Deliberately Happen

Today, like an odd day way back when,
When it got way out of hand
When Kings and Queens would pretend
And everyone around them would play along.
Today, It could deliberately happen.
A scenario would act out just so.
I’d start it, & let it go.
I’d make it go, and all characters
circling like satellites
would play along too.
Then, It got way into hand.

affirmance

A straight and steady wave rolls in,
Seems dull white as might a beam of lamp light,
To splash and settle over doubt
before the poll’s in.
It’s both calm sweater cozy,
It’s storm weather crazy that might
send you off ;
A campfire’s coughing light.
I did swear
Where the needs there
Fall to knees
& call the seas for
A straight and steady wave that does roll in

Renewal

It’s the quicksand edge of a rain squall
It’s a sick man on the ledge of it all
It’s the shore shifting in a violent fright
In a midnight storm
In a maybe might/
A long winter before the glint and glimmer
of words onto daybreak’s birdsong,
When enough renewal’s been suffered to,
Enough burning and churning and yearning
has been laboured through

Veils

For a fog moon to furnish imagery
for a folktune where god wears a gauze skirt
and her veils are gauzy also
and she makes a mind wander
and her beauty as a gypsy
clouds all misery
loud with clarity
as a harsh sun must show one
the world scoured over.
We would want again and miss the mystery
Maya makes the sky.

Sketchy Sanctuary

Some seem to see the floor of the sea
as a sketchy, yet effective sanctuary.
They’re thinking, I think, that it’s tucked away
good. Could be quite quiet.
Would be you’d dream good there.
Sure, it goes that you must breathe much slower.
Sure, bluegreen cracks for surface lightening.
But, You’ll see that jeweled fishes,
Stilled with witness,
Flee at the softest flourish.
And bets are..sandbeds are busy with movement.
How can my dreams take when I’m floating awake?

clout

Another clown rules things
or rather, is let to
Another cloud rolls in
or rather is stiletto made to
Another King and Queen
marry for Peace
Another thing I’ve seen
They’ve nary a taste in their very own domain, tho’
Another pussy cat caresses & purrs for her food
Another lovelike gesture misunderstood
Another dark maneuver
to deliver a need
cajoled from a kingdom, a lover;
lies indeed

big moony skies

I’ll give a knowing nod
To the brother on the iPod
“I rub my wounds with alcohol”
I love the sound of fuck all
I feel everything but small
enraptured under big moony skies
Where prayers stand a chance,
Where joy awakens eyes,
Guts are calm, for hearts beating restless,
& There’s a man and moon romance.

stirred

mean clouds meant to be prominent
as bursting grapes, in purple paint
An angry wind make night sounds
sound the mightier
Something way too alive will storm through
then will grow faint
Taking leave
of this area and evening here
Leaving us stirred, and mightier,
And now saved by our safe.

NORTHWEST TRILOGY

I. IN FLIGHT MOVIE
I’d say Seattle’s a city that’ll likely
Set you so free that you’ll likely
Be reminded of the high flight where you might just
Find me, plowing clouds way way above the bird play.



I see Seattle as a solution
Not too much a town to touch down to
Warm outstretched arms on a runway
To catch a wretched, falling runaway,
A getaway on holiday.


II. W A K E
“Guests must remain on the patio”
Insisted the sign in a winded sun.
I read it right there in my Adirondack chair
On a cliff so clearly steep.
I feel I might have fallen deep
Narcoleptically Asleep again, Though surely
The luringly named
Pacific Ocean below
Drew me here, to it’s wake up here
This pace maker peace
could liven this

III
There’s this tree, I took three pictures there.
A tree creatively crooked
& pointing down most of the Oregon coastline.
At least three pictures.
It rather weathervaned the ocean edge
& pointed, as a staggeringly lovely hag
might with her stick. A crow
lights in her hair, & All of it
blown forward
down the edge.

Comeuppance

A jury could just hurry not to like you.
Just like that.
You’d bet they’d not get you,
But oh they’d get you
Just like that.
It goes without saying but I will mention,
The sentencing would lack prose,
But not punctuation.
Take That! Just like that.
Late & lastly you’d finally serve.
And just like that
Solitary confine-
Ment for you?

