Saturday, July 31, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


“What if this silence
lasts? What if I have
nothing more to say?

One door is closed.
Is another ajar?”

*

“As if I've
worked my whole life
becoming someone

I can admire.”

*

“Yes, I know the world is larger
than three lines can hold, yet
three lines is all I can get.”


Friday, July 30, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 30

My sadness
at leaving

tangles my feet.


Thursday, July 29, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 29

A face
in the window -

the shy moon.


Wednesday, July 28, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 28

Leaves speak,
as if the wind.


Tuesday, July 27, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 27

Oh, the first stroke.
Oh, the brush

that makes
the stroke.

Oh, the hair
of the brush.

Oh, wind
in the hair

of the man
who made

the brush
that makes

the stroke.
Oh, snow

on the mountain
cooling the wind.

Oh, the thousand
petals falling

like snow
on the mountain.

Oh, butterfly
under the stroke

I've made.


Monday, July 26, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 26

All day a swirl
of grey rain and

nothing but sadness.


Sunday, July 25, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


“Ah, yes, the line,”
he said. “How you

break it is how
you make it.”

*

“Why
this word and
not that?

This is
not that.”

*

“Make plans and you
will be disappointed
by your progress.

Do not make plans and you
will drift on any wind.

Disappointment is
the only way forward.”


Saturday, July 24, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


“How much can you
leave out?” they asked.

“You can leave it
all out,” he said.

“What we add isn't
necessary.”

*

“Sometimes you rhyme
to show you can,

and sometimes you don't
give a damn.”

*

“I can write
my poems on
anything,”
he said,

“best of all,
your heart.”


Friday, July 23, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 23

Nothing is
forever.

Nothing is,
forever.


Thursday, July 22, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 22

The swirl
of mist,
as if

the earth
is breathing,
as if

breath
is life.


Wednesday, July 21, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 21

The fog
dances itself
to rain.

The rain
dances
a river.


Tuesday, July 20, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 20

Hawk or post or
mark of the moaning

sky's unhappiness?


Monday, July 19, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 19

Out of thick fog,
a surprise,

a catch of breath,
its suddenness.

Then, once again,
the grey wall.


Sunday, July 18, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


“Memory is a ride
to Gramma's house

in the backseat
of a '51 Ford.”

*

“These
imaginings,

like tunes I learned
in childhood.”

*

“Sometimes,
words.

Sometimes,
the beat

insistent.
Sometimes

only
the memory

of what
has been

lost.”


Saturday, July 17, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


“Wait quietly.
You can't hear them

if all you do
is squawk.”

*

“Useless rush
and chase of words -

let them
come to you.”

*

“Imagination
is thinking

you can see
turkeys fly.”


Friday, July 16, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 16

Everything
is too much.

Everything and
a hungry heart

is not enough.


Thursday, July 15, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 15

A great sadness, like the ruffling
of hawk's wings in high wind. “There's

a lesson in falling,” Cathryn
Cofell says. I haven't learned it.


Wednesday, July 14, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 14

The joy of going
is always

in the coming home.


Tuesday, July 13, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 13

Drive hard. The day
relinquishes

nothing.


Monday, July 12, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 12

Going back to the earth,
like an old cow

the barn goes down.


Sunday, July 11, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


“Sometimes this is
what it comes to -

word salad and
tricks up the sleeve.”

*

“And sometimes silence.”

*

“Too much
barely gets me

warmed up.”


Saturday, July 10, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


“We keep making
history. We can't
stop, even when it
doesn't make us proud.”

*

“Why music?
The joy of
banging

an instrument,
no need to
make a poet's

bit of sense.”

*

“Not going is not
necessarily staying.”


Friday, July 09, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 9

Enough of
sadness -

rub sand in
your eyes.


Thursday, July 08, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 8

Another crow
in the low sky.

The news is
never good.


Wednesday, July 07, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 7

Trees
on the land

like
a disguise.

The day
gets slippery.


Tuesday, July 06, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 6

Grab enough
wires, yes,

you find a
live one.


Monday, July 05, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 5

Crow against
a grey sky -

caw, the cough
of morning's cry.


Sunday, July 04, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

“Wanting and not
wanting - both

the dangerous path.”

*

“There's nothing
there. Look -

there's nothing
there again.

*

“A fine affection,
this need for silence.”


Saturday, July 03, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


“Terrible mistake at
the Chinese restaurant -

my fortune reads:
You should do well

at making money
and holding onto it.”

*

“No,” he said,
“I do not

know what most
of the others

are doing.
What I know

is what I know,
and I know

it's not enough,
not by half.”

*

“High or low,
the right note

lingers.”


Friday, July 02, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 2

What you grasp
eludes you.

The force of
your wanting

undoes the gift
of getting.


Thursday, July 01, 2010

LINES FOR JULY 1

Abrasion
of wind and sun.


Evening comes.
Soothing touch,

the rain.


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