Sunday, July 27, 2008

thinking of a dream about travel

the train going through quick
yellow expanse of waving
seed and swishing leaf
docks and airports jolts and wash
cliff to calm and cold dark
water like cellophane too clear
and too reflective to be real
as though the rains came
just to make a splash

but the movement of cities,
clocks, is familiar wherever
the voices, cars, neighbors,
strangers, richer or poorer
better or worse, dreaming or hopeless,
I hear them all at night.
their slow breaths careful explanations
"the farm was sold and"
"can you spare some change man?"
"I've never been so alone"
"How I've missed you..."

children lovers thieves
three tied close to a dream tangible
longed after, sparkling and impossible
and the object doesn't matter
but the reaching out of a hand

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Friday, July 25, 2008

watching "Koyaanisquatsi"

Forward stretch of ground of hill in march
these altitudes growth dust atmostphere and echoes,
endless volume of empty space and unimagined circumstances all spin, binary systems, milk moons

Telescopic vision of events: click unfolded map of earth, the books mention agriculture population art geography capitalism science of libraries full, frames and frames of film: the bottom of the ocean; jellyfish, acrobats, puppets, cartoon fishing hook, dangling fly,
the stuff that sinks slow to the bottom

Acres of relief: mountain range, water, valley, birdsnest on a balcony, New York City, endless humanity, one and another waiting in line at the deposit

We're worth words ideas new process of thought so that this living is never boring

Behind the march of process of time the parade of envelopes, parachutes, trees, packages with addresses and stamps, news pamphlets biographies religion print to gather, run, find ocean and

Wars, O
nights, O
oh what a luck to find oneself
dropping through the floor and such surprise

To all your fleets, emperors queens and royal betweens, leaders and machines, butterflies in chorus bare wings.

Each wing stares blank from eyes shot red as one of your rounds hit the mark


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thankful, moon

Thankful, moon

Reflective- That your
pale face should flash
a coin of true value
into the cup.

Thankful, too,
eventful and
what happened?

She went down,
you came up.
Before long,
the opposite.

Why compete amongst ourselves?
It's much easier to love everyone.

no, everyone

our body is the world.
each is given one bit
to turn over, but look-

each bit is part of each other's bit

and so we converse,
foot to brain,
as though we were different.

shapes, sizes, various colors and purposes differ widely - but arise from That we have in common
this Body we're attatched to

praised be That
which Thinks
and makes us kick

june 22 2006


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planet

Tomorrow might come before I sleep,
before we expect it,
because we're mistaken,
thinking our day to day life
is or isn't-
But on such a night
we can't but mistake the world
for a glass ball floating in the ocean
because we too are on such a beautiful boat.

august 2006


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thief and law

Nighttime then and
maybe no verses, maybe a few
if the window's open
the air might have something to say,
but there are other factors too
the pen only has so much ink
if it's four o'clock in the morning
i might drop it midsentance
it nearly happened just now
but the cat's jumped in the window
and sirens followed.
The two pace together, nights,
theif and law.


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dedication

Dedication
during such announcements
as talking histories
topple brick
colomn crack

early interruption
projected on a screen
circle of footprints
swirling dust

envelope closed
anthemic anecdote
curious clothes
mr. wristwatch
staircase

and all the rest of this
empty apartment, and
all the rest of these pages
are all yours


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no seal official

No seal official,
nor signature print
nor rolling explanations
for rheteric

Just this moment
around words
that spark and clatter
sputter and jump as though living?

Whose mouth is the silo
the battery of rockets
the flue pouring smoke?

Days passing
no matter what was said


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torch song

slip sad water
from hatbrim
to dim light thru
opening in cloud
here, eager streetcorner
earnest lamp, spotlit shower
sorry damp, unwilling umbrellaless camp
still somewhere in the night
just to keep warm
to keep warm until things are alright


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intersection

sometime, night
cornerpost lampcone
brilliant gem artificially
excited air giving off
excess energy to brambles
alter of two directions,
mist of sprinkler
green grass evening
drifts to light


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toss, turn

Train passes tonight
in the cold air tonight
clickclack and foghorns tonight
blarer of all elephant warning off the tracks

Relax, you're in your bed
teeth brushed.
You've left the window open
is all. Flip a switch.

If tomorrow comes,
To be on that train-
Tickets are sold in advance
rain outside, or shine,
still;

The train is gone.
The tracks empty, wide and warm.
The plants are going back to sleep
and milkseed float overmuch
of grassy hill

Still, listen
bucketsful
through the window
on the sill.


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gust

"Say not what it meant to your fathers,
for you are the crest of the wave:
and so it is for them:
there is only one crest one wave

"Say I will see what I can
And answer antiquated questions
about a cycle
too wide to be seen.

"It will seem
as though one gust
should send us away."

Tell me how we're different,
I'll tell you how we're the same.


