The Middlewesterner

2012-01-30T04:30:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 30

“You want to play music,”
the old guy said,

“you need to do a lot more practice,
a lot less fun.”

That's like writing poems,
I've found.

2012-01-29T04:37:00.000-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Hope is
the bucket

with a hole
and no

handle."

*

"Off-handedly
easy

is so hard."

*

"Why do you keep asking
how to

when what you need to know
is why?"

2012-01-28T04:37:00.000-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"You would make lines?
Listen to how

the language breaks."

*

"Hard to tell
if it's a church
or a bank.

That's the way
the want it,
I suppose."

*

"You want to
write? Listen
to the voices,

else you have to
imagine them."

2012-01-27T04:30:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 27

Great sorrow?
I do my best.

Work with it.

2012-01-26T04:30:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 26

City brightens
like the coming day.

2012-01-25T04:30:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 25

I've promised
what I've promised.

One doesn't break that,
even now.

2012-01-24T04:30:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 24

Great sadness

like a cloak.

The calling

silence.

2012-01-23T04:30:00.001-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 23

"Below zero!"
the crows
keep saying,

while I
keep calling
"Spring! Spring!"

2012-01-22T04:37:00.000-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Driving with
tank on empty -

the poet."

*

"Of course the
sons-a-bitches
never stop -

that's why we call them
sons-a-bitches."

*

"It's
enough

if it
sounds

like it
makes

some sense."

2012-01-21T04:37:00.002-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Always it's the naked chickens
complaining about the storm."

*

"Keeping your ON
button constantly

ON, you run down
the battery, yet

how else poems?"

*

"A poem is
the only few

words that mean
anything."

2012-01-20T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 20

Smear of clouds
where day would break.

It's always something.

2012-01-19T04:37:00.001-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 19

Wraith, specter,
air. Yet more

than air - a chill
where air has been.

2012-01-18T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 18

Hawk high in the tree.
Below, grass and snow.

2012-01-17T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 17

Grey sky.
Grey-winged death

sliding sideways
on frozen wind,

all God's creatures
digging in.

2012-01-16T04:37:00.002-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 16

Bird
perched down low,

hoping for sun,
getting snow.

2012-01-15T04:37:00.001-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"The hard lesson is
learning to call it

what it is, not what
you wish it to be."

*

"Keep writing," he told them.
"Even a monkey-brain

can make a poem."

*

"How to count
poems like these?

Stomp your foot
on the beat -

that's one, that's two,
that's three and four.

See?"

2012-01-14T04:37:00.001-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"So much easier
to just watch the road

than to watch for poems."

*

"You say
you believe
in angels?

Put your
god-damn
pants on."

*

"People,
how can I
write poetry

when you
call me all day
with money

questions and
insurance problems?"

2012-01-13T04:37:00.002-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 13

Four below zero
this morning -

the chickadees
talk of nothing else.

2012-01-12T04:37:00.001-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 12

Winter so bitter
you can still taste it.

2012-01-11T04:37:00.001-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 11

Sun on the wall of snow.
Long shadows on the road.
That which is lovely,

always before me.

2012-01-10T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 10

Web of the trees
against the evening,
as if a net.

Even in the dead
of winter, the river
wends its way east.

I am headed west,
against the grain.

2012-01-09T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 9

Not sunset
this mid-winter evening, but an ember
smudged out.

2012-01-08T04:37:00.000-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"You don't know
when lightning strikes,

nor when a poem."

*

"Sometimes I have to
hope I run out of

poems before I
run out of paper."

*

"You punch
a poem's

button,
you can't

un-
punch it."

2012-01-07T04:37:00.001-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Does not matter
how many

you throw away.
Only matters

what you keep."

*

"Sometimes they come as neat couplets
and sometimes they get away from

me."

*

"Another day.
Another poet

with nothing
to say."

2012-01-06T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 6

Winter goes
about, snow

between her toes.

2012-01-05T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 5

Up before the sun -
but in January

that's not saying much.

2012-01-04T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 4

These woods
in winter -

darkness
at the edge

of light.

2012-01-03T04:37:00.001-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 3

Snow
like dust in the air

and wind
like winter remembering

the hard times.

2012-01-02T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR JANUARY 2

Trees against the snow
like capillaries -

morning so bitter cold
the blood won't go.

2012-01-01T04:37:00.002-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"It's like fishing," he said. "You've
got to keep a line in the water,

watch the bobber, set the hook."

*

"Put your
words
on paper.

Let them
crawl
around."

*

"Prose is
a kind of speech.

Poetry,
a way to see."

2011-12-31T04:37:00.002-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Even
in high wind
you cannot

outrun
the sound of
your own

whining."

*

"We would.
We could.

We will
We shall.

Words make
promises

we can-
not keep."

*

"Like birds, our words,
dropping from the sky,

pecking at gravel."

2011-12-30T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 30

An evening
chill

nibbles
the edge

of things
as death

comes
with cold

hands.

2011-12-29T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 29

A rich palette,
the winter grasses,

this sun.

