Saturday, March 31, 2012
THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS
"Under-
standing
is not
standing
under."
*
"Our noise
covers
the world,
the void."
*
"The world's
loveliness
does not
wait for us."
Friday, March 30, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
IT MUST BE SPRING
It must be spring. I seem to have had poems blooming wildly of late.
Ralph Murre at Re/Verse has put up a poem from my 1981 (and long since out of print) title from saltworks press called Between Zen and Midwestern. "Simply Morning" is a love poem to our daughters.
Yesterday, Annie Wyndham at Salamander Cove reprinted one of my "Old Poet Says" poems as the last nail in another terrific series she has put up.
On the Ides of March, Jayne Jaudon Ferrer at Your Daily Poem re-presented one of my little poems under the title of "Last Year's Leaves."
All along, and most recently on February 20, Joseph Hutchison at Perpetual Bird has been pointing at my efforts, for which I am immensely grateful.
UPDATE: Joe just pointed at me again today, already. No end of wonder.
On top of all this, I'll be having a little book coming out sometime this spring or summer under the title of That Woman. It consists of 13 poems honoring the memory (I hope!) of Wisconsin's foremost poet, Lorine Niedecker. More details as this all firms up.
It must be spring!
It must be spring. I seem to have had poems blooming wildly of late.
Ralph Murre at Re/Verse has put up a poem from my 1981 (and long since out of print) title from saltworks press called Between Zen and Midwestern. "Simply Morning" is a love poem to our daughters.
Yesterday, Annie Wyndham at Salamander Cove reprinted one of my "Old Poet Says" poems as the last nail in another terrific series she has put up.
On the Ides of March, Jayne Jaudon Ferrer at Your Daily Poem re-presented one of my little poems under the title of "Last Year's Leaves."
All along, and most recently on February 20, Joseph Hutchison at Perpetual Bird has been pointing at my efforts, for which I am immensely grateful.
UPDATE: Joe just pointed at me again today, already. No end of wonder.
On top of all this, I'll be having a little book coming out sometime this spring or summer under the title of That Woman. It consists of 13 poems honoring the memory (I hope!) of Wisconsin's foremost poet, Lorine Niedecker. More details as this all firms up.
It must be spring!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS
"Why? Because
the world
is not full of long thoughts
but quick
impressions,
fleeting and
unreliable."
*
"Sometimes what's parallel,
sometimes what's perpendicular."
*
"Sometimes it's the same poem
and sometimes it's different."
Saturday, March 24, 2012
THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS
"I don't have
much to say
and this is
a good time
to say it."
*
"A little
noise takes
a lot of
silence
to make it
right."
*
"Write your sadness on
scraps of paper and
let the wind take them."
Friday, March 23, 2012
LINES FOR MARCH 23
Rain in the mountains.
Wind on the high plains. Home is
hope with its clothes on.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS
“Do you never
see the world
the way we do?”
they asked.
“It's that we're
looking at,”
he said,
“different worlds.”
*
"Sometimes I get lost in
where I am. This mysterious
moment, the fullness of
nothing or everything
here, now."
*
"Isn't it a bit
presumptuous to
start with a whole blank
sheet of paper?"
Saturday, March 17, 2012
THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS
"Still
the silence
speaks to
me and
still
I listen."
*
"You don't have to
do this, you know -
you could be
drinking beer."
*
"Nothing else to say?
Then speak well of silence."
Friday, March 16, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS
"Not the size
of the line
but its weight
which tells you
where to break
it."
*
"Poets are rich
with their words
until you give them
your money.
Then you both
have nothing."
*
"Poem
is an itch
you can't quite
scratch."
Saturday, March 10, 2012
THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS
"You'll never
get very far
if you're always
afraid you will
run out of gas."
*
"Find what works
and work it
hard. Do not
relent. Don't
be afraid of
saying what
must be said."
*
"Ah, words!
All the words!
Let God
sort them out."
Friday, March 09, 2012
Thursday, March 08, 2012
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
Monday, March 05, 2012
Sunday, March 04, 2012
THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS
"You are old men
now and so you must
forgive each other."
*
"Turn the words
as you say them,
as if to lift
up our hearts."
*
"If I didn't wait,
they wouldn't come.".
Saturday, March 03, 2012
THREE from
THE OLD POET SAYS
"Where
is it?
It's just
there.
You can't
look
for it,
you can't
expect it,
it's just
there."
*
"Poetry
is not a game you play.
It's
the game you can't play."
*
"Making a poem is like
trying to cross eight lanes
of traffic with your moped
running out of gas."
Friday, March 02, 2012
Thursday, March 01, 2012
LINES FOR MARCH 1
Dark smear with no brain
dancing on asphalt
on Sunday morning,
empty-headed and
slow-eyed, so slow-eyed,
the crow in shadow.
Why stand out of sun
pecking at nothing?
