old pajamas: from the dirt hut

2012-02-16T13:27:00.000-05:00

rick of new-mown hay
somebody left the gate open
a little horse flew
the wildest little creature
between the vault of my ribs

2012-02-02T15:11:00.000-05:00

as sad as swallowing your heart // apprenticed to a cloud

2011-11-02T16:36:00.000-04:00

god is a button
alas! beyond my reach
blown off the scarecrow

2011-10-01T18:05:00.003-04:00

Fan Is Red

Spun in vermillion ropes
this red fan raised
to blind blue horses
drenched through
at old age.

2011-09-21T14:47:00.001-04:00

Deluge

Will-breaking rain; yet
I can mend your umbrella
With that scarecrow's heart.

2011-09-07T15:03:00.003-04:00

\\ an endless night ends \\ rain pelting the window visible \\

2011-09-07T14:59:00.002-04:00

in utero there are twenty-seven verbs for clinging

2011-09-07T14:56:00.002-04:00

ivory barks birds distance themselves from babies in barrels

2011-08-26T14:03:00.000-04:00

summerpassion // fireflies feasting on unschooled dragons

2011-07-16T11:16:00.002-04:00

so when yellow steel forged by bent chrysanthemums cools and wakes

2011-07-01T15:23:00.000-04:00

the song sewn in a kimono:

even the blind ragpicker has eyes
and a straw umbrella

2011-06-19T17:32:00.000-04:00

from the moon's point of view:

a beautiful boy in a blue lady's slipper

2011-06-08T14:46:00.000-04:00

the artistry of a thousand arrows widens a scarecrow's one good eye

2011-05-30T12:46:00.001-04:00

whose howls tempt us
to search pine mountains
for the graves of poetry

soft cries of cattle
awaiting the coming
of a new behemoth

2011-05-16T15:28:00.000-04:00

ever the blind man // cuts clean fluttering crows // gambling his sword on black

2011-05-04T15:27:00.000-04:00

how we make our way
beneath a Thimble of Things...
from this morning on
our horse can bear no longer
the saddle's weight

2011-04-27T14:41:00.001-04:00

in a field
is there the broken horse
swatting spring snow

leaping off the lizard: death poem

2011-04-18T17:16:00.000-04:00

always it was
a stomachful of sadness
now between the thighs
of nightingales and madness
I'm leaping off the lizard

thank you this humanness

2011-04-17T15:49:00.002-04:00

To saki:
This night-flowering river...
Lovers, your rouge
In the laughing nets
Of the dawn fishermen.

2011-04-14T16:16:00.000-04:00

what legend drew me to your face
scraped in sand by a blade once
wielded under an old leopard's wings?

2011-04-08T14:52:00.001-04:00

black pond
splash of the last
frog-filled night

2011-04-07T14:58:00.001-04:00

set the heart
floating on a lotus pond...
what remains wrapped
with my jade belongings
burned green in a sky

2011-04-01T15:01:00.002-04:00

nor before funhouse mirrors in a Zen prison be present at your future

2011-03-27T16:15:00.000-04:00

Hurry, children we could not have // Come cross the lotus bridge //
Play with mother under the plum tree

2011-03-25T13:08:00.000-04:00

at sea the falling snow still enough to break a shakuhachi's heart

2011-03-22T14:08:00.002-04:00

afforded a choice of smooth or rough, fat or thin,
I've taken the path that makes moonlight
most difficult to collect, to bear, to believe in

unnatural flower

2011-03-21T17:07:00.000-04:00

Bloomed a yellow rose every hundred years deep in winter.

Even Lords sweeping past the beggars walled around it
would shiver, and with running hearts quicken their horsepace
to the merrymaking, frosted women and puppet shadows.

Yet in celebration each lute strike fell like a beheading.

So, besotted, bewitched and dreaming wide awake,
they pushed aside without success their fabulous births,
facing death before the coming of the next unnatural flower.

ah, Japan

2011-03-16T14:45:00.002-04:00

when kite-flyers
revive skyscraping banners
plaguing buzzards's wings

salt sorrows and shadows
eaten for the time being

2011-03-12T16:46:00.001-05:00

dream up the lady
in the crystal kimono

eyes fixed passed
beyond winter's stopping point

from twigs like birds
hymning as new moons
in an amazed sky

2011-03-09T13:44:00.000-05:00

why old Buddha-woman ache for rice to swell in the fields?

