or beginnings
cut and shut and tumble about
eat and meet and fumble without
everything done
makes everyone one
and always apart
from head to heart
Lynn Craycie
sat by a pond one summer
wondering whether creation
was separate from dreaming
there are clouds
and there stones
they are mine
because I see them
but do I lose the hope of death
if all this beauty
rests on me?
Longwood Evans
never said a prayer
He lived by smile
and touch
by fondling
every moment he belonged to
He spurned the twin deceits
desire and wonder
What is born too quickly
too easily
Is never truly free
of death’s hold
He went everywhere alone
yet he made his mark with women
Give them nothing
Be fodder for their
Goddess dreams
You make for them a mystery
that happily inspires
but never fills
a need for conjuration
without end
Loretta confessed
as the French do
with total regard
for style and laughter
She said
I am not the whisper
in a laboratory
or the reflection
of a mystical key number
or the passer of celestial
descriptions
and
we are not all made
for the lordly view
some must dream to reawake
crawling over lizards
weeping
to Mecca
DR.REGALBUTO
---------------------------------------
I am an essence
not a proposition
Carousing
in the better
parts of day
I
am
so
fat
I
glisten
I am not hollow
yet I ring
Like a serpent
mistaking
a twig
for love
I
am
odd
to be
seen
but in effort
and intention
I am sound
OLIVER FELL
---------------------------------------
When I was young and a maker of beauty
neither form nor color betrayed my view
I grew up and away from the rites of my age
and could boast of no love nor a positive enemy
When I had past the age of genius death
and all remained intact and unsacred
I tempted my unsuffering destiny
by acquiring a limp and an eye patch
When I become old
a stranger to myself and everyone
call out no superlatives to grace
my everyday defeats
Leave me content at last
the warrior unsheathed
lame alone in the field
SOLJIMAR’S LAMENT
---------------------------------------
I am the jester with his cap off
My madness took its cue from kindly ways
Happily I bartered myself to share the woes
of my betters
Now I am at odds with my innocuousness
I have tripped on a simple deadly code
Magic acclaimed is a lonely lie
A one man charade for an audience of wise eyed mutes
THE EVOLUTION OF WOE
---------------------------------------
Worst are the climates that ease
an early wanderer’s first pain
I had my days of sorrow
but I wasted them on meagre
dragons
Untamed art
borrowed lore
the gall of romantic
perscriptions
I once could look in a glass and see love
but all that sits now
like a prayer during war
a voice momentous
for a mad occasion
ONE HIGH NOTE FOR FRANCESCA
-----------------------------------------------------
She never danced without regret
or laughed in an upward key
She was not so callous
as to feign her humor
but there was a lock
on the midnight rages
that chilled my visits
and made me agree
when she confessed
i am no one’s friend to live with
gods and i are separate
by our births
i was not made to journey
like the falcon
tamed at the beak
allowed to soar
There in the fury of her denials
I may have caught a giveaway pose
she trapped by the ghost of a cause driven up
and hers the flight of the winter bird
not an attainment merely an expression
DIVORCE FINAL AND ACHIEVED
--------------------------------------------------
Look I’m no answer
I eat too much
I’ve got indulgances you understand?
We all have to pull together
or the game is lost
I know that
but I’m too powerful to concede
I had chosen him for transportation
There were also sweeter reasons
but I’m older now
He was my city field mouse
hard and always in peril
He read me issued bulletins
on the weather
A man has shadows to uphold
alone
It is fine to speak
but there is art too
and wherever he goes
shoelaces and linen troubles and breakfasts
until he’s lost his identity
I walked backwards
to free him
I sat on my little French gazettes
and wiped away his ashes
I hate disorder
yet for him
I took in four children
She told time by intuition
He thought confidence was a pasture for guilt
We demand
Solace
Wisdom
Levity
Convenience
Value
Acceptance
Forgiveness
Escape
CONTROLLED REPORT
---------------------------------------
He carried his talent in height
And admired the frankness of spear fishing
We all possess uncles
and they love us too well
for it
That was his favorite decision
He expected colors and rocks
an interesting sea
clouds to be feminine and women intuitive
I swore only by manufactured straws
which I could disassemble
Rely he counseled on sorrow
Woo it for your own sake
Mothers opened their tables gaily
for him
and tried to keep him from winking
in the open air
but he would not deny the sweet
aroma of cobblestones
He died on a Tuesday and
I proposed a sonnet which
he would have dissolved
as a beetle protesting Spring
I was the last to debate his adventures
but he forgave me saying
BE DON JUAN READ GLORY IN YOUR KISS
WE ARE ALL EXPERIMENTS CAN WE DO
WRONG?
SMILER SMILES
---------------------------------------
I am no caterer
plain or fancy
I dislike the curtsey
as a method of betterment
My laughter is casual
unpracticed
and therefore not heard often
by the bank’s deposit clerk
I am an admirer of unintentional
services
Like a cat helping old mice
across a boulevard
but keeping its sentimental action invisible
I am a humanitarian
but expect no thanks for it
UNFINISHED LOVE LYRIC
---------------------------------------
If I were as content
as a cat in a peach tree
or as resolute
as an early morning clock
or as sly
as a child begging favors for a friend
or as positive
as sand clothing the wind
or as indivisble
as a rock worrying the sun
or as bold
as a jousting lie in an enemy’s face
or as romantic
as grass and a spring breeze awaltzing
If I...if you
AT THE CAFE MONA WITH LIZA
------------------------------------------------
She was aware
and young enough to have no doubts
I was alone and listening hard to myself
and the wailing crowd
I could hear almost
I Pain
When shall I offer?
Who shall I be now?
