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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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  • Two Poems from "My Book of Changes"

    by

    dissatisfaction, early work, hope, i ching, life, poetry, silence, writing



    21.  Clarity Shimmers the Day

    November 10,1995
    Silence prevents
    understanding,
    concedes to chaos.
    Speak!  Thunder rolls
    sparking interest.  Lightning
    disperses  night.
    36.  Veiled Light
    November 11, 1995
    I work with my students,
    alone, with no one to talk
    and share.  I often desire
    to work through the night.
    Writing the dark, watching
    the movement of stars.

    from My Book of Changes, 1994-1995)

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  • Echo Without Reason

    by

    borders, desire, doubt, dream, life, liminal, love, obsessions, poetry, romance

    within desire lies doubt
    the no drapes the yes
    like memory veils day
    with a damp patina
    always another way
    a bend of thought
    to turn a casual glance
    toward stories not told
    to hear echo as origin as if
    her voice caresses his ear
    with whispers of intent
    through a risen morning’s mist
    we wake into this dark
    with expectations of dawn
    (October 25, 2013)

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  • abstract

    by

    acceptance, doubt, interpretation, poetry, romance, silence

    your distracted air
    almost pulls a moment
    like thread from my heart
    to puddle hours
    between us
    and the floor
    like knowledgeable
    dimes
    raining in
    empty tin
    cans
    almost one
    or an
    other
    in the autumnal air
    but not you
    nor me
    (October 25, 2013)

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  • temptation of paris

    by

    borders, desire, fragments, life, mythic, obsessions, poetry

    “horizon of truth”
    –Michael Foulcault
    a glimpse toward possible
    a brighter arrival later
    light’s hint bends into itself
    a crux of infinite unfoldings
    like dawn finding day
    he moves toward a still point
    a catastrophe of hearth wisdom and lust
    an apple just past fingers’ grasp
    (October 23, 2013)

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  • tumult

    by

    life, love, poetry, romance

    what’s missing
    is a space
    a moment perhaps
    or a chair to sit
    and watch the second
    which is there too
    as well as you
    (October 22, 2013)

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  • breach

    by

    communication, language, life, love, poetry

    within an
    opening
    between
    words we
    speak
    each to
    each
    i
    slip like
    a finger
    between
    wet flesh
    to mark a
    spot where
    what i
    say is
    true then
    disappears
    before it
    becomes mere
    dogs
    barking
    at a wall
    (October 22, 2013)

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  • correspondence

    by

    identity formation, life, liminal, love, metaphor, poetics, poetry, relationships, romance

    I dream this morning of being
    tangled, my arms and legs
    between the sheets and you;
    I wake to find myself again
    tangled between the sheets and you.
    For years now I have written you
    into my life, my tangled dreams,
    scrawled across this page like sheets
    left warm upon the bedroom floor.
    (October 21, 2013)

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  • 19. Inwardly Correct

    by

    doubt, early work, poetry, resolve

    November 1, 1995
    I will continue,
    as before, down
    this path I have
    chosen.  Where
    I am is now
    where I was then.

    (from My Book of Changes, 1994-1995)

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  • Inherent Fury

    by

    anger, fear, life, poetry, sonnets

    the bear storms within me again
    fists raised through my heart into sky
    to rake his claws through the clouds
    splattering heaven with my blood
    my anger frightens me like the dogs’
    slashing rage at the master’s gate
    let us out let us out let us out
    I can feel its teeth beneath my skin
    stepping back from another edge
    my breath left hanging on a wind
    I flutter down a dissipating spiral
    like a last winter leaf to ground
    no cause to effect except disquietude
    too much attention to the day’s detail
    (October 19, 2013)

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  • 47. Insecurity, Hubris, Cliche

    by

    acceptance, early work, i ching, life, poetry

    October 25, 1995
    Is someone listening?
    I talk incessantly.
    I speak in a quiet voice,
    oppressed by silence and clamor.
    I find joy in the pedestrian,
    pausing to gape at a spider’s web.

    (from My Book of Changes, 1994-1995)

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  • orientation

    by

    interrelationships, poetry

    Nearby crumbs
    of moist earth
    fall away
    from themselves,
    a mole’s
    starred snout
    surveys the air;
     leaves twirl
    through tangled
    branches;
    such small things
    disturb
    the separation
    of the distant
    hills, until
    the horizon bends
    toward us:
    and again
    we are,
    and again we are
    lost: away
    from here,
    and close by;
    our maps
    fold our
    topographies
    into themselves,
    flatten
    our difference.
    (October 18, 2013)

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  • here

    by

    borders, doubt, dream, liminal, poetry, relationships

    on the rim
    of dream
    someone waits
    (I wait?)
    to crack
    open the flesh
    between
    yes and
    yes
    between
    the two
    of us
    a decision
    must be
    breached
    (October 17, 2013)

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  • 54. Blind and Lame

    by

    early work, life, poetry

    October 19, 1995
    I stumble along
    without direction,
    my head twists
    about like a toy dog.
    This is a lonely road;
    I meet people, then part.

    (from My Book of Changes, 1994-1995)

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  • 18. Scour

    by

    early work, i ching, life, poetry

    October 14, 1995
    Enough of this self-flagellation!
    How long can a pot be scoured
    before the metal is worn?
    I accept all my faults.
    Even endings have ends.
    Begin again, a single step.

    (from My Book of Changes, 1994-1995)

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  • part ways

    by

    acceptance, borders, life, paradigm shifts, poetry

    to begin again
    in denial of where we are
    as if there had been
    some agreement some past
    from which to part
    ways in which to understand
    our selves and our
    misperceptions of our selves
    when we stopped laughing
    and looked away
    (October 15, 2013)

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