2011-12-28T04:37:00.001-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 28

Woods
huddled there

against winter -
the sun un-

remembered,
the dull day

turning dark,
the fiber of

everything
going cold,

the air
between here

and there
already gone

silent.

2011-12-27T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 27

The white plane
of the snowy plain -

blue dome above,
line of horizon,

geometry for
a new day.

2011-12-26T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 26

The roll of snow.
Wind

chasing it home.

2011-12-25T04:35:00.001-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Sing too well,
they'll think it
easy. Not

too much - they'll
want more.
More of yours

does no good.
They must learn
to sing themselves."

*

"An empty room -
ah, the perfect poem."

*

"They are there.
They are out

there, waiting
for us to

say them - words."

2011-12-24T04:37:00.000-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Does word
know what

word is?
I don't

think so."

*

How much
is little

enough?"

*

"Sometimes, something
is caught in
this net of words.

Sometimes, not.

2011-12-23T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 23

Snow
and tree

where the wind
stops

for coffee.

2011-12-22T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 22

Ditch full of snow.
Crow.

Anything goes.

2011-12-21T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 21

I want to think
the white ridge is

a break in dark clouds,
but - no - it's snow.

2011-12-20T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 20

Snowy field,
pigeons, and

sun on them.

2011-12-19T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 19

Winter wind
coming around the corner

of the house, and stars
coming into view,

cold-lit.

2011-12-18T04:37:00.003-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Poem,
like a ticket stub

after the show."

*

"Hard work is hope
with its pants on."

*

"Language is
an attitude,"
he said.

2011-12-17T04:37:00.001-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Poetry,

like riding
a motorcycle

naked."

*

"What would you
whisper into God's

good ear, if God
had an ear and it

was any good?"

*

"What
the eye notices,

what
the mind finds."

2011-12-16T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 16

Bird

against the winter
sky -

its small dark heart -
flies.

2011-12-15T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 15

Morning. Wood
smoke hangs like

sadness in the
winter trees.

2011-12-14T04:37:00.001-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 14

The cold evening,

the cow steaming
as she breathed,

my rough hands
on her full udder,

the sound the milk
made,

hitting the pail.

2011-12-13T04:37:00.002-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 13

Old crow.
Dirty snow.

Death at
the wayside -

deer's frozen
carcass,

eyes glazed
hard as

the winter.

2011-12-12T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 12

Nothing to say,
and a whole winter day

in which to say it.

2011-12-11T04:37:00.000-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"If it didn't
make you tired
you weren't

talking to God."

*

"If you
understand

why you
believe,

you cannot
still call it

belief."

*

"Let it be
what it is

and something
more."

2011-12-10T04:37:00.002-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"If one
word,

which?"

*

"Loss like fire
consumes us."

*

Sadness a weary-
wear where life

meets the dream."

2011-12-09T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 9

This
study in black and white -

crow on snow.

2011-12-08T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 8

The morning buckled
with cold and snow,

light laid low,
lost to sorrow.

2011-12-07T04:37:00.001-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 7

Sun,
a cock of the head

south, the solstice
not far off.

2011-12-06T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 6

Winter chill -
leaf mousing its way
across the road,

wind on its tail.

2011-12-05T04:37:00.001-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 5

Winter, they say,
and I see it

coming. Yet how
can this be? I'm

still caught in summer.

2011-12-04T04:37:00.000-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Do not be eager
for that which is gift."

*

"Grace
is mercy
and it is

the loveliness
of the gesture."

*

"Make
elaborate preparations

and wait.
You must ready yourself

but what matters
is patience."

2011-12-03T04:37:00.002-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Getting ready to write
is not writing.

Yet how can you
call in words without

a ritual that works?"

*

"That
which breaks

us breaks
itself."

*

"Sometimes I think I know
what I'm doing and

sometimes the poem
shows me I don't."

2011-12-02T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 2

Oh, yes, the sky -
the clotted clouds,
slash of blue,

thoughts of
coming home

to you.

2011-12-01T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR DECEMBER 1

In-
sistent shadows

and the clean
sweep of sky.

2011-11-30T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 30

Oh,
the terrible

swift fury
of beauty!

2011-11-29T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 29

Darkness,
sudden and severe.

Afternoon
will not be the same.

2011-11-28T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 28

Sun,
or the promise of

sun,
or the memory.

2011-11-27T04:37:00.000-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Rhythm of our speech,
metronome for the heart."

*

"It is not
what you want
it to be

so

let it be
what it is."

*

"God stays out of my bed and
I don't sleep in his church."

2011-11-26T04:37:00.002-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"If I couldn't steal lines
from myself, sometimes

I'd have nothing to say."

*

"Two poets,
two buzzards

riding thermals -
what works for me

may not work
for you."

*

"It is not
about words.

It is about
seeing. No,

about
trying to see."

2011-11-25T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 25

Cold affront of steely cloud.
Darkness at mid-day.

Wind and more wind
blows my stink away.