Free

Cliff Notes Photo

There’s a cliff someplace
Where the wind’s not too strong, nor too bracing
Where the edge is hardly edgy
Where the drop is in a full bucket
Where the view is–
Where the shot is tight/wide open
We will take it
Where from we stand unsteady and
Search from this perilous perch
for a shot at a sight/wide open.



for Richard Thompson,Richard Melvin, Son Of Man

flying things instinctively know
to dry out their wings, first,
to try out their wings, & go.

surfacing a splendid splash,
surviving a fearful fall and crash,
take time off to dry off &
shake off the surprise of failure.
wake up and walk off what,
and where you are
before you forget to prepare for it
all to dare
the first time, again.

B L O G

jazzing low the box before I go to sleepmode.
letting go.
falling so, near foreigners
for our modern science,
more our freshest poetry.

boardering
the plane
that I said just now has sent us,
led, and just now lent us
home some

pray, tell
There’s a pretty way to spell out
my long sentence.
If random luck holds out perhaps
The power, like lightening
stabbing down my stance,
I’ll light up dark dancing
X rayed in a cartoon.
Man, I’ll be lit up like a mantle
in a lantern soon.
Windfall clarity should scare me.
If I should flinch when I have by chance
An unscrambled avalanche
Doled out again as an hour old
Soulful pillow rain, I’ll miss when
The words come,
Spilling the spaces.
I ain’t nervous of naked undersurfaces.

1 DAWN

The fog fills & fits the branches lit by sunrise,
Cushioning, not drowning out
The birds unbound birdsong.
The mists, on & against objects, their lines
take shape in shifting light.
Like night, the wet air
fades & folds away,
blankets back into my chest.

Stoicism is a prison
Though I break out
Though I break down
Through the pull of a merciful act
Then I’m old and too weak to hold back


I can imagine a troubled
Panicicked angel tangled double;
One cat caught in a grate
A girl unfair in a wheelchair
Nears and dares her balance, her endurance, her tolerance
Strains all of her weight
Shows the pain that she’s used to on her face

Then relief, and they’re both free
She and the cat both refuse to
Cry more,
Like those that might see

Blind Pilgrim (Bound to Be)

…but from here; boxed baggage bin,
whatever vessel burning
Point on into blank, frigid forths.
Andever vexed in yearning.

Blind Pilgrims; taxed temporal thing
Kinshipbourne, trapped as my fathers.
Captive on this course, bound to be,
Forlorn, for treks on farther.




from years ago, for my Daddy

Breathing Exercises

She won’t roll away & not watch me.
Y’see, I won’t seem to take,
When I dream (or wake).
to take another breath before
The scene fades, before
lights go up
then down to more of a zoom.
She waits in our bedroom for me to resume.

II.
We went to go to a yoga class.
Where a barefooted, hairpleated group leader;
beautiful, and calmer than a
merciful last coma,
She insisted that our deep breath is
the gist of all of it (within, & out).
We rearrange the short & tall of it.
The Gist to change the depth, see,
of our sea of possibillity.
When we inhale
we rememorize our own gods.

We exhale our hell. barefoot. on a mat.
Whew. To that.

III.
When I get to go to the Gulf of Mexico
I’ll try out the drink, 1st thing.
I’ll try not to think when I try to let go
& sink when I deadman’s float all day,
into what I think of as a spiritual drift, in a way.
I’ll hold onto my breath,
face down,
head down.



from a sweeping turntable, 40 years ago, in the dark
“Breathe Deep
The gathering gloom
Watchlights fade from every room..”

I'll Believe I'll Believe Here

They say that at sea
Mal de mer
Is easier to bear
If you can lift your gaze,
Look, and lock in the horizon—
The distant constant transcedent end.

I’m a man who says “land,too.”

Simpleton III "Focussing" (From gobbledeegook to good)

_FOCUSSING_


simply put
I know that nothing
nearly is so true that nothing
clearly is so true.

a candle can pull
the eyes
to one.

a full moon can pull
the soul
to one.