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sprout

The poem is a product of agriculture:
plant two seeds, stir
and wait,
come harvest, she'll rise.
allow her ample space.
and be mindful of her
that she might thirst-
be there with ink!
and offer her
as much as she can drink,
pour her everything, she's in love,
she's trying
to show you the bottom
of cups, pitchers, the well
and what you see
inside of you
when you look:


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mural 3460 donald st.

Open door to colored room,
the tone alone so soon,

weighted bookshelves arrive in
ordered row, across from
disheveled green, yellow, blue.
Pearlescent logics, kumquat dissolves.

In bloom, the chair's wide petal, empty green chair aside
the glare of rising pitch.
A stripe of couch. Cared over by those seated.-
the rest that pass through quick
only notice gestures, turning
head sideways,
first left then right.
Sudden strokes
from sudden inspiration, sudden fire in hilly
landscape of lightswitch
skyline with clouds.
Mixing oil, pigments, dripping
to gather on the oak.

And so envelopes pass, the door relaxes,
inviting neighbors in. Porchlights out
to grasses grown in lawn,
gesturing spout of grain at
the top of the plant.


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laws physical

Waving banner, red before the ocean
designed without a time, flapping
as you were made, in the wind

Still wonderer, your parkbench
at the top of the hill your pillow
of a backpack your daydreams gazing up

Blind sultan, deal out justice
by clairvoyance palms outstretched
in the plaza before witnesses, gracious

Crumbling gate, give way to what pushes you!
The water will not be held back.
It goes around.


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portrait III

A pair of effigies hung: two burning coals, behind eyeglasses
Turning to face in this direction, missing pretexts, burning
through violet contact hisses, drips, collapses;
blinks for a moment and the room cools,
these eyes which are fixed now upon us
belong to the soul of sleep, the oil painter
bare-handed, mad with pigments cadmiums linseed
sketches of bacteria in his notebook, self-portrait of a virus
answering his own questions, reading his own answers
coughing and grumbling heaving and shaking
there is sweat on his forehead
just a little movement of the eyebrow
Smoke rising from the nostrils
curling and rising
about the eyeglasses their simple wire frames
and larger complaints
He's watching us from a table
at a café across the street,
planning violence or
landscapes


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mirror

Someone I recognize speaks
to the vastness this darkness
for what it is, a conduit,
a junction, a channel and a live
breathing boy of twenty
a speaker who listens
silent but not expressionless
nonetheless perfect detachment
looking back out at me
catching me as I blink
pale subject matter, this voice
issuing forth from someplace
an instrument buried in my throat
reflection by pool of water
two saturated footprints, bathmat,
and water in the eyes, potential,
invention of nature, familiar,
dripping, different
(2005)


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onion

Too polite the window
dressed in white, pleated,
blooming brazen curtain
flailing in the sun
trespassing the doorway
waving to the alley
out the balcony
hailing surrender, see

The things I open:
drawers, closets, cupboards,
books- their covers, no
their emptiness now clutter
is the box-within-the-box
an apartment.

Cut into the wall window
Wrapping paper: one of those gifts
A certificate taped to the bottom
A giant cube of foam

Open all such packaging ,
invite everything


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into the city

Today into the city
into the womb of humanity
The blanket of anonymity
the head uncovered,
toes sticking out

Lonely but a part of something
one of us and the big real truth
and endless sentance we're typing

Out the window on the street
the arguments and homeless
and cars passing
going home to work
resteraunts, movies, to see friends,
to bars, to explore,
to the ocean, changing lanes,
just passing through
between parking spaces

At the end of the day everyone
in the bathroom relieving
taking showers, flossing and yawning
shampooing and dawning upon sleep
going together to sleep together and dream,
and in dreaming realize their part
in the blanket and their connection
to the whole mess of machinery and motion,
to know their neighbors as themselves
as they know the rocks of the earth to be themselves
and the dirt and the air and the rest
becoming clay I shape
into a likeness of myself
lying in bed
in Seattle
in August


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shadow

Drawn pool of ink,
you are my shadow,
and you follow me.
We've been together
since the beginning,
i guess, though sometimes
when it's bright
you are small, or even
dissapear to hide
under my shoes,
in that imperceptable gap
between their soles & the floor
or when it's dark,
and you dissapear into yourself-


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a few questions about daydreams

do you daydream?
what about nightdream?
do you remember,
when it’s over,
what you dreamt?

do you dream in color?
widescreen, digital flashing lights?
surround sound, the echoes,
vibrations

do you eat in your dreams?
do you sleep and wake in dream
then wake again, confused?

do you ever meet people you know in your dreams?
are they different?
when you talk to them,
does the conversation seem
to shift topic to topic
from moment to moment?

does the light seem tinted in the room,
as you look down from the ceiling
at yourself, there in bed, drooling?