2011-11-24T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 24

Hawk on its post.
All is right with the world,

at least for today,
this moment, now.

2011-11-23T04:37:00.002-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 23

Long view from the mountains,
such sadness that grabs you.

2011-11-22T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 22

Another hawk.
Another morning

holds us both.

2011-11-21T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 21

Don't we love
this lovely world.

Don't we love
to wreck it.

2011-11-20T04:37:00.002-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"I have but
few readers.

Few readers
are enough."

*

"Listen.

Listen more.

That is

the poem."

*

"Free verse
poet

trying to
play bass -

Beat,
he says,

what
beat?"

2011-11-19T04:37:00.002-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"The poem -
slow

wonderment
and no

hope but what
you find."

*

"Sometimes two
and two must make
five, or else

there's no hope
for poets."

*

"What dancers
say in their bodies

poets must
say in their teeth."

2011-11-18T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 18

Shine of sun,
a white

sheen of roof
forcing

me to look
away.

2011-11-17T04:37:00.002-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 17

Snow on the mountains.
Sun on the snow.
The long lay of the light.
on everything.

I am going home.

2011-11-16T04:37:00.001-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 16

Two geese set
their wings like

twins, slide
towards the water.

2011-11-15T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 15

Roiling wind.
Rolling crow

looking for home.

2011-11-14T04:37:00.000-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 14

November whiskers -
old man

talking to himself.

2011-11-13T04:37:00.000-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Sometimes
the mind

shuts like
a door

and there
is no

peeking
through the

keyhole."

*

"Long thoughts no longer."

*

"If the poem
won't go, light

a fire under
its belly - see

what that gets you."

2011-11-12T04:37:00.001-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"If a word
is something

everything
is nothing."

*

"Word-salad poet -
shit hits the fan,

catch what you can."

*

"If you'll let the poem
push you, it will

push you all the way."

2011-11-11T04:37:00.002-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 11

A lay-down day,
the end of November, and

nothing much to say.

2011-11-10T04:37:00.001-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 10

The sadness of
November sky -

a bitter wind
coming.

2011-11-09T04:37:00.002-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 9

The tawny lay
of the November day.

You can go home,
almost.

2011-11-08T04:37:00.002-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 8

Water as cold and grey
as this November day.

2011-11-07T04:37:00.001-06:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 7

The November
cold, as unforgiving

as my brother who's
Republican.

2011-11-06T04:37:00.000-06:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"If I never
write another

poem, I will

have written
this one."

*

"Writing a poem
is not much more

difficult than bleeding
to death - it only takes

a little longer."

*

"Sometimes
there is no meaning.

Sometimes
it's just a Christmas light

blinking."

2011-11-05T04:37:00.000-05:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Short lines is all,
because my mind is small."

*

"Won't someone take
this slosh of vowels

and figure out
what's wrong with me?

Help!
I'm trapped in here."

*

"From the word-
spouting fount,

it's Damned if you do,
Damned if you...."

2011-11-04T04:37:00.001-05:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 4

Cold November -
even the sun

wears its gloves.

2011-11-03T04:37:00.001-05:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 3

On a day like this
in November, you can

almost believe in God.

2011-11-02T04:37:00.000-05:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 2

November,
and the sky

is wider.

2011-11-01T04:37:00.000-05:00

LINES FOR NOVEMBER 1

Those are cranes!
A ten acre
field of them,

grey as a
November day.

2011-10-31T04:37:00.000-05:00

LINES FOR OCTOBER 31

The darkness again.
Oh, the darkness.

2011-10-30T04:37:00.001-05:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"He likes to say
it's about the going,

but what he talks about
is the getting there."

*

"Sometimes
when I say he

I mean me."

*

"They laugh at you
for doing

because they're so
afraid to try."

2011-10-29T04:37:00.000-05:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"To write, I
need to move.

To sit still, I
need to die."

*

"Everything
before you

is also
behind you.

Going to
you are also

coming from."

*

"Nothing shines
without some darkness."

2011-10-28T04:37:00.001-05:00

LINES FOR OCTOBER 28

Sun given to greyness.
There's nothing but wind

in the trees, whispering
of the night coming on.

2011-10-27T04:37:00.000-05:00

LINES FOR OCTOBER 27

Heap of corn on the ground
covered with a white tarp.

Something is done.
Something else is coming.

2011-10-26T04:37:00.000-05:00

LINES FOR OCTOBER 26

Sky the color
of frost on the grass -

horizon, our imagining.

2011-10-25T04:37:00.001-05:00

LINES FOR OCTOBER 25

Bare tree, grey sky,
still too much for

the settled eye.

2011-10-24T04:37:00.000-05:00

LINES FOR OCTOBER 24

A grey day, the kind when
nothing is too much.

2011-10-23T04:37:00.000-05:00

THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS

"Sometimes
I just

want to
see it

to see
it."

*

"How blind
must a fellow

be
to see?"

*

"Yep, sometimes
I'm the south

end of a north
headed horse."