Simpleton II

P A D
fresh flowers in a front room work.
first look inside, coming home
from work.
sets the tone, sits you down
for real work.
near a bright lamp, anda beer,
anda white blank empty, near,
pad.
where a sharp pen pokes it open
& the joke’s on
words unspoken.

simpleton

I
I try to keep it simple.
The company I keep tho’
can only sleep real deep
with all night teevee.

I, tho’, like it only as loud
as an autumn cloud
bottoming out
so that it might brush &
flow though out mountain trees.


It’s been so long
since I’ve been leaning on the brakes
and all the blue smoke & smell
are well gone.

There’s fog.
Then, there’s people landing planes at all hours.
There’s dogs chasing birds
on runways. And one way those people in those towers
can plan to, and see to, land planes is
the guts to go with the guages.
They heartfelt dealt with data,
Trusted all they’d seen
on their farforeign & onlyman made monitor screen.
As dogs flushed their fog,
hands hover over lights
and cover their old bets,
their usual action.

Agnostick

It's a waste to aspire to,
Want, or desire to
Believe that my boot
I could dare off my boat
Would hold its space good,
I could stand where I stood.

But if I were
Looking just so on the mirror,
Through the surface, on a wave,
Stepping stones would be there
for me, hold again as they have,
& no one'd be the wiser.

Surety, sure

Right away I've forgiven
What I've been given.
I might say I'll take it
What I might now have.

I've taken my lot, my vacant lot.
And I'll water down the ardent growths
That break through spots, my weakest spots.
I'll wander down the advent of loss.
I'll instill my wander with intent.

word math ("Pre-Dawn Alchemy")

There's some
confusion some frustration
smack in the blue smoke
up in the projection booth,
"I couldn't & shouldn't
have ordered this show.
And that's the truth."

The wrong epic screenplay
is not long enough.
If there's subtle subtext
it's lost in the rough.
And if I know how laughtracks go,
my own is so low
it's a private joke.

I've known
you can draw yr own conclusions
(Use pencils fit
with fat eraser)

Desires and Goforth fires I'm put out.
Old deserts. It's cold out.
I've a drought to drink about.
I've chosen pre-dawn alchemy,
actually.
a good chaser.

talk

Honestly, I’m a liar
I can’t even to my own self be true
(Afterall, he stalls, he would be balking
giving himself a good talking to)
I don’t see fit to say “Don’t ask”
I would benefit if you get
me to talk.
To me it’s too tall a task.
Yet I’ve chosen..
Let me loosen to let go

It’s a sky-blue sky
The satellites are out tonight”

-Laurie Anderson, From “Let X =X”"

“Nothing/ Is outside of us in this overinterpretted world..
..I test the thickness of the universe, it’s resilience
to carry us further than any of us wish to go.
We shed our shapes slowly like moving water,
which ends up as it will so utterly far from home.”

-Jim Harrison, From “Cabbage”

Wedding Dance

W E D D I N G D A N C E
(For Connor & Yunet)

In a clutch
So strong
It wouldn't be wrong
In a gypsy love song.

In a new whirl,
Matching steps on
To a new turn,
Outwards, yet no words will
Work, to fill
Between
One.

I'm Pushing Buttons

.
“..In the stillness that surrounds us
we think we have to probe our wounds,
but with what? Mind caresses mind
not by saying no or yes but neither.”

Jim Harrison, from “Night Dharma”


There was a day
when I was fueled enough to fly,
full enough to go a ways,
fogged in enough not to try.

Not in a good way
I was still (I am still)
I had it happen
I watched it spill

There is today.
I’m somewhat in on it.
I hold my hands out open (at least)
wide out all night and day.
I’m pushing buttons with my wait.
But I don’t hesitate to give myself away.

humour me
it's surely not insurmountable
humour me
I concur it's not easy as
glossy magazines on coffee tables
it's what I really want for christmas
it's what I really want for my wish
when stars shoot, for my penny in a well,
when a hay truck passes--don't look back! aw hell
I guess it's a day way serious
it's a night more so

one tired sea chantey, sung low

"There comes a wave in the sea of men
when you can't swim back again"
-From "He the Richmond", Jack Bruce


ONE TIRED SEA CHANTEY, SUNG LOW

As sure as our hull
Cuts ice ahead like diamonds,
Halcyon Days are just off..
Nigh, yet I tell in a calm,now,
Back, my port's special one
Burns no candle, windows black.