2011-03-05T16:32:00.003-05:00

nodding the deadwhite pony halts mid-air //
deeply awake the rider has forgotten himself //
a past champion of contemplation just passing through

2011-03-04T14:50:00.000-05:00

on twigs like birds The 30 Sorrows hang in a blind man's eyes

2011-03-01T15:26:00.003-05:00

leaving my lover alone for a minute my tongue hunts a lost cloud

tattoo who

2011-02-24T15:25:00.000-05:00

this old blood poppy
blazed upon my shoulder
confounding winters
history Eros lost faith
drips all its petals tonight

will they must be blown away
or perhaps
found and hoarded by a fairy?

to self

2011-02-21T10:31:00.004-05:00

haijin cripple yourself if you wish flatter pretend not the real thing

2011-02-20T11:05:00.004-05:00

vagabond on fire // offering his heart for free

2011-02-18T13:44:00.000-05:00

whose singing bowl soughs
from the forest through fields
plowman and scarecrow
turn in a last winter rain
eastward where Buddha walked

when buzzing in a dewdrop
blew apart the world for good

(for Geert Verbeke)

2011-02-17T16:37:00.000-05:00

what separates our lips // the dead butterfly we tear halfway

2011-02-12T23:20:00.001-05:00

from the Bodiless World,
deferential, kneeled,
sliced head from heart,
open-mouthed samurais
spurting red on summer grasses

2011-02-09T16:20:00.000-05:00

canary yellow rain
even the bird scarers
are bequeathed
umbrellas
and bloody roses

drought

2011-02-03T15:36:00.003-05:00

in one thousand years 'remember us'
breaking, brows' knitted, out of barepoor forest,
minding ancient drugged trails to water
and the street of crocodiles

white longbones churned in old sand...
what more could be expected from elephants?

(for Henrique Pimenta)

2011-01-16T21:05:00.001-05:00

The 30 Sorrows of False Spring Mountain lick each poem free from bone and bone //
as you old man caught blind in sudden snow will feel tongues scraping this endless night

2011-01-07T15:37:00.000-05:00

a dragonfly's allegorical dance opens the Clam-monster's eyes

2011-01-05T14:48:00.000-05:00

barking back
at birds in rental suits
we scarecrows
stalk the pasturelands
smoldering unloosed

2010-12-23T14:15:00.000-05:00

wearing
masks of moths
we gasp
at each other
tonight's moon!

2010-12-22T12:44:00.000-05:00

what cold fog trawls this street of wolves who called 'remember me'...

2010-12-20T20:51:00.000-05:00

from Monk to Moonville jazzed on a late night train

gassed, Chaja and Pinchos

2010-12-15T15:52:00.002-05:00

scooped out fishes
stigmatized reptiles
internecion
birthmarks and last syllables
lost spindle and spear bearers

2010-12-14T16:26:00.001-05:00

old woman fades
beyond the gate
falling forest

2010-12-10T15:17:00.000-05:00

my horse dreams
of tracing the pattern
between stars...
and, ironhooved, shape,
sew his wooden kimono

2010-12-09T15:59:00.001-05:00

what knots which shadows // what links whose windows //
fastdreaming // flashes of activity //
mumbling through this world // isn't that so?

2010-12-07T17:08:00.000-05:00

camellia
all stark of a sudden
dutiful devout

imagine

2010-12-06T16:31:00.000-05:00

my marrow loosed
sighing in a picture frame
moon and clouds embrace
what whooping from your mountains
such heart-strung sorrowed grace

an empty cuckoo

2010-12-03T14:52:00.000-05:00

moodiness, was it?
gambling, marking the two worlds
with bewilderment
and seepage...oh, grave loose song,
bloodmouth of each tongue-tied love

2010-08-25T22:11:00.002-04:00

from what cheerless thicket ruptures this agent of Love?

