Sunday, February 28, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


“A tough business,
words,” the poet said.

“You can't get out,
can't break even.”

*

“All this,” the poet said,
“is not distraction.

It is the stuff
of what we do.”

*

“Patience,”
the poet said,

“isn't a terrible
price to pay

for waiting.”


Saturday, February 27, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


“The question is not
'Why are we?'”
the poet said.

“The question is
'Why anything at all?'”

*

“The only way
my poems could be
more obvious,”

he said, “is if
I wrote them
on the sky.

*

“Success and I,”
the poet said,

“are not to be
found in the same

directory.”


Friday, February 26, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 26

The more
we endure,

gentler
comes the rain.


Thursday, February 25, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 25

Clouds
in the west,
broken

as if a saw
has ripped them.
Sunset.

Light like fire
on the water.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 24

Not geese feeding
but worked fields.


Tuesday, February 23, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 23

Late afternoon,
and now the sun.

I am so far
from home.

Monday, February 22, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 22

All the way
across South Dakota,

an unhappy wind.


Sunday, February 21, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


“Cast your glance away
from our sinfulness,
O Lord,” the poet prays,

“and look lovingly up-
on our meager fineness.”

*

“The purpose of counting is not
the count. It's what the count does

when you stick it, like a gymnast
nailing her dismount. Life is that way,

a puzzle, you not knowing how
you got here, and no way out

except to find the proper count.”

*

“How do you
get hits?” he asked.

“You swing at
every good pitch.

That's how you
get poems too.”


Saturday, February 20, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


“I don't know
what it means

either. I just
put it down

on paper.”

*

“I repeat
myself so

I repeat
myself.”

*

“Lift us, O Lord,”
the poet prays,

“lift us and do not
let us fall.”


Friday, February 19, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 19

Hoarfrost
on the trees

with dun-
colored

red-tails.
They are

everywhere.


Thursday, February 18, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 18

All of a sudden,
a hang-down sky and
trees with hoarfrost.

Morning gone dark.


Wednesday, February 17, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 17

What I
appreciate
of winter

is its fast
vastness.


Tuesday, February 16, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 16

Wind plays tag,
has confused

the trees.
A pair of

red-tails is
undisturbed

by the comings
and goings

of mere mortals.


Monday, February 15, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 15

Dirty snow
crusted with
melt and freeze -

once again
morning has
promised us

nothing.


Sunday, February 14, 2010

THREE for
THE OLD POET SAYS


“Won't you shut up?”
they asked him.

“Likely not,” he said,
“in this lifetime.”

*

“Yes,” he said,
"I do some

of my best
thinking

at sixty
m.p.h.”

*

“Words,
like fruit.

Pluck
the ripe ones.”


Saturday, February 13, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


“Can't
remember the beginning.

Don't
know the end.

Am
in this moment.

Am
again.”

*

“If
nothing else,

let them say
he was

here
when he was

here.”

*

“I put on
the mask.

Words
cover me

like mystery.”


Friday, February 12, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 12

Wind and snow,
a curtain at

the edge of
morning.


Thursday, February 11, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 11

Winter
sun on
the skin

like
blushing.


Wednesday, February 10, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 10

Ice
on the river, and
something

dark
is stirring.


Tuesday, February 09, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 9

Cold enough that
sky is falling

out of the sky.


Monday, February 08, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 8

Oak trees
heavy with

hoarfrost
like leaves.


Sunday, February 07, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAID

“Daily
I do not

speak enough.
I have to

practice.”

*

“Ragged
lines and

a strange
turn -

the slap
of poem

when you
need it.”

*

“Lift us, O Lord,”
the poet prays,

“from this grey
mass of sadness.”


Saturday, February 06, 2010

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

“No, truly,”
he said,

“I do not
know what I'm

doing, but think
it's something

in the ear,
the hands.”

*

“Memory
is what?

A moment
out of time.

All they'll have
when you're

out of time.”

*

“The hell of it,”
he said, “is

so much goes
out, nothing

comes in.”


Friday, February 05, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 5

Last night's
winter fog

is gone
and the trees

are brushed
white, as if

they've touched
heaven.


Thursday, February 04, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 4

Cold wind, yet
the encourage-

ment of sun.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 3

Clouds in wind -
how like

the mountains.


Tuesday, February 02, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 2

Snow on the rolling
curve of land -

cold-hearted woman.


Monday, February 01, 2010

LINES FOR FEBRUARY 1

Snow, like
an echo

coming back.


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