STATEMENTALITIES
Lies
for John Newlove
The lies we tell
are not the lies we think we tell,
deceiving, most of all, ourselves:
not so much uttering lies
as acting on utter lies
unuttered.
Why I Don't Write Love Poems
In love, too busy.
And out, too caught
by poetry's essence:
yearning.
Haiku
crickets' tambourine
shakes against night's black beat:
rattled dreams
Nocturne
Nightly the garters snap
and the white thigh
pinkens a spot in the mind.
Missed Haiku
In the only room that matters
a slight sound
obscures the one thought that counts.
Alarm
Someone lying with me
said the sirens in the night
meant more than I believed.
Absent from someone,
INDENT from flesh,
INDENT from sirens,
I admit it:
they rang alarms I couldn't hear;
the fire larger than I thought -
absent,
burning.
Truro, 1979
absolutes are
and simple statements do
spread legs
her smile rises from
the line she threads
through gazes cast
"smile" has its closure
as the line
"she" is who you will
listening
small pains east
large pains west
these moments
come upon people
the singer sings of blue eyes
sadly INDENT and could be me
the one i want to hear
not listening
the one listening
not hearing
an eyebrow arched in greeting
an ache
hieroglyphic thinking
eye behind glasses
i
beholder
the voice hands
the hands eyes
speak
not as speech is
as eyes are
i am
word or vision
voice
in the distance
echoes
near:
the click of teeth
the push of breath
the voice peeled
the eye sounding
blink
in voluntary movement
still
the hands hear
are
the click of fingers
palms pushing air
answeramics
in Gartung house the
beavers float on walls the
ducks swim the table
the cat pours tea
the parrot picks godzilla up
leather dolls form
and in the basement
tiny people burn
and wait their turn
Dead of Night
Window in a light dies.
Out of doors, squeaks.
Socket on a bulb turns.
Under shades, breath.
Awnings yawn.
Bed's dead.
Light in a window,
out another.
Up is down
and over ain't a cross.
Ex-actor.
Dew.
Keep pulling
or the flow goes.
Suck a jug.
Stop it.
Start.
Again a window.
Easily.
A gain.
Gone.
Open-and-Shut
Sun off lake
shuts glance
in stance of circum-
navigation.
Blind ripples
trees in water
gathered at
surface closed
of open bay.
Inversions
Pact with the Devil
signed
singed
Lullaby
sung
snug
Awe
scared
sacred
Bloodlust
crave
carve
War of the Sexes
martial
marital
Banff Suite
1.
Still at dawn;
still later.
2.
Between sleeping (her image)
and (her image) waking.
3.
Mountains rise;
sunrise.
4.
Echo of wolf-howl
TAB (wolf-howl)
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