Month: April 2011

• Whose Light

  If never again
  for a moment

  let there be
  a sun yearning

  for the ground
  as underneath we

  grasp the blue
  sky obscuring

  the black stars
  whose light

  diminished still
  even obliterated

  has yet to reach
  our lonely eyes

  if not to know
  at least to see.

  April 30, 2011

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• The Anthropic Principle

  Echo starts but never
  stops

  like a window broken with
  pavement

  outstretched beneath the tree
  trying

  to outsmart unsuccessfully the capricious
  whims

  of unintended consequence
  did

  you see the way the town is open now to
  view

  now that none of the buildings are
  left

  pictures strewn homeless uninhabited
  drift

  can’t get there from here there is
  nowhere

  used to be things seemed to be just
  settled

  a little more permanent now all that’s
  gone

  April 29, 2011

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• Stormed

  This morning the roof was leaking
  and I swear I felt the electricity
  in the air just before the thunder
  and lightning struck at the same time

  I expected to look out the window
  to find a tree split open and
  swaying precariously on the power lines
  as torrential sheets of rain shuddered past

  But instead I went back to sleep
  hoping the books on my shelf stayed dry
  when I awoke the sun was shining
  and the air was too thick to breathe

  April 28, 2011

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• In Time

  Soon enough
  the month will end

  it could not end
  soon enough

  April 27, 2011

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• A Walking Zen Koan

  How can there be
  a title
  with no poem attached?

  Yes.

  April 26, 2011

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• Bounded

  Except for the fact
  that nothing ever changes
  the world would be
  unrecognizable you can tell

  by the way the leaves
  are appearing now on the branches
  and the river streams by
  as if there were no such thing

  as a straight line
  there must be a way to reach
  the small island with grass
  in the middle of the river

  whether by rock or branch
  someone must have stepped
  before upon the shore unshored
  though uninhabited obviously

  once it was attached to land
  then somehow split apart
  and now it waits patiently
  for reunion or relief

  the way the light reflects
  upon and off the water
  and passes the little island by
  still searching for its home

  the leaves the light
  the water the island
  will never find
  its own way back

  April 25, 2011

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• Worded

  Holding tightly
  to the image

  things are symbols
  of themselves

  and rightly so
  when the metaphor

  is concretized
  such that you cannot

  breathe so much
  as a whisper

  without regarding
  it as sin

  we all fall short
  of the glory of God

  simultaneously
  we create

  that which on earth
  is not in heaven

  because heaven
  turns out to be

  not just beyond
  the clouds

  but rather
  in the heart

  of the words
  which can never

  be heard exactly
  the same way

  or even twice
  always and only

  broken and blessed
  in their brokenness

  wholly.

  April 24, 2011

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• Mistranslated

  It is not
  an exaggeration
  to say that

  every creed
  yet devised
  is inadequate

  to experience
  and still
  we cling

  to old words
  in languages
  no one speaks

  to make the dark
  mirror shine
  in the darkness

  like it was
  already bathed
  in blood

  or bread
  we already
  digested.

  April 23, 2011

  ---

• Tenebrae

  Walking
  down the block
  it begins to rain

  existence
  is unbearable
  in its fullness

  each step
  is another death

  each step
  is another birth

  April 22, 2011

  ---

• Cold Snap

  The chords of early spring sound
  resemble chords of early autumn

  the trees struggle to burst their branches
  while people turn the collars up on their porches

  against the cold nothing to do
  but wait for the outside to breathe in again

  as the screen door swings off its hinges
  letting in through the gash the bugs who never left

  somehow they found a way to endure
  as the milky way continues its imperceptible spin

  above our heads

  April 21, 2011

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