Friday, September 30, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 30

Birds
and words

in the morning's
silence.


Thursday, September 29, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 29

Dawn in the east.
Grey wall to the west.

Water and wisdom between.


Wednesday, September 28, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 28

In a grey morning,
the great slow bird,

blue and low.


Tuesday, September 27, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 27

Long light.
A lifting

wind.
Wisdom

in this
stillness.


Monday, September 26, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 26

Line of trees of the same height -
they all know the rules.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"More lines
without a verb?

Yes."

*

"Certainty's like ice
at the spring thaw -

there while it's there,
then not."

*

"It doesn't get you up
in the morning.

It doesn't make you coffee
or take out the trash.

It doesn't spoon worth a damn.
What good is a poem?"


Saturday, September 24, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"If you expect
a poem

to do more,
perhaps

you expect
too much."

*

"How can you
write about home

when you've not
gone away?"

*

And how can you
go away

when you don't
know where home is?"


Friday, September 23, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 23

A familiar road.
A well-thumbed map.

Miles to go.
I know them all

and they know me.


Thursday, September 22, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 22

Miles
of highway.


A leaf
uncurling.


Wednesday, September 21, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 21

The spit of it,
grey strangeness of sky,
low-down wind.


Tuesday, September 20, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 20

Neither rain
nor not rain,

this grey
habit of sky.


Monday, September 19, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 19

Lift your eyes -
the sadness of sky.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS


"More than most
today

is what it is."

*

"Oh, to say a lot
without saying much!"

*

"These poems -
what if

we had to
glaze and fire them

and hope
they don't crack?"

Saturday, September 17, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Take a lesson:
shut up and listen."

*

"The race is lost.
I cannot write

faster than the sun
coming up."

*

"If a few
don't get away

you're not chasing
enough of them."


Friday, September 16, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 16

Cowbirds in love,
shudder of

a storm coming on.


Thursday, September 15, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 15


Leaves turn their
undersides skyward
to the coming storm.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 14


The world
disappearing
into mist,

as if
there is this
and only

this.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 13


Slick rock.
No sun.

Moisture
hangs like

laundry.

Monday, September 12, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 12

Eagle lifts in wet wind.
Sandbar and lazy current
waiting for sun.
White horse in the distance.

Some noisy discontent
among the unhappy crows.
Everything matters, but it
doesn't matter much.



Sunday, September 11, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"If already
they're assembling
your firing squad,

you can be
pretty sure it won't
turn out good."

*

"Would I be unkind
if I said the best

is nonsense, and the rest
is empty barrels

knocking about?"

*

"One hopes
that you can

1) write
in the dark, and

2) read it later
in the light."


Saturday, September 10, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"You need some?
Here, take these.

I have plenty
where they come from."

*

"Morning. If you
can't find something
to do, you're not

much of a poet."

*

"If you're not
doing what you want,

what the hell
are you doing?"


Friday, September 09, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 9

Dome of silver sky.
A slow rain falls.

It's always grey
when I go away.


Thursday, September 08, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 8

A piddling rain.
A speckled lake.

Wisdom of water
finding its way.


Wednesday, September 07, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 7

The road rises.
Water

runs the other way.


Tuesday, September 06, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 6

Emptied clouds.
Sodden fields.

The stick of clay.
Grass that yields

to wet wind.


Monday, September 05, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 5

GENTLEMEN'S CLUB
I don't think so.

Gentlemen don't
pay girls to

take their clothes off.


Sunday, September 04, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"You carry your weariness
as if the universe should care."

*

"When you don't
know what you're

doing, you have
half a chance

of making
something new."

*

"The unknown
is a lovely
territory

disappearing
before you."

Saturday, September 03, 2011

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"I bang
it and

bang it,
still

trying to
find the beat."

*

"The more
it is

what it is,

the more
it is

everything."

*

"Is this enough
for a poem -

to get in the car,
start the engine,

and drive away?"


Friday, September 02, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 2

Humbling, this


understanding
one's place in


the scheme of things.


Thursday, September 01, 2011

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 1

Sadness
like the slice
of a knife.


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