Wednesday, April 29, 2009

"Life Consists of Propositions About Life"

Sometimes
what
you don't know,
can
hurt you.
-mce

Wallace Stevens

(Blogmesiter's Note: This little poem transformed my view of life and poetry. It is not so simple as it appears to be.)


Theory

I am what is around me.

Women understand this.
one is not duchess
a hundred yards from a carriage.

These, then are portraits:
a black vestibule;
a high bed sheltered by curtains.

These are merely instances.

Mona Lisa Redux

Old lovers
sit like drained
wine bottles
on wooden shelves
kissed by sun rays:
empty vessels,
their openings
still exquisite
in memory.
-mce

A Short Essay on the Essense of Fragility - for Uli

You broke my heart;
I lashed out.
Thirty years of life
canceled
in a minute.
Beware the illusion
of solidity.
Everything can be broken;
everything already is.
- mce

Holler

No internet,
no TV,
no cell phone,
no noise
but the breath
of nature.
Jesus,
is that sound
my heart beating?
-mce

Considering

A lovely young girl
knocks on my heart.
Do I let her in?
- mce

Stay Close

The macro is useless;
the love of money
sucks the life
from everyone
and everything
it touches.
Instead:
drink a beer,
listen to bird song,
write poems,
make love
like it's the last time.
There is salvation
in the micro.
- mce

Monday, April 27, 2009

A Beer For Richard Brautigan.

I bought a beer,
twice,
for Richard Brautigan
in 1972
at Thomas Lord's bar
on Union Street
in San Francisco.
Each time,
he was already drunk:
this is what life means.
-mce

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Da Twoof

If you seek
eternal verities,
little grasshopper,
you are not just
on the the wrong blog,
you're on the wrong earth.
- mce

One Toke Over The Line

Shit!
I think I'm
a Cylon...
- mce

Anti-depression Medication

One night
of shameless sex
with a warm,
willing, talented,
obscenely younger
woman
works every time.
- mce

Suspicions

No one thing contains everything. Synecdoche is always suspect. Symbols are better. They mean both more and less, yet inhere no meaning at all: dust as dirty or dust as death - both equally true and equally not.

Rachel

Watching you
lighting a cigarette,
your long legs
smiling beneath
that flouncy,
breeze-blown
skirt
reminds me
why I still bother
to breathe
at all.
- mce

Moving On

If you
can't make
your life
larger than
your grief,
you
will never
be alive
again.
-mce