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My Poetry and Commentary on Life

  • This Writer’s Beginnings: EarlyYears
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  • Lines Written in a Pandemic a Few Days After the Summer Solstice

    by

    acceptance, anger, change, cycle, dance, death, despair, fate, frustration, lament, meditation, pandemic, poetry, summer, tired, transition

    from a work in progress: “Process, Not a Journey” (67)

    our earth wobbles its way

    about the sun like a drunk

    unsure of her footing

    moves again

    toward the bar

    *

    day by day minute by minute

    plods toward darkness

    for the next six months

    each day grows darker

    by one minute

    *

    not quite disturbing

    the dullard doves

    who coo complacently

    on the fence

    –

    cardinals and jays

    fussing constantly

    slip after each other

    between tree branches

    –

    I watch and listen

    to this dance

    for hours

    and can do nothing

    *

    as it was in the beginning

    world without end

    (June 23, 2020)

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  • who tells the tale

    by

    acceptance, change, communication, control, difference, erasure, meditation, perspective, poetry, process, process, not a journey

    from a work in progress: process, not a journey (65)

    she speaks of her self

    and all that entails

    .

    your memory is not hers

    less so than those daffodils

    .

    shut up and listen

    (June 19, 2020)

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  • in the absence of god

    by

    alone, chance, change, fate, god, meditation, nature, poetry, process, process, not a journey, silence, work in progress

    from a work in progress, “process, not a journey” (66)

    a grey cat twitches

    her tail in the grass

    .

    who has time

    to listen

    to a sparrow’s

    stressed twit-twit

    from a tree

    (June 19, 2020)

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  • nostalgia’s a desire for the present

    by

    aging, chance, change, clarity, desire, meditation, memory, patterns, poetry, process, process, not a journey, time, work in progress

    from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (64)

    what he remembers now

    is different than what

    he remembered then

    .

    now he is old

    and does not remember

    as well what happened

    .

    then he was young

    and foolish and remembered

    trivial things

    .

    of little use then

    even less so

    now

    .

    as he holds 

    his aspects together

    between fragile hands

    .

    facets of the past

    spin off light

    for a moment

    .

    and he sees her eyes

    that first night

    they almost kissed

    (June 16, 2020)

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  • charmed life

    by

    chance, change, charm, community, dance, friends, happiness, meditation, memory, poetry, process, process, not a journey, time, work in progress

    from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (63)

    DCF 1.0

    inevitably

    we would join hands 

    twirl a circle

    with wild abandon

    then fall into laughter

    on the fresh cut grass

    .

    summer was summer

    for longer than a summer

    could be or ever would

    be again

    .

    when the kids on the street

    were everyone we knew

    and the world was safe

    nearby

    (June 16, 2020)

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  • the means’ end

    by

    change, fate, paradigms, patterns, poetry, process, process, not a journey, transition, work in progress

    from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (62)

    all

    falls

    to 

    ash

    (June 16, 2020)

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  • limbo (a reading)

    by

    chance, change, dance, death, meditation, pandemic, patterns, poetry, process, process, not a journey, reading, spoken word, video

    limbo

    from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (61)

    months of laconic weeks drift

    past as the centuries two-step

    a dance macabre about the village

    square like old lovers late at night

    dance slowly arms entwined 

    in a practiced grace

    your death’s not important 

    to them any more than mine 

    only this dance matters

    the horror of it lies 

    in the death head’s grin

    which does not pretend 

    to hide its deception 

    there is no skin to map 

    its laughter into flowers

    across our blind eyes 

    no dead platitudes to act 

    as balm for our world in flames

    (June 14, 2020)

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  • limbo

    by

    change, dance, death, delusion, pandemic, paradigms, patterns, poetry, process, process, not a journey

    from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (61)

    months of laconic weeks drift

    past as the centuries two-step

    a dance macabre about the village

    square like old lovers late at night

    dance slowly arms entwined 

    in a practiced grace

    your death’s not important 

    to them any more than mine 

    only this dance matters

    the horror of it lies 

    in the death head’s grin

    which does not pretend 

    to hide its deception 

    there is no skin to map 

    its laughter into flowers

    across our blind eyes 

    no dead platitudes to act 

    as balm for our world in flames

    (June 14, 2020)

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  • Surface Tensions

    by

    attention, broken, change, life, poetry, politics, response, silence

    “stop, children, what’s that sound

    everybody look what’s going down”

    —Stephen Stills

    Another day spreads across the sky

    as the flood waters continue to rise.

    There is little to stand upon now

    that does not tip into complicity.

    Ice melts along its edges. One moment

    we are there watching the turmoil

    below our feet, then the ice is gone, 

    and we are all breathing water, 

    floundering in the lies we live. 

    Our words fill our lungs, and

    silence gurgles past our lips

    as we slip slowly deeper

    beneath the cold gelatinous sea,

    to drown in our undeserved comforts

    (June 8, 2020)

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  • Contained & Vanishing Point (a reading)

    by

    poetry reading, spoken word

    Contained

    “I contain multitudes”

    -Walt Whitman

    I am not a voice,

    but an echo of silence—

    before and after.

    Like dried flowers in old books,

    I live pressed within these folds.

    (May 27 2020)

    Vanishing Point

    “Falling is one of the ways of moving.”

    — Merce Cunningham

    Finding walls

    where there were

    none before,

    I stumble,

    and fall

    toward a point

    perceived as distance,

    yet, always here.

    What I see is

    only what I know;

    perception’s a deception

    one swallows entire. 

    The eye’s led on

    from the outside in.

    (June 2, 2020)

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  • Vanishing Point

    by

    belief, delusion, meditation, perspective, poetry, sonnets, ways of knowing

    “Falling is one of the ways of moving.”

    — Merce Cunningham

    Finding walls

    where there were

    none before,

    I stumble,

    and fall

    toward a point

    perceived as distance,

    yet, always here.

    What I see is

    only what I know;

    perception’s a deception

    one swallows entire. 

    The eye’s led on

    from the outside in.

    (June 2, 2020)

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  • Contained

    by

    definition, life, poetry, silence, tanka

    “I contain multitudes”

    -Walt Whitman

    I am not a voice,

    but an echo of silence—

    before and after.

    Like dried flowers in old books,

    I live pressed within these folds.

    (May 27 2020)

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  • Control’s an Illusion

    by

    chance, change, control, poetry, process

    I negotiate the moment:

    the shape of a shell;

    the color of a shoe;

    the proper knot for a noose;

    what was said when,

    and to whom. As if time

    whispers the secrets

    it finds in tide pools:

    what belongs

    scuttling in the rocks, 

    and what has washed in

    with the last full moon.

    (May 24, 2020)

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  • enough (a reading)

    by

    attention, change, choice, hesitation, literature, meditation, poetry, poetry reading, spoken word, video

    enough

    a stir of air around a leaf

    a hesitation brief enough 

    to give pause to be still

    to listen through the quick silence

    for the birds’ chatter and flirt

    to return and then it doesn’t

    and it doesn’t matter

    that you missed it

    there’s always enough 

    for any day to be enough

    (May 11, 2020)

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  • enough

    by

    attention, choice, contentment, life, meditation, poetry

    a stir of air around a leaf

    a hesitation brief enough 

    to give pause to be still

    to listen through the quick silence

    for the birds’ chatter and flirt

    to return and then it doesn’t

    and it doesn’t matter

    that you missed it

    there’s always enough 

    for any day to be enough

    (May 11, 2020)

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