Where is the entrance for perception?
Why do I fall?
I DO NOT BELIEVE IN IT!
Liza and the summer rain
here gone back again
but when and where My Struggles
Are foreign to
Annoyance
I CRISS CROSS BY
INTERPRETATION
NOT EVENT!
Liza’s was a subtle power--
a laugh and a good night for all
I have so trumpeted
There are portraits
To prove it
I prided
Hoarded
Frequently
I ONCE COULD MEMORIZE
A SPOTLESS DOLLAR!
Liza tried insanity once
but no one believed her and she cared
I am an observer
An overcoat
For the daring
I HAVE NO EXPECTATIONS
BESIDES SILENCE
Liza heard beauty enter
and she danced her part--
stumbler after grace
out of the beats of pleasure
I am effortless
Uneasy
Quaint
Divided
Sporty
Callous without
Preparation
ALTOGETHER FULL
WHEN I AM SEEN
liza abandoned her youth
in the catch of a breath
the lift of a wink
the brush of a skirt--
infinitesmal loss
and equal regret
I carry myself with a beggar’s
resolve
I kneel to the season
Flirt before dark
Practice my rages
Am grim but honest at table
Defender of facts
Recorder of amusements
Clever as light
True as dust
Alive as water
Master of judgement
Choice and
Cause
Proclaimed special
By grip and walk
WHY AM I NOT GIVEN
THE COMFORT OF OMENS?
Liza swept her face and studied a ring of keys
wondering how anyone could dream in a cell
THE KING’S LAST HOUR
---------------------------------------
Kill my bones!
They are binding
My blood the executioner
of joy amd wisdom
will leap to violent
opera
It will go quietly
and with no curtains
But whip the smile
from your chin
You must offer suffering
piously
as when settling the conditions
of folly and price
I have seen you coddle wine
as you devour it
That is the pose
for this event
NIGHT TASK
---------------------------------------
What part am I of these boundaries?
The moth who breaks his wings on top of steel
ignores the woman rolling in her cloth
settling a mood signifying culture
The western child rioting in a plagued village
contends for growth with sly emissions
(maybe she will sing)
The dark man with useful eyes
vanishes in all directions
There is no pity in his sack of claws
Within this sphere
beneath this cave
over the earth given size
by decree
mighty temples are recollected
with windows
for the needy
ON THE MARCH
---------------------------------------
I have come
to lead
the furious troops
Appraise my face
Contain my wisdom
Keep me from the fiercest
trick of love
I must not be divisible
With a wand of leaves
and an alien paper
I will circle the wind
Let no man avoid it
TARACUMA WHO WE AVOID
-----------------------------------------------
Here is an ancient breed of crow
exiled to a cage of glass
Everywhere he steps he sees
No turn of bone is silent on his shadow
No orbit made by air and tree avoids his stated
breath
He is a cup inside the whirling shape of covered time
condemned to meet himself in tides
in webs
and angles
FINALE 1
---------------------------------------
Have I prepared Have I concerned
the petal in the glass?
Have I seriously entrenched the tip upn the rim?
Have I vexed the organ twist gone rank?
(again again
to lie upon the groans
of innocence)
How beautiful is the Sn Remarco Bridge
Child majesty floating in the perpetual valley
comb of the purest dimensions
rippling
SCEPTER OF ORIGINS
(again again
to stalk the flesh
of the nest)
THE LONG JUNE
OCTOBER RAGES
THE FORESTS WEAVE
SPLIT UP COLLAPSE
AND ALL THOSE SWORDS AND BEACONS
SWORDS AND LOVERS RINGED BY THE SEA
NEITHER WILL THEY FLAME NOR BE CONCEALED
have I allowed
have I repelled
THE BIND WITHIN THE SEED?
THE CONE WITHIN THE STEM INFUSED?
(again again
to jaunt at the lip
of the beast)
HAVE I CONTROLLED?
and all those swords
HAVE I DISMAYED?
and lovers ringed by the sea
NEITHER WILL THEY THRIVE ON PLUMS
NOR MAKE OF FIGS A PARADISE
LEGEND
---------------------------------------
MENBEA DRAWS ICONS ON A CALENDAR
MENBEA OFFERS COMFORT IN A STEAMY ATTIC
MENBEA FORGETS HER QUEENLY DEBATES WHEN THERE ARE FIDDLERS
MENBEA HURRIES TO A MOUNTAIN AND DENIES ITS PAST
MENBEA RAGES AGAINST HER WORTHY ARTISANS
MENBEA IS INCLUDED IN THE BOOK OF MONTHS
MENBEA HAS DEVOTED PUPPIES IN THE CELLAR
MENBEA IS A DESTROYER OF THE OVERLY SWEET
MENBEA OWNED A MAGICAL TREASURE BUT IT GREW OLD
MENBEA CARRIES A BUCKET TO KEEP HER SECRETS INTACT
MENBEA INTONES FOR UNPREDICTABLE WEATHER
MENBEA COUNSELS THE GRASS GROWERS
MENBEA INFECTS HER FOES WITH REASONING
MENBEA HOLDS A SAUCER UNDER WILTING FLOWERS
MENBEA THROWS SAND AT HER PRIZED WIZARDS
MENBEA SEEKS TO MEASURE THE LOWER REGIONS OF EARTH
MENBEA RULES BUT ONLY FOR THE TASK OF IT
MENBEA IS A ROYAL FLAME
HEAVEN BENT AND DEADLY TAME
BITTER SWOLLEN GLOOMY ENSLAVED LAUGHING ALL THE WHILE
MENBEA IS EVER THE SAME
AMIDST WHISPERS AND GUILE
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