            clawed
                from the ground
     tension forms an absence
                like a mold
                            tossed aside
                empty
                            the casting broken
                                        on the floor
    tension forms an absence
                like a hole
                            in the air
                where you
                            used to breathe
    tension forms an absence
                in my self
                            from the life
                which pulses
                            without me
    tension forms an absence
                from the love
                            around us all

    (January 28, 2014)

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  • disconnect

    by

    life, poetry, relationships
    bridges are like doors
    except a presence
    where doors are absence
    you
    are a door
    within my walls
    I
    am a bridge
    across your river
    I step outside
    you flow
    to the sea
    I cower
    at the absence
    between the stars
    (January 28, 2014)

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  • particle chamber

    by

    dream, fragments, interpretation, meaning, metaphor, poetics, poetry, traces
    “I’m coming to the age I am.”
                –Michael Palmer
    turn over and think
    drift along a narrative
    with an inarticulate end
    fading into another sleep
    an interrupted dream
    severing chains of posits
    and if then constraints
    assuming one follows
    along elemental plots
    where arcs become lines
    without connotations
    to deflect and disrupt
    meaning’s lackadaisical flow
    within time’s impositions
    (January 27, 2014)

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  • Restless

    by

    dissatisfaction, life, poety, tension
    Desire
    to be
    desire
    must be
    out of reach:
    another door
    at the top
    of a stair;
    another lock
    a key
    won’t fit;
    somewhere
    a peace
    exists.

    (January 26, 2014)

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  • Definitions

    by

    control, definition, life, poetry
    A naïve trust
    permeates all
    he encounters
    outside
    of books,
    which lend
    themselves
    like robes
    against other’s
    bony fingers
    prodding him
    like  a sacrificial
    swan.
    Tension ripples
    from him
    as he wades
    through water
    neck deep,
    his feet
    slogging
    through
    the sucking
    ooze.
    He pockets
    definitions’
    stones
    offered
    from others,
    until
    he disappears
    beneath the weight
    into the expectant
    waves.

    (January 26, 2014)

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  • and then a breach

    by

    borders, liminal, literature, poetry, reading, time, traces, ways of knowing

    For decades now I have been
    reading toward certain books:
    I glean traces over time,
    strains of thought’s swirls
    along different writer’s trails,
    mirages of edge’s beginnings;
    until a permeable membrane
    coalesces with sufficient integrity
    to gather enough subjectivity
    in order to discern the two or three
    shades between black and black
    to form a rift through which to cross.

    (January 25, 2014)

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  • Instinct

    by

    Arcana, desire, erato, liminal, paradigm shifts, poetry, tarot, ways of knowing
    so go
    trust
    you know
    too much
    thought
    slows
    you lose
    the moon
    awaiting the sun
    nothing
    fulfills
    indecision

    (from a work in progress: “Arcana,” January 24, 2014)

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  • Cyclical

    by

    Arcana, borders, dream, life, poetry, tarot, unstable
    most days I wake worn
    by dreams of work then
    go to work unable to
    separate the two instabilities
    far enough apart for comfort
    to spread her blanket before
    I return home exhausted
    like the dead and pray
    for sleep untroubled
    by the night of my day

    (from a work in progress: “Arcana,” IVSwords, January 23, 2014)

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  • patience

    by

    acceptance, Arcana, life, metaphor, poetry, process, tarot, time, work
    for years I’ve worked
    this field with slow
    plodding steps through
    thick loam my nows
    filled with moments
    where waiting matters
    given time ripen
    like fruit on their own
    in the autumnal heat
    (from a work in progress: “Arcana,” VIIPentacles, January 22, 2014)

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  • Lost in Delusion

    by

    Arcana, desire, erato, life, oblivious, poetry, response, sonnets, tarot
    the world is so much simpler
    for the myopic self-obsessed
    others matter less than desires
    for sex money fame or love
    and for the rest of life’s illusions
    you only have to speak your mind
    say what you want without
    consequence for all the others
    who have fallen in love with you
    for all the others who you love
    and for whom you could lose
    if you believe what is before you
    I cannot so casually risk what I love
    on the chance of desire’s fulfillment

    (from a work in progess: “Arcana,” VIICups, January 20, 2014)

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  • advice

    by

    communication, desire, erato, love, poetry, relationships, romance, traces
    “then be not coy. . .”
                –Robert Herrick
    if she doesn’t hear
    what he asks
    but only perceives
    what she sees
    and he cannot speak
    above a whisper
    in fear others
    will overhear
    or perhaps in fear
    she will
    then he must speak
    more discreetly
    about romance’s
    slow unfolding
    and the smolder
    of desire

    (January 20, 2014)

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  • love loss pain

    by

    anger, Arcana, conversation, desire, erato, language, life, loss, love, poetry, tarot, time
    “I am interested in language because it wounds or seduces me.”
                                                    –Roland Barthes
    I say I love you
    because it’s true
    in sincerity
    not trusting
    myself
    with consequence’s
    truth
    I mean
    love
    in entirety
    so give it
    openly
    as it is
    all I have
    to give
    to you
    ***
    once I told her
    love doesn’t change
    I would love her
    still as she was
    I love the traces
    she left behind
    the momentary laugh
    the passionate heart
    ***
    I knew as I spoke
    the words would pierce
    but could not stop
    my anger growl
    along my arteries
    like a bear clawing
    through the infinite
    forests of capillaries
    before crashing from
    possibility’s branches
    to shred like sleet
    the very air we breathe
    and there you were
    caught in the blood
    frenzy of my despair
     
    (from a work in progress: “Arcana,” IIISwords, January 19, 2014)

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  • Between Apollo and Dionysius

    by

    Arcana, fate, language, life, literature, metaphor, poetics, poetry, tarot, writing
    words rise
    and flutter
    about him
    like butterflies
    above a moon-lit
    field of flowers
    landing lightly
    on his thoughts
    then lift back
    into air
    aching
    after light

    (from a work in progress: “Arcana,” kingswords,January 19, 2014)

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  • Gordian

    by

    Arcana, life, poetry, tarot, ways of knowing
    arrogance so self-assured
    not even hubris standing
    nearby can rattle his nerve
    without time to untangle a knot
    to lay out life’s strands to see
    the patterns which end here
    he’s left with one obvious solution
    in which to transcend consequence
    and cut through the ephemeral
    nature of any possible questions
    which might arise to prevent
    his escape from the explanations
    of his incapacitating naïveté

    (from a work in progress: “Arcana,” Pageswords, January 19, 2014)

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  • Imminent Motion

    by

    doubt, i ching, life, poetry


    January 12, 1995

    The peripheral falls away
    a snake sloughing off skin- –
    I stand alone, confused-
    Where should I go?
    Decide.  Old roots sprout.

    I must- – change my life.

    (from “My Book of Changes,” 1994-1995)

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