autumn in my heart

SWEAT EQUITY

Like falling from a winter bridge

in Minneapolis.

Absolute zero-ness.

11.32 ft/sec (straight-edge

it, carpenter).  A little life-saver –

gold bubble of air

in the wooden measure,

Chris (dolphin fin-waver).

The little tree, the little almond

eye of Providence.  A

sort of weathered prudence

from rough planks – sweat-bond

of every laborer in vineyard

or in field – Georgia

footprint, selah

in every cemetery, bard.

Like this confusion of nature

circulating good will.

Invasive humble

habitat, Roma imprimatur...

signature of spiral J

(Ojo de Dios,

owl o’Sophia)

out of the oak-knot, honeybee.

Lightning furnishes the room.

So fall into my heart,

Julie (where start

the roses on their river-loam).

11.24.18

Rhode Island was purchased by love

RAVENNA PLAYTHING

The last of the autumn thunderstorms

crashes through town,

hail & sleet coming down.

Quick whitecaps fleck the enormous

imperturbable Mississippi flood.

Bridge-work almost done,

the sturdy crane-&-pylon

men climb the sweat-&-blood

iron stairs up to the ridge

just one more time.

Labor is no crime –

titanic force poured to the edge

so that a featherweight robin redbreast

might perch atop a flange

of international orange

and warble good, better, best

into her indigo infinity.

Good will is balance, justice,

equanimity.  Who is

the man untouched by vanity,

cupidity?  I will hold him close

in my heart’s treasury,

for he alone is free.

Not price nor money could have purchased

Rhode Island; Rhode Island was purchased

by love.  Understand, Sophie,

this ocean mystery

of your first scallop-skipping space –

                   *

the star of Rhodos-Liberty

crowned with a ring of palms

sealed with a steady calm

handshake – confirming equity.

Guide of young Roger, ancient

Canonicus – father

& son : the grace to weather

every gale of greed, any fraudulent

unknotting of their pact of peace.

They step like lambkin twins

from a kayak circumference,

an almond eye, figuring Providence;

the planetary hearth of promise

knife-beaked Raven spied

beneath his southwest glide –

Cautantowwit to cedar wilderness

like monarch checkmating to Mexico.

Primordial Ragnarok

& other nightmares lock

the curse into a seeming cul-de-sac – so

your peace which passeth understanding

like a limping child’s sun-

yellow gyroscope, must turn

upright again – Ravenna plaything,

gather us into the river dance

drowning Man’s arrogance –

evergreen presences

surfing Ocean Stream (taut spring romance).

11.28.16

My personal concept of what a poet is & does, allows for a different definition of "reader, reading"... like the old medieval technical term, lectio, lector. A "reader (lecturer)" in theology, philosophy, etc. The poet as solitary, hermit - making poem, making book. The poetry reading as a late event in life or career.

No one wants to go back to that subdued era when poetry was limited to verses in print, & middle-aged profs mumbling at a lectern; nevertheless, I think the pendulum could afford to swing back a little now.

The term "poetry" covers an enormous range of activities & forms of writing/performing. I guess that theory of poetry appeals to me which sets the bar at the highest level of human doings, I mean just under prayer & acts of charity. Dante & Shakespeare & Dickinson & Whitman - their language art places them somewhere at the "brow of reality", so to speak - capable of engaging directly with, & on a par with, all the other forms of spiritual, intellectual & practical activity. Eliot was right when he said that this doesn't happen without the expenditure of great labor & devotion - no matter how much talent & facility the artist starts out with.

In this context I find something slightly jarring in the atmosphere which uses poetry as means to advance improv comedy acts, literary funfests, "scenes". Sorry, that's just how I see it. (I suppose I need to get out more. It's just that I find most poetry boring & narcissistic, & most artists vain & pretentious. & I include myself in that category.)