2010-08-25T22:09:00.000-04:00

this cactus bears its blotched flourishing

2010-08-08T12:04:00.000-04:00

dropping first petal
by an evening road
bougainvillea

2010-07-10T22:46:00.006-04:00

what moving-pictures show when I dare dream of the Hebrides

2010-07-10T22:09:00.009-04:00

Janus-faced Lord I heave to Your incongruous poles

2010-07-10T20:47:00.000-04:00

my grief on the wings of geese returning

2010-07-10T20:43:00.002-04:00

snow broken
by horses
a panther screams
the moon
remains placid

2010-07-08T01:10:00.004-04:00

forgotten the sweet sting of strawberries || the winged tenantry of life

2010-07-08T00:53:00.002-04:00

dance imagine inflorescence sitting in a hand

2010-07-08T00:43:00.000-04:00

pale rider it was you that carried off the lamb in me

2010-07-07T22:34:00.000-04:00

pinching the cabbages on such an impalpable night

2010-07-07T21:10:00.002-04:00

between canonical bursts birds wear masks peasants go limp

2010-06-30T01:44:00.002-04:00

mosquito,
so sorry
I slapped you

2010-06-30T00:33:00.000-04:00

bullets aren't aware of heads rolling into grass

2010-06-29T21:17:00.002-04:00

a wingless angel drums on my bamboo spine

Thank you

2010-06-23T12:50:00.000-04:00

Thanks to each who has visited here. I am closing this site. I so much appreciate the support. Best wishes, good health.....pajamas

2010-06-22T23:12:00.000-04:00

I am so sorry butterfly to have left you in this dewdrop world

(for Issa, of course)

2010-06-22T22:51:00.000-04:00

gorged on its shadow a scarecrow beckons "follow the straw"

2010-06-22T22:12:00.002-04:00

overexposed I suffer discovery as that man in a glass hat burning

2010-06-22T20:32:00.000-04:00

Paris on junk | tightdress cobaltsuit | swaying to Monk | 1969

why write when there is much else to do, like learning to iron...

2010-06-19T22:40:00.004-04:00

Book of Songs riding backward on the white pony

2010-06-17T20:59:00.003-04:00

God what imagery bloodcrusted trains backing into ill-bred angels on stilts

(for Brian Zimmer, just riffing on a recent comment)

2010-06-16T21:56:00.005-04:00

marble families in boxcars thread through old forests..... the sonata sniffing out a living listener

2010-06-15T00:52:00.000-04:00

what blush there was when peonies wheeled the barrow with I abloom inside

2010-06-14T21:26:00.000-04:00

willow fruit tethered to wind wreathed to hearts and graveyards

(for Brian Zimmer)

2010-06-14T19:32:00.001-04:00

knowing no blue bounds a great whale breeches in the backyard well

(for Kay)

2010-06-12T22:02:00.015-04:00

gusting wind
from the beak of my hand
a persimmon branch
blown off course
by oceans of blue walls

2010-06-10T23:03:00.000-04:00

mourner's kaddish
does the fly, too,
wear a yamulke?

2010-06-09T23:38:00.003-04:00

so near the forest's end I'll stay until art decays me

I'm so proud of of our youngest, Rachael; it doesn't matter why...

2010-06-09T23:05:00.000-04:00

2010-06-07T21:44:00.001-04:00

eating the blue soup serenading widowed fields pressing puzzled rain to my breast bound by my lips for glory

(for Brian Zimmer, with thanks for the momentous poetry)

2010-06-05T22:12:00.003-04:00

Anticipation
How empty the road ahead
Of living leaves

2010-06-05T21:59:00.001-04:00

grand soliloquy || from the marsh a blue heron laments this hard life

2010-06-05T21:19:00.002-04:00

broken-hearted warriors ||| crowned, crucified ||| the scarecrows' wild moans in withered fields |||

(for Susan)

2010-06-04T17:39:00.001-04:00

like a scented wind in heat, I seek the partner who can't deny me

2010-06-02T20:28:00.003-04:00

unwrapping an impossibly blue bird, flown from a castle keep

(for Brian Zimmer and Chen-ou Liu)

2010-05-31T19:17:00.002-04:00

attached to whatever blows away, even mountains take the path of dragonflies :: gone but this endless longing

for Grant Hackett, thank you and goodbye...

2010-05-29T19:42:00.001-04:00

when this breeze freshens, dragonfly \\ will you be gone // forgetting your reed

2010-05-28T20:24:00.002-04:00

dragonfly this night will we dare dream of dreaming away such a day!

2010-05-27T21:54:00.002-04:00

the fields blow away yet, dragonfly, you will have rested on a breeze

2010-05-26T21:51:00.003-04:00

you are my painted bird from a cage singing sleep now, sleep
(so I might fly away)

2010-05-26T20:06:00.000-04:00

past these windblown stalks nothing, dragonfly nothing but this endless world

2010-05-24T08:53:00.012-04:00

with every breath \ a shakuhachi master \ bends the truth in half

2010-05-22T17:30:00.032-04:00

on a drear moorland atomic facts stalk the language game

2010-05-21T19:44:00.003-04:00

lilac earrings purr and plunge || lovers leap || an orange pool of blood

2010-05-20T16:55:00.000-04:00

snowy egrets slip in while I dream of Argentina