Poems Twenty-Four Through Thirty (Plus), Poem-A-Day, "Ten Nature Haiku"

sleeping late into

a November afternoon;

dreaming in color

the woodpecker stops,

perhaps he heard me shouting,

shotgun in my hand

the snapping turtle

warns us with his vicious fangs:

"no skinny-dipping"

raccoons tap their beaks

against unyielding metal:

nightly ritual

yesterday's ( Read more... )

In the Original Language

Walking through the square

in front of the university library obliges me

to pass handfuls of students clustering about loudly,

or seated on the nearby grass,

or talking in pairs in the shade of the plain marble columns

that flank the entranceway.

As I pass them, I know I can always depend upon

the open staring of at least ( Read more... )

A. D.

The first has got to be

the cruelest day in April by far,

not just because that’s the day

everyone lies to one another

and then celebrates the lie

by calling each other a fool,

but because that stupid, funeral sunlight

in the top floor windows

of the tallest building in the city

shines in our eyes even when it’s overcast

and half past six; ( Read more... )

Here is poem number 19. Yes, I'm aware that I am behind;
but I'm also trying to be forward. I'll be totally honest here:
this is one of the HARDEST poems I have ever had to write.
It took a lot out of me, but I think this is what happens
sometimes when we push ourselves beyond where we feel safe.

||||

The Big Book of Erotic Ronald McDonald Photography

( Read more... )

Don’t Recycle

If I told you

that I wanted you

to throw my body

into the garbage can

when it’s time for me to die

would you show me

that you love me

by discarding me

in the manner I desire?

I don’t know why

we make and produce things

only to eventually throw them away;

there oughta be a law

makes it wrong for us to do that,

makes us have to commit ( Read more... )

They Can Be Taught to Read, and to Pray

In the country of Israel,

spindly poplar trees shrub next to pear groves,

olive gardens flourish in the so-called holy land

where the storefront signs boast

that they offer fresh Coca-Cola, though not in English,

in the summers of open market machine gun fire.

In the country of Palestinian,

biblical, living ( Read more... )

Break-Up Letter to Satan

I loved you so much, Satan,

but that was before I learned the world;

the things I can say I know for sure now.

I was impressionable

and easily influenced as a child;

they told me I was supposed to "love Jesus"

and I really thought I did there for a while,

but it's only right that you know

it was always about you--

you were ( Read more... )

Say Amen

Hear us, quintessential spirits of the worlds

that spin wild beyond our mortal senses,

emeralds of the land of dreams,

you golden-robed, holy fates

who preside over the dancing of the planets;

as the Sun sets behind us where we stand here,

upon our humble, tropical little island

we watch the ocean's waves darken

as the night sky fades into ( Read more... )

It Is Right to Give Thanks And Praise

By now they are probably ghosts,

some of these adults I'd known as a child;

the strange ones, the ones I really remember,

the ones who did not like children,

the ones who looked at us and saw nothing

no promise, no reason for joy

I think of them from time to time

when the holidays come around.

For instance Old ( Read more... )

What Happens When I Invent Her

Whenever I catch myself inventing her

there she is, out of the corner of my eye;

there she is again, recreating me in time

with the music of my own design.

When I close my eyes

to make her eyes up from scratch,

imagining them in impossible blues,

forest greens and shadow-striped golds;

she is real the moment I realize

( Read more... )