For WCW

Hyku for WCW

Who thinks of such things      :

A dog injured in the street     –

A naked genius                    ?

LFM

Creation – a Sonnenizio*

Creation – a Sonnenizio*

(After D.H. Lawrence, “Piano”)

Softly in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;

Her song is the dappled flavor of sangria

Pressing – pressed –

Into a singed bowl.

Sing and cry, O, my companions!

Sing, “O, Bless us with a blessing!”

Cry, “We have come to hear the world unsung!”

Sing the sensual crossing –

Singers! Name

the missing and the dead!

Sing the world into being!

Sing these readers read! Yet

Pressing shapes us – shaped by terror

Love, or some quite singularly dusty error.

LFM

*14 lines.  First line borrowed from another’s sonnet.  One word from the first line repeated in each following line.  Last 2 lines rhyme.

Meet Son for Lunch

Meet Son for Lunch

I arrive early to order and pay
          Not like the old days
          When I used to pass this place
                    With empty pockets and
                    Six mouths to feed

I get our order early so
          We can talk for the full thirty minutes.
           I hope he knows how
                    The time he gives feeds me.

We have taken turns
          Being one another’s nightmare
          Now we are both trying
                    To turn a nightlight on provide a cup of water

We are sharing surprise at how
          Dry a workingman’s throat becomes
                    By noon


 LFM

Diction of Employment

Diction of Employment

Somebody else’s hands are

doing my hand’s work today. 

On a keyboard that was never mine

In a chair in a country never mine

Somebody’s backing 18 wheels up to a dock

Somebody’s working a bucket and a mop

Somebody’s puttin’ on a uniform

Somebody’s answering phones “Please hold.”

Hey! Somebody’s taking money, taking orders, taking shit

Making change @ window number one

Yo! Somebody’s handing out bags and the coffee all saucy

@ window number two

Somebody’s opening a register with a

log in learned last week @

HR’s health insurance, drug testing

You-too-late-two-days-you-gone orientation.

One is opening a classroom door

One is opening email

in a cubical where she is under orders to keep

her voice low and her opinions to herself.

One is making lobby coffee

turning up case lights ‘til the financial

product line glitters like cross sell and

cold calls warm to Midas’ touch

One is stretching 3 forty-hour employees

Like pizza dough to fill 150 store hours

Calling home “I

have to pull a double shift.”

$omebody’s getting paid. 

Not me.

Somebody else’s hands are

doing my hands’ work today.

                                                                                             

 LFM   #2  1.9.14

Names of Silence

Names of Silence


Who knew,
that Silence
had so many names?

Frame knows –
“absentees of
4th grade picture day”

Wind knows --
“Owl muted by
The mountain’s snore”

Forest knows –
“Leaves cushoning
the hunting paw”

Midnight knows –
“nothingness after the
Express has passed”

Bed knows --
“Back -- tearful
Trembling and arched”

Mirror knows --
“Lip pressings left
Unmisted.”

Earth knows --
“Every spring’s
slow unwinding”

LFM

Chemo Instruction Manual

Control side effects

              smoothly

                        (That’s a lie!)

Destroy what

divides rapidly

blood

mucous

mouth

throat

stomach

roots of hair

“Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?”

dancing  

head in toilet.

                                 WARNING:  You are overdrawn

                                                Whose fucking fault is that?

                                                            Your account is, your account, you’re --

                                                                        Speak plainly or key in

                                                                                          Blab 

Someone makes tea.

The sun goes down.

Don’t cook

the odor 

My swaddled head is warm

            Your fingers

                        oddly, and

for the time being

 I don’t mind

                                                                 Sticking by and to



sticking                       Sticking by and to and through.  There’s a grape jelly taste to it.
there's                        Didn’t you come to me for just this and didn’t it disappoint you?
didn't
didn't 

 is                                Is you is or is you ain’t my _____?  Drowsing in my sheets.      
drowsing                    Rub right there.  Got it - Got to.    
rub                              Skimmed over skimmed off skimmed your cream dream.             
got                              
skimmed 

held                             You will be held, Melted Malted.  Afford --  let fall.
melted, 
let fall 

break                     Break eggs -- rules -- off -- in -- over me.  We -- she -- he -- that once
was                        was before, no more.
before 

could tell               No one - no one but you - every one - how you - would if you could tell.
Was                       I was, not you.  Take care-over-heart-me-it like a man-everything.
Take                     Spiders-freckles-leaf veins-slights-failures-moons-Mars magnified.
Magnified 

appear                  Fears memories you and I intentions this moment appear disappear
disappear             Your slip my age amerika’s x-rayed racism is showing.
showing                For keeps the cat eye marbles. I wonder what keeps you?  
keeps
keeps 

feel                       My father’s fierce embrace.  Sway, Willow.  Bend and let the
sway                     torrent pass.
bend. 

keep hearing        Keep hearing rumbling silence. 
coming in.             Some thing is coming in a train, a disease, a vision.
rumbling

have had               Everything we had we have had but have not.       
Picking                 Saw bare the world’s ankles singing a picking song.

am                         I am come but not alone.
Desired                Shall we now surrender what hope most desired?

were                     None are what they were but that’s cold _______.
Touch                   Only touch.
Cherish                Learning to cherish takes _______.     
lift                        Hopes memories friendships ______ beauty lift and let fall.     
let fall                        

struck                  Well struck, expertly so the victims were not _______bruised.
bruised                 Fevers footballs heels _______ and heads spiked.
spiked 

Went                   We went willingly.  “See” is an invitation not a _______. 
see                       Before the whole eco-system is ______.
is
gone 

say                       Say your piece;  it’s your ____.  How will you describe?
it's                       Night ____ coming.  I pray you will sleep without ______.
describe
coming
sleep.




LFM 11/6/13

I hope you enjoyed interacting with me through this poem.

In the above, I began with a poem I like by Robert Frost, "After Apple Picking."  I removed all the words except verbs.  I used the verbs as a kind of random acrostic for creating sentences.  In a developing order I wrote sentences and sentence fragments that I think encourage and involve the reader more and more as the poem progresses.  So, from the early stanzas there are multiple associations spelled out.  As the poem progresses, the reader is encouraged to make more and more of his/her own associations.  In the end the reader is encouraged to add his or her own words and play with possibilities that carry associations for that reader.  

There is a kind of general theme of relationships and communication for the whole similar to Silliman's "rock pile."

The process was one of progressing experimentation for me as a poet as well.  I became more free with open spaces and left more room for the reader to determine the content.  I tried to shape the thought in certain ways and to arrive at a positive but open conclusion, one that left a question for the reader to answer in his/her own way.   I gave my self increasing permission to change the constraints I was working with.  So by the time the reader makes his or her way through to the end, their brain has hopefully been through an exercise of dealing with changing rules and increasing involvement. 

I was as many people have said, "play." I thoroughly enjoyed it.