Monday, September 30, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 30 



Blue flame
in the grey gloom,
yet the sun

does not break through.



Sunday, September 29, 2013

FROM THE OLD POET SAYS 



"Even at its
quietest,

the poem
rages

against death."

*

'Damn you,
poetry!

I have
wasted my life

with waiting."

*

"Like the hawk,
poets

must simply
watch."



Saturday, September 28, 2013

FROM THE OLD POET SAYS 



“Not
by the words

a poet uses,
by the words

he doesn't use
you know him.”

*

They asked,
“How can

form form
itself.”

He said,
“The way

seeds grow.”

*

"I have nothing
to do but

nothing. It is
my business."



Friday, September 27, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 27 



Coal train
half a mile long
heads east
out of the grey void.

A skunk
dead along the road
goes nowhere.



Thursday, September 26, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 26 



I am beside
myself with this

coming to like
Wyoming.



Wednesday, September 25, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 25 



Grey hawk
on a grey wind.
Death strikes

with a blind eye.



Tuesday, September 24, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 24 



High, flat, and dry,
sunlit with wind,
and no place to hide.



Monday, September 23, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 23 



Tawny short-
grass flying
like an owl.



Sunday, September 22, 2013

FROM THE OLD POET SAYS 



“Verbs
would push

nouns
around.

Don't
let them.”

*

"Revise
the poem

until it
disap-

pears, then
go back

one step
and

only
that.”

*

"For a
better

poem,
do not

add, sub-
tract.”



Saturday, September 21, 2013

FROM THE OLD POET SAYS 



“The poem
if it's

any good
will argue

with you
at every

turn.”

*

“The lesson
of the poem

is what it
doesn't say.”

*

"Push it til it
pushes

back.”



Friday, September 20, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 20 



Snow still in the shadows,
the wind to race me home.



Thursday, September 19, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 19 



Tawny short-
grass the color
of nothing.



Wednesday, September 18, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 18 



Crow along the road,
black bullet of sadness.



Tuesday, September 17, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 17 



High plains
before me,
mountains
behind.

The mystery
of travel

all the way
home.



Monday, September 16, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 16 



Headed home.
Morning sun
lifts the darkness.

Rock of mountain
lifts the sky.
I am on my way.



Sunday, September 15, 2013

THREE from THE OLD POET SAYS 



“Mo
men
tum

Mo
ment.”

*

“The mind
does

what the
mind does.”

*

“If it's not
what you want
to say,

say what you
have to.”



Saturday, September 14, 2013

THREE from THE OLD POET SAYS 



“The poem
is not so
difficult.

Imagine
who speaks,
to whom.

Imagine
when, where,
why, how.

You say
you can't?
It's your

imagination
that fails you,
not the poem."

*

“The poem is silence
waiting to be born.”

*

“The poet's work -
to make you wonder.”



Friday, September 13, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 13 



Far dreams
of mountains,

the distance
I have to go.



Thursday, September 12, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 12 



Clouds scooped
by mountains,

the wind.



Wednesday, September 11, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 11 



High plains
wind leaves nothing

on the table.



Tuesday, September 10, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 10 



New day.
Gift of sky.

High wire
sadness.



Monday, September 09, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 9  



Blue sky
sandwich -

clouds and
mountain.



Sunday, September 08, 2013

THREE from THE OLD POET SAYS 



“What you
want is

not what
you want.”

*

The poem's
tasks -

to turn, turn
back.

*

“One, one
hundred?

Whatever
is enough

for what
it is.”



Saturday, September 07, 2013

THREE from THE OLD POET SAYS 



“An ear
for language,

this
talking to

myself.”

*

“Not always
which words

but always
which order.”

*

“If our words are not
of this world, then

what are they of?”



Friday, September 06, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 6 



Small bird
in the big open
crush of sky.



Thursday, September 05, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 5 



Hawk
      sliding
           sideways

above
the city -

its dark heart.



Wednesday, September 04, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 4 



How much wood
can a wood chuck chuck

dead along the road?



Tuesday, September 03, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 3 



A house so long and narrow
the wind works it sidewise.



Monday, September 02, 2013

LINES FOR SEPTEMBER 2 



Tawny blast out of
blue sky. Red-tail
drops down for dinner.



Sunday, September 01, 2013

THREE from THE OLD POET SAYS 



“How many
ways to

break them,
all

the lines
to be

broken?”

*

“Poets are
pilots

with no place
to land.

May Day,
we say.

May Day.”

*

“If you can't
shut up, you

are not
a poet.”



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