Despite the raw night
(I fear more a year)
Came hard and dispersed me onto gelid fates,
It stays back shore,
But burns deckside.

Endlessnesses here
Force me to take times and places,
passed, and otherwise,
(The special one),
And declare the difficulty of it all.

an Easter episode

I say I'm a spiritual man; relatively reverent, periodically pious probably.
It was a Good Friday & I'm moved to call my sister whom I've neglected calling lately. Her machine invites me to leave a message so I do. And I go on long enough to realize two things;
1)that her machine is set on "All Ears" and refuses to click me offline until I stop
2)I notice that I'm saying a whole lotta not much and that my spiel needed punching up.
W/ a joke, of course. All that came to mind was a strong joke, one I heard fresh last night from Rodney.
I say something like "On a cruise ship (of fools), there, on deck stands a rabbi,a Baptist preacher, & a priest. Their unorthodox Agreeable Calm collapses suddenly when a truly serious matter arises; An Emergency! There's a fire! and all hell breaks loose; tables & chairs are spilling over, screams are filling the air. Chaos! Bedlam! Pandemonium!
The "ever-wise" Rabbi strongly bellows, "For all that is good..Save The Children!"
With his usual focused fervor, the baptist preacher adds "Fuck the children,I'm lawng gawn"
And the priest, "Do you think there's time?"

I take a beat. Maybe because it is Christianity's most solemn time of the year, and I maybe mumble something like..sorry for the vulgar,irreverent.tasteless..um..remarks here in...& trail off

The next time I talk to my sister, she tells me that upon returning from shopping she says to Mom (a saint) "Oh look, a message from Gary" and hits the button.

Due

I fear I forget that the frail,
nearly unable,but
when a whisper of will...
when they muster an incalcuable
measure of reach
to straighten, and lean up
for what's due
That's alot to wait for











The freshest thing in the clearing,
by the pond's sunk boat,
near a nest, There's this ringing
drop, possibly just now dotted
one leaf, left just new
by the dew.
that's what I wait for.

It’s like day & night

There's a place where palaces
are warm enough for night
and liable comfortable
Sure shade all the daylight.

There's a face we would wear one night.
Make our mates
Reach
to recognize
the new guy's
eyes
once it's light,

Around, there's birdsong, seep'd the walls,
Profound in, pulsing palace darks.

Daybird sings, and replaces things.
Beats simmer back, Solace embarks.

More Surely (One Matutinal Devotion)

If daybreak brings
Offerings
Endowed doubtlessly
To be endured, more surely,
To be ignored,
What tide ebb shell
Offering
Alongside lung exhale,
Shallow and
Short?

much

often it's uncertain to see,
to see the true things through
but certainly sometime's there's time
when surely much of what's new
when noticed might matter
to you or rather
to me



"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing,
moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just
common sense, dancing" -William James

Optimism (though I'm thrilled about Washington D.C. this may be closer to home)

if it's a house of cards
doesn't it have to collapse?
but doesn't the half of the yard
darkened on full moon shadow
hoard & house & highlight
fireflies?
always a flame
folded within the bleakest black chamber?

Poe 1/19

from "ALONE" written by Edgar Allen Poe


"From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were--I have not seen
As others saw--I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I lov'd, I loved alone."


"The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, inevitably that which also
makes you lonely" -Lorainne Hansberry


may you ever rest in peace (?)

sea foam phantoms

very lately
I've looked to see,
just off a shoulder,
sharp left outside a window,
just off camera,
someone or thing, I think.
The there, then not trick.
Here, I'll see it
here I'll see it for what makes sense.
Y'see, I've evidence.
sea foam phantoms
left a belated beat back,
just after this wave sweeps back.

I don't think it's drink
or the hours I should sleep or
all the private pranks I
fall for.
I'll envision these

green sea black deep.