Bitter Poetry

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:22:44 GMT

foolish you will spill every hope you ever had
squandering your years laughing at the fear of love
you knew
what you know changes from moment to moment
your truth transforming beautiful
beautiful while it yet lived

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:16:58 GMT

I would be tutored to unlearn sadness
restored to my right to pursue happiness as though
it was something tangible like
the brass ring on a carousel ride

they taught rats to forget fear after all
erasing shocks as easily as histories are
rewritten

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:10:42 GMT

what we made together
plans love refinished
furniture
my flowers
scattered at your feet
all of these were dust and illusion
smoke like your voice
when you spoke
dark velvet and birch bark
years softening us
building something solid in quicksand

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:21:38 GMT

I covered myself over in grey like the sky
and a scent like ancient books and roses dry on their stalks
finding pieces to reassemble the machine
this is a peculiar genius
hiding in the light

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:16:05 GMT

the room is sealed
forgotten
the furniture eaten through by mice
moths
and small nesting things
draped with dust
I have neglected words too long

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:07:39 GMT

she does not push
they fledge on their own
one by one
leaving home
leaving soft down and small piles of bones
the falcon growing season is short

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 04:48:57 GMT

born in the west and also of it
a new old land with the sky wrapped over the mountains
the roundness of the earth needing no explanation
living an american freedom, chauvinistic and unripe
where the soft sun sinks into the sea

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:45:14 GMT

there was a mouse in the house
it
knew all their secrets but didn't tell:

yes life was simpler,
clearer -
but so long and lonely -
without love

Sun, 06 Aug 2006 04:05:35 GMT

perhaps the worst is what you learned
to forgive yourself
every sin
and discover destiny
to trample those beneath you
and to burn witches in your flames

how long you longed
for deliverence
when the message came
you were meek enough and
had been weak long enough

can you see now
this power you have always owned

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 05:20:44 GMT

cleft apart were we
one two and three
missed the cleaving mark
but still it hit
I've been waiting putting off
life and pretending that
we are in love

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 05:18:15 GMT

I am really only stealing words, copying the sounds of other voices.

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 05:11:06 GMT

this goddamn of a headache
and what doesn't suit me is the suit I wear
diamonds when I am hearts
and nothing so blunt as the stave

what can this mean what I want and am and wish to be
I miss you so far away and too thoughtless to call

Sat, 24 Jun 2006 02:49:52 GMT

she said words that set me free
back when there was nothing but her and me and
painting our fingernails blue
motorvating through the empire
across burning streets
we wailed entire songs along with Trent or Tori
we knew everything except how much more we would know
and that we would eventually grow old

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 06:01:04 GMT

they made holes with words down the years
phrases without escape binding us this way
but we grew magically our bones
straightening into averages into these
forms which eyes slide past moving fast
remember we were chum for fearsome mouths but now
oh now
we fade into every crowd

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 23:36:49 GMT

I woke into this savage season
breaking ice beneath my feet
the trees made up of bones and joints

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 21:59:26 GMT

when we sank below the
surface
we dove like birds that would
never emerge
and how the fish resented
our disgusting
scaleless skins

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 17:48:38 GMT

when melancholy came to devour us
we hid behind the couch
and barely stifled laughter
she would turn it sour in our mouths
then the wind came blowing out
day and light
and we were laid
against the shadows
between the clouds
they were our shrouds

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 21:07:37 GMT

that day the wind's fury
broke
blowing us to the ground and
the tumbleweeds invaded
from the desert
rolling the sharp scent
of the rain with them

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 18:20:06 GMT

she cut the stars from the sky
and pasted them onto bookshelves
picture frames
key chains
forming collages of their burning endlessness
red blue yellow and black
and I came to her door to beg
them back
into the night
but she laughed saying "they're no more
yours than mine"
perhaps less even

Sat, 08 Oct 2005 17:01:45 GMT

he's the only one I knew
and back he came (and
up we grew) with a message
on the binary sea
(it was for me)

Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:23:48 GMT

carnations grew wild there I found you
in a sunset of cold gold and fire
you read a letter in a sea of letters
and it spoke to you in my voice
it spoke our names with silence and
the opacity of computer screens
which screened us one from the other
sur le pont
and all the French I can throw in
all the poetry I can

Thu, 15 Sep 2005 20:10:29 GMT

I met a man and he knew
what I knew
he said Marinn I'll find you on the bridge
with the wind flowers
you in your coat the color
of Printemps
and I called to him
I called his name over
the walls and
broke it all

Sat, 10 Sep 2005 23:13:44 GMT

what's left behind to the right to the left
the devastation you left
as you moved offshore
and down the block
this girl with melting
wax wings
whose face you held
and burned palm prints
they bloom like chrysanthemums
and in the empty spaces where you'd
denned
the empty spaces also that you made
you were the earthquake and the gale
and the solar eclipse

Sat, 10 Sep 2005 05:22:04 GMT

when you're the girl with the
beautiful smart blues
the only Friday night
fights are between you and you
and whether to wait
to sleep
to write
or to sleep

the girl with the
beautiful smart blues
won't cry anymore
she opens the windows (and the door)
and the wind
is her best is her best
is her Sunday bright best
lover

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 19:49:10 GMT

the closest I will ever be to you
is a nude cartoon

and the day you told me
solemnly
that I had no reptilian alien husband
in Pomona (in Pomona)

because you touched me briefly
I think I burned your hand

but wondered why I lay fifteen feet (and
miles) away
when I should have weaved through
the dark
and demanded you allow me to sleep
in your arms

I did not
and I think I shall find it
always regrettable