poetry
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Engagement Hustle
Too aestheticto be self-aware—one mustconsider whether senses may subvert the matterUntenable—the second half-second the quarter-sec before the rod cracks the base of the skullThe illustration of the Great Man shall bow his headin shame—your thirst for narrative is satisfiedThe little rabbitis made example of today—see he quivers dying in the demonstrationRead confessionsin the back pages Continue reading
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A Discourse Upon Age Cohorts
You think that you are virtuousbecause of where you were born,or when you were born?You even think that you are virtuousbecause of how you were born,but every one is born in much the same way,and if they make it that farthen they all get older until they die,you know about that, it’s the passage of Continue reading
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Two Words About a Lady
The Way She Walks She hands her clothes downand gathers new clothes, looking one way and then another everyyear, growing softer,glowing brighter, desiringand desired, wrapped tight in a fair skirt of delight.Before her face, the wildstreets are glittering, windows open to glimpse a brass sun across her breaststhat rises with her breath,yet neither seems to Continue reading
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What I want to accomplish when I write poetry
Every once in a while I hit the verse button and post some text with a higher than average percentage of enter key presses. I call these poems, because they resemble poems, although I honestly don’t know what it means to “resemble” a poem. Poetry is a wonderful art form because of the freedom it Continue reading
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Love from Three Frames
I drew the arc about the lineand bent it backI recalled the form of dress on bodyand the form of flesh on bonein my imaginationI remembered warmthand shivered in the sea of nightI drew the breath that rose above the bedand felt it close around meI dreamed of colors I had never mixed together – Continue reading
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Hope Is of The Future
Hope is of the future, not the past,because the world that was cannot be savedand wounds that were cannot be uninflicted.Hope requires time to grow, freshlygathered from the mornings yet to comewith careful hands and patient dedication.Hope thrives in an undiscovered land,writes itself in prophecy and dreamsitself to life with sudden inspiration. Continue reading
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Two recent poems
It’s a package deal. Rituals of the mind Confessions, fantasies, and wishesscrawled on composition paper,stuffed in closets,contemplated,venerated,read and read and readwith eyes and hands,in a burning tankobliterated,ashes leaping from the coalsthat glow beneath the wind,obscenities erased,the words obliquelycommemorated. Enough already Whatever, write a poemabout the phonies dancingempty steps, pretendingplastic lasts forever;they’re never going to stopand Continue reading
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The Squares of Squares
Counting by the squares of squares,an escalation:One idea, the exception;Sixteen strokes of a pento sign essential orders for security;Eighty one minutes of sleepdivided by exhausted nightmares;Two hundred and fifty six accounts takenof extenuating circumstances;Six hundred and twenty five descriptions pulledfrom all existing manuscripts in storage;A thousand hopes extinguished,two hundred and ninety six deferrals;Two thousand, four Continue reading
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The state of the novel
Almost twenty years ago, I had an idea about a hero who could surround himself with an impermeable shell. I tried to write about it, but I couldn’t find the focus while I was in college, so it never got beyond a short prologue. That prologue may exist somewhere, but I haven’t seen it in Continue reading
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Old Things
(Note for mobile readers below*) _All my things are in the creek todayI have long since replaced them all Many new things Many more things But my things are slimy with algae Or somethingI don’t know what that pink stuff is There was a book about it on my shelfAnd you guessed it — very Continue reading
Ink Tea Stone Leaf 