The thirsty corn (Grutter)

When my corn is miserably thirsty, the logician in me wants to become a little Hitler and does not let me rest to sleep and defecate in calm anymore. All in me is mobilized to invent that deeper well that can secretly drain the water under my neighbor's field.

Theo Grutter, from Dancing With Mosquitoes

Passion

Passion neglected, or suppressed, expresses as anger, its lowest and basest form.

Intricacies

Intricacies are intrinsic to interior organization.

On ignorance

Ignorance is irresponsible.

Space & time

Space elicits, time permits.

Gestures (Stafford)

We are all gestures that the world makes.

William Stafford, from "The Stick in the Forest"

On wisdom

Wisdom isn't made of experience,
but of comprehension of complexity and context.

Words

The more you demand pictures,
the more I will insist on words.

Memory

Every memory is a séance.

The brain

The brain is calibrated naturally for poetry.
The trick is keeping it in tune.

In the desert (Stafford)

At caves in the desert, close
to rocks, I wait. I live
by grace of shadows. In moonlight
I hear a room open behind me.

At the last when you come
I am a track in the dust.

William Stafford, from "Existences"

Difficulty

No longer daunted by distance,
we discover difficulty in barriers of dream.

Phantasmagoria

As we age, as society fractalates into complexity,
we are increasingly confronted by phantasmagoria
insisting we acknowledge it as legitimate.

New poems

+12

The clock (Stafford)

The clock ticks on, every second
wandering down like a snowflake,
while an avalanche whispers our names.

William Stafford, from "In a Museum in the Capital"

Experience

We are predisposed to exaggerate or otherwise overstate
the evidence of our experience.

Chicken parmesan

From this recipe.

Poetry

A poetry of rationality
is not independent of intention.

Every life (Stafford)

Every life is like this,
carried on while some inane plot
tries to intrude.

William Stafford, from "The Escape"

Go (Stafford)

Breaking every law except the one
for Go...

William Stafford, from "Our City Is Guarded by Automatic Rockets"

New poems

+12

In a democracy

In a democracy, everyone wants a palace
and no one wants to rule.

Achievement

Achievement, like acquisition, generates, then diminishes, appreciation.

Monument

The only appropriate monument to superstition is disdain.

In sleep (Stafford)

In sleep all dreams belong, correcting each other;
but in blizzards of our waking all possible worlds
     are fighting each other.
"Every act in every dream deserves to live,"
I tell myself...

William Stafford, from "The Title Comes Later"

Morality

Trying to hold onto morality during political upheaval is like trying to cling to an egg in an earthquake.

The second most evil thing (Hass)

I came to think that the second most evil thing that Hitler and the German people did, after the Holocaust, was, through the Holocaust, to keep the idea of a good war afloat.

Robert Hass

Continuity

We pursue continuity
intermittently.

Implement

Implement, don't imitate.

New poems

+12

Apricots, Spring 2013

Data

The incorporation of data leads to congruity with reality.

Ice (Glück)

Time passed, turning everything to ice.
Under the ice, the future stirred.
If you fell into it, you died.

Louise Glück, from "Landscape"

Appropriateness

Appropriateness is a far more difficult calculation than accuracy.

Rebel

Rebel, surely, and be judged by that against which you choose rebellion.

Contentment

Contentment motivates poorly.

Punishing error

Shall we punish error, which may lead to correction and improvement, or ignorance of error, which can be instructed, or love of error, which results in long-term harm to self and others?

Carrying

Be sure to carry what you carry
not as weapons but as tools.

New poems

+12

Particulars (Stafford)

There never was a particular he couldn't understand,
but there were too many in too long a row,
and like many another he was overwhelmed.

William Stafford, from "Parentage"

Incompatible

Christianity is incompatible with self-esteem.

Chickpea salsa dip

Existence

Existence is experience.

The resisters

Some resist relinquishing ignorance, for with understanding comes responsibility.

Punishment

No punishment is appropriate, only pleasing.

From the Gospel of Michael

He who hath not the instinct (if not the capacity) to judge God hath not the instinct to do right, nor the conviction that it should be done, and shall be cast aside as coward and hypocrite.

Promotion

The heresy of self-sovereignty
promotes the blasphemy of love.

New poems

+12

Save your resentment

Save your resentment for death
which ends all chance of justice.

Delve

We need to delve deeper
into our variability.

To investigate

Adulterate the purity to investigate complexity.

Breakwater Review #9

Breakwater Review has published my poem "Sex." This issue has a particularly strong selection of poetry, it seems to me, and I'm happy to be included in it.

Close enough

If I can't get close enough to myself to know myself,
what folly, what hubris to think I can know anything.

Trivial

Trivial experience can seem vital
and remain trivial.

Recognition

Recognition
is reassurance
of our presence.

My poems

I don't want you to relate to my poems;
I want you to integrate them.

Cod with ghost pepper-parsley garnish

On

On to the next
as long as you can.

Body of work (Ammons)

Poems are experiences as well as whatever else they are, and for me now, nothing, not respect, honor, money, seems as supportive as just having produced a body of work, which I hope is, all considered, good.

A. R. Ammons

The guilt of participation

Only humans suffer the guilt of participation.

It capitulates

Value isn't inherent, but dependent. No, that isn't it—like Schrodinger's cat, it capitulates to reality when you look at it.

New poems

+12

Arrivée de toujours (Rimbaud)

Arrivée de toujours, qui t'en iras partout.
Arriving from always, you'll go away everywhere.

Arthur Rimbaud, from "To A Reason"

Real

To be right,
first be real.

Philippine-style chicken adobo

On poetry

Poetry can energize
but it's not energy.

Expectation

Expectation is not the cure for surprise that you'd think it'd be.

New poems

+12