have you ever exploded in a dream?
been shot at? tripped and fell and
sat up suddenly in bed and full of adrenaline?
do you ever have nightmares?
do you ever dream
that you’re five years old and sick,
you’ve lost your voice, so hoarse,
and you wake up in the middle
of the night- go downstairs
for a drink of water –

look up from the refridgerator,
the crocodiles in the kitchen
surrounding you, unable
to cry out?

do you ever dream
you are lost
in strange and fantastic places,
urgently navigating,

at best, trying in the dark,
between trees, these shadows,
fog-

do you ever dream a blackness
without form?

dream, and cease existing?
what warm cloud do you float in then?
where does that person in your chest
stand around and wait
while she is gone from you?

what does she read?

when you are dreaming,
are you caught up in it?
are you aware of the fact
that you’re dreaming, or
is it second nature?

do you ever notice it’s
a dream?

are you calm
in dreams
or excited?
do you cry?
are you in there?

or are you watching it like a movie?
have you ever fallen in love in a dream,
with someone you’ve never seen before?
two weeks later, did you see her
on the corner, on a bus-
walked by her, the familiarity
but… a stranger?

did they dream it too?

do you travel?
time passes trains, buses, stations,
planes, boats, ports.
customs.
the relay race.
around the world in eighty seconds.

ever woken up
with an unexplainable tan?
foreign sand in a shoe?
feathers from far-off
and tropical birds
other clues?

does it ever occur that your dream
is so drastically absurd that you
could wake up in a room
full of thrown tomatoes,
full of pulp, a viscious hangover,
a mess with no explanation,
just that they squish under your feet
and think: “I am still asleep”?

do you ever forget what you’re doing
with your physical body?
the glass of water in your hand
jaw halfway, agape
your feet leave the ground

the volume knob fade-out
the glow from the marble
sinks to the bottom of the glass-
when you come to just seconds past
what’s just elapsed,
then drink,

and swallow the marble,
do you choke on yourself?
do you make it back in there?
does it hurt?

when we dream,

we dissolve,

into the air,

and into each other.


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laundry

Clock decides

the coming goes

the moving throes

of dirty clothes;

the passing of the coming spin:

Dry of all regards

it’s time again

to fold.


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portrait V

Clay and heat and time

pacer back and forth, sculptor,

a sweater, stripes: red, white

a shape

cat’s shadow dangle tail

statue and vessel and glaze

making vases and pottery, shapes

for future archeology art-history

spinning wheel his divination

some eruption, everyone notices

follows suit, says “oh,” so

a light bulb somewhere goes on

hollow bust warm from the kiln

candles behind the eyes, like

some sculpture’o’lantern of

the real pagan Halloween


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from the directions in the book

if you're reading this poem
you must be able to see it,
perhaps you're holding a book
or a torn out page, with
your left hand, while you
rock back and forth with the train.
maybe not.
if you're reading this poem
without any introductions of flesh,
we're acquainted.

if you're hearing this poem
maybe i'm reading it to you
or maybe someone else is. It's
only words.
if you're hearing this poem
what does it mean to you?
what is it about?
stranger,
how did you arrive here?
I don't know either.

if you're writing this poem
your name is thomas
you've been sick for two days, thus,
but drinking tea helps you
if you're writing this poem
you chew on pens, taste ink
blood from your bitten tongue
misplaced the page



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This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

panorama

panorama
2006.

falling bricks and rocks
ceded cinder blocks (drop off)
and the silhouette the chase
currents unfamiliar, cold they go forth
silver flash and rush of running motion
despite the presence of photographers
grateful as we were
it wouldn't matter
ever forward
ever backward
onward
carry on carry all and plod
slow as the weight of your memory
the older slower,
but all of us subject
to the same sad hunger paychecks
groceries (joy) lines waiting
see, search
top to bottom front to back
return addresses
catalogues
and the whole way to the city downhill
leaning into the physics
to steer out a line,
swerve
to clear a corner
if it weren't for traffic circulation
the dichotomy only
one or zero
on or off,
no interruption to coarse
cold concrete and wheels to spin
and thoughts to think
words to say
billboards
offices
intersections
glass
and the little girl with the shopping bag
maybe twelve trying to cross the street
out of turn of a sudden and we put our shoe down
on the brakes thinking
what is she doing here
but shes safe.
the light's changed.
and then the sun
coming up yellow
certain of herself and beautiful,
curious and glowing for fusion/fission
together/apart
and heat
between two of the greyest clouds
and the consequences
of changing lanes,
missing the exit,
improvisation,
the two lowest notes recorded
symphonies commonly count
between one empty hallway and the rocks
between one long road
out of town or short
deliveries
dandelions
and sitting still in cars
driven though idiotic
and given an answer for everything
rigor and dismay
anxiety and observation
neutrality and rage
waiting at the light while they go
going while they wait at the light
yet
is it the same one two three? or
some other sky, blue
green, red


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