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My Poetry and Commentary on Life

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belied by circumstance

by

alone, clarity, happiness, identity formation, poetry, process, process, not a journey

from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (25)

walking the beach

before dawn

before the gulls

pierce

their pointed cries

through the waves’

unrelenting crush

I drown

in the wash

of noise

my thoughts beaten

calm and submissive

I have no voice

among these voices

they are still

lashed into silence

by the cold waves

the sun’s first

motifs float

along the edge

of the sea

slight pinks

and greens

define night’s end

alone on the shore

I know who I am

without interpretation’s

variance to distract

(February 7, 2020)

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contrapuntal

by

poetry, work in progress

from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (24)

in the turn of dawn and dusk’s

vague half-light night becomes

neither herself nor the other

but a transitory beast slavering

wildly ahead or at the heels

of the raging sun

shadows pulse

through me with celestial fire

each rock leaf flower

each grain of sand vibrates

in resonance the textures

of the world

I am all I am

and all I am not a conduit

for violent streams which fall

silent into a churning sea

(February 6, 2020)

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Daily Prayer

by

acceptance, dissatisfaction, existential angst, life, poetry, prayer, time

“we are our own prisons.”

–Joel Brouwer

barely audible

tumblers click

into place

–

words turn keys

jam snap off

and trap us here

–

telling the same tale

confident the end

will change for us

–

confident the end

will not end for us

as it always has

–

forever and ever

amen

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constellations

by

attention, awe, interrelationships, meditation, patterns, poetry, process, not a journey

from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (23)

starlings turn a double-helix into themselves

their poetry drifts through dark clouds

–

I murmur my admiration

still stunned after years

of seeing them dance

like calligraphy through silent air

–

what’s written into our veins

century by century

flows darkly

in a continuous reel

beneath these stars

(February 2, 2020)

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then and now

by

aging, change, poetry, process, process, not a journey, work in progress

from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (22)

once I was cynical

now I’m just defeatist

–

once I was sarcastic

now I’m just bitter

–

once I was happy

now I am just old

–

like the earth I decay

a slow spiral into the sun

(January 31, 2020)

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days proceed to the end of time

by

borders, breach, change, fear, meditation, paradigm shifts, poetry, process, process, not a journey

from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (21)

the moon hangs on the horizon

a waterdrop waits on a leaf

–

we are on an edge

–

like acrobats along a wire or

a knife at our voiceless throats

–

I don’t know where we fell away

(January 30, 2020)

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nets are made of holes

by

borders, poetry, process, not a journey, relationships, time, work in progress

from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (20)

she remembers the future

he slips through the past

–

she watches patterns within

patterns unfold like ice

–

he reweaves strands

unravelling on the floor

–

the difference lies

in the holes between

(January 28, 2020)

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nothing much

by

acceptance, change, meditation, patterns, poetry, process, not a journey, renga, work in progress, zen

from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (19)

Cashel, Co. Tipperary

several years ago

for several years

nothing came to entrance me

–

more specifically

doors entranced me

the emptiness of doors

–

the simple lack of existence

led me further to rooms

and bowls cups and spoons

–

it wasn’t the rooms the doors

the bowls cups or spoons

but the pure embedded absence

–

nothing was useful

nothing was transcendent

the absence the lack the emptiness

(January 25, 2020)

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disambiguation

by

acceptance, change, cycle, delusion, difference, elemental, meditation, patterns, poetry, process, not a journey

from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (18)

I’ve been here before

floating adrift frightened

the water is cold

–

a door opens

I walk through an emptiness

to arrive in another

–

I’ve been here before

this time the people are blue

and the music hasn’t started

–

a door opens

air rushes in

to fill the space

–

I don’t want to repeat

but no one is listening

and patterns are seductive

–

years later

the same song plays

I dance alone

–

I’ve been here before

a door opens

I step through

–

there is no dream

there is no metaphor

the wind is silent

(January 23, 2020)

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how poetry asserts itself

by

belief, change, context, creativity, meditation, poetics, poetry, ways of knowing, work in progress

from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (17)

he alludes to a poem as if others

know what he thinks about before he can

speak which in this case means before he can

think his thoughts being like Rube Goldberg

devices clacking along tripping springs and

traps which propel the odd idea along

tangential routes until finally falling

into its assigned slot and everything

stops and silence expands like waves of water

rippling across the surface of a lake

eventually lapping the far shore

where a small boy plays with a wooden boat

never once thinking about poetry

(January 23, 2020)

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practical cat

by

poetry

from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (16)

in fog

a hiss

scratches

the skin

(January 23, 2020)

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quandary

by

borders, broken, choice, despair, doubt, hesitation, paradigms, poetry, sentence, tension

“sadness of those unschooled in the bottles’ gloom”

–Rene Char, Poets

Tonight, I hold my shape

tenuously, like a rabbit,

tense, on the edge

of a field: hold tight

in silence, or flee

into the brush?

(January 22, 2020)

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the floating world

by

clarity, contentment, meditation, objectivism, poetry, process, not a journey, renga, syllabics, work in progress, zen

from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (15)

from the upstairs window

the grey cat waits

and watches shadows

shift like dark flowers

dance in morning light

(January 21, 2020)

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amorphous

by

borders, change, doubt, dream, fear, identity formation, liminal, paradigm shifts, paradigms, poetry, process, not a journey, ways of knowing, work in progress

from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (14)

forgetting the pattern of fear

and doubt tangled about me

I fall out of sleep and remember

what parts of myself I need

–

to continue some resemblance

of the day the inessential shades

my ghosts as darkly as the essential

each shifts its position evasively

–

when questioned like a cat

slips through shadow and grass

(January 21, 2020)

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the future was a threat

by

aging, change, paradigm shifts, paradigms, patterns, poetry, process, process, not a journey, renga, school, work in progress

from a work in progress: “process, not a journey” (13)

in school we were always on the move

field trips to museums to math class

with Mr. Buesing to middle school

to high school to college the future

was a threat brandished like a whip

–

by degrees our world turned

then it stopped and I stumbled

and found myself here in the mud

like a body dropped from the door

of a passing car

(January 18, 2020)

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