Free Bonus 7-poem Pack!
EVERYDAY MASTERPIECE
enthroned
on their cool verandah
the old ones
connoisseurs
of light and shade
resolve
all problems
of proportion
each fragile gesture
a brush-stroke
in a self-portrait
nearing completion
LITTLE OXFORD ST.
old men sleep
in the back
of abandoned cars
warm in muscat
dreams under dirty
overcoats
plastic garbage bags
torn by dogs reveal
tin smiles, ash,
rotted fruit, letters
not worth keeping,
small bones
old men wake like Thomas
who had to touch to believe
A POET'S LIFE
(for Michael Dransfield)
not what you'd call
a life really
more a sequence of encounters
a collection of misunderstandings
which somehow don't add up
with luck the poems add up
singly, together, alive
with the intensity given
to each encounter, glowing
in each misunderstanding
this is how you live
well, it is your choice
if you must fill blank pages
nobody asked you to fill
if you seek
that heat for your kiln
to inject baked beauty
under the skin of a poem
what do you expect
if not a weary addicted art
then a weary addicted artist?
priceless fool
didn't they tell you?
nobody thanks a volunteer
SUGAR-CUBISM
in her orchestral
affections I hear
the flute
of a lie
embarrassed
hidden
behind dull
earnest drums
busy strings
weave easy doubt
to taut certainty
performance
for a shocked
audience of one
SURFACE TENSION
the lead weight
of the ordinary
is necessary fishing
chance's luminous pools
or we are flies
hovering sun-struck
all buzz, blind
to its promising bubbles
deaf to a brute breath
that waits under lilies
and welcomes splashing fools
NOT WORTH TALKING ABOUT
for two weeks
the fall and curl
of your hair as fragrant
comment, a hint
of lost enthusiasm
trying to grow
to me
now you tie
your hair back
in a bun
your eyebrows
are sad caterpillars
aimed at me
this is the beginning
of obsession
and you say
it's not
worth talking about
IN THE GARDENS
he sees all
the dull statue
splashed green
adored by the fountain
the young couple
eating chicken, the roaming
delighted licking dog
and the lonely man
with his loaf of bread
pigeons' claws on his wrist
like a woman's fingernails
himself a scavenger poisoned
by tossed crumbs of laughter
seeing all,
a passionate sparrow
crowns himself emperor