day 7

clean

there is something
a blank slate
a white wall
a deep breath of spring
a wash of light and air
freedom

dirty

there is something
a black slate
a white stare
a deep ache of stale winter
a slosh of muck and wear
freedom

words

lonely
muse
hung
poetry
painted
flashing
bard
rushed
writing
feeling
slow
pushed
speaking
night

courtesy of stumbling onto shadow poetry's magnetic word poetry:
http://www.shadowpoetry.com/magnet.html

is it a poem

if i say it is
if i use my mouth
to form the quiet words
in the silent space
of chirping crickets
and faded tv
from too far away
and music
from somewhere else
with the drum beat of churning laundry
in the washing machine
and the hum of spastic keys
struck with deliberate chi
moving
across the wide and open
space
of soon to be forgotten
is it a poem
if i say it is?
these utterances of moment
trapped in strange american words
spoken in the head of the poet
as she types the black letters
of an unutterable alphabet
is it a poem
if i say it is?
is it my poem?

one day while stumbling...

one day while stumbling i found write rhymes--and this is what i wrote:

here i sit
i be
i beat
here with wit
and need
and feet
i do not walk
along the dock
i still the out
from now
i will the pout
to row
and so the fighting
on it goes
with all the righting
of the woes
i see and sit
i write my wit
with none to share
beyond

in this notebook

stories ensue
continue
explain
examine
express
this is *it*
life living itself
out loud
and overheard
and here, in this
notebook,
in this digital
camera,
recorded.

amputated imaginings

i stretch the tired
muscles
in my shoulders
arching the reach
of bones
forward--
as if that--
they--
were the only
arms
i have
i had--
i notice
the glory
of holding
the pen
aloft.

if i lost
these hands--
i would
carry it
in my teeth
dancing--
still and forever
across the
open book
of waiting
white
page.

moment momentus

here
sitting
in the
deep
yes
of this
collaboration
i come
to
this
shell
of
moment
momentus
here
i
be
a
poet
in
residence
residing
in
my
own
white
car.

and so i come

and so
i come
i enter
i sit
i find
my mind
surfacing
to destroy
the act
of this
artmaking
making
itself
a
mask
promises
threatens
its
place
to hide
behind
to
enter in
to the
dance
beyond
this
body.

i
sit.

i
be.

i
write.

i
find.

i
come.

i
enter
the
offering.

i gift my gifted
self to these proceedings.

seeing

oh without
camera to
capture this
to spread across
the weight of
white--
to capture the
shadow of hand
holding pen
dancing
its up and down
undisciplined
in the rightness
of its letters
cast as they
are the medicine
of shadows
releasing
their contents
holding still
both writers
hand and
dancing pen
there is a world
a way--a
standing
in the way of
the light
that causes
them
all
to be
here
on this
page
this brush
of memory
this veil
of light
lifted
to expose
itself
in
these
red
words

a glimpse cast
and then escaped
there is no re-creation of this
moment
here.

i notice this

i notice this
the point of entrance
the space of spill
a clear point
a tip
a ball roller rolling
allowing the ebb and flow
of lifeblood
of red ink
to move past that block
that rolling ball
to pointed freedom
the promised land
of the blank
page
littered now
with the
thingness
of this
poem.

just one silence

just one
silence
shimmering
in the space
for maria
in cluded
here as
what could
have been
if the gift
of her
came wrapped
in human
packaging
to this
joyful
saturday
circle
of lovely day spilling inot
remem-
bered
silences
still.

if i make a space

if i make a space
if i leave a path clear for you--or
even overgrown
if i sit, crazy in the emptiness of
without you or the full to overflowing
only you could get glose enough to give me
if i sit in the piece of now that's offered
quiet, silent, empty as the upright glass
and wait without waiting for you or
anything else--you or anyone--this
or anything--if i empty of self and
song and story and little pieces of sacred
paper or quiet words whispered to
the dead leaves in the ink that
flows when i hold the pen
is it you or me? left there as the
glass of emptiness? the vessel of
yes? the empty space of peace?
i am ready for emptiness--
i just can not bring myself to let go
when i go...
but i will go.

the poetry is coming

the poetry is coming
i can hear it in my head
the poetry is coming
let me go to sleep instead
the poetry is coming
i am not in the mood for company
the poetry is coming
i am not where i need to finally be
the poetry is coming
not now, i need a job
the poetry is coming
not here, i feel a fraud
the poetry is coming
i'm not ready, not today
the poetry is coming
not to me, not this way
the poetry is coming
i'm not a poet, can't you see
the poetry is coming
no, not to me. not to me.
the poetry is coming
maybe later i will play
the poetry is coming
i'm unwilling to get out of my own way
the poetry is coming
no the poetry is not
the poetry is coming
whether you like it or not.