Monday, April 8, 2013

Last Poem I'll Write

No More Poetry

I am done. I am through. I am feeling so free'd
I might paint; take a walk or a nap; pull a weed.
Either way, I am finished. A free man indeed!
No more counting or tapping the beats on my knee.
No more searching for words that might say what I need
To be said. You know what? I'm all through. Can you see
What I mean? I can write but I won't. I'll be me
And just sit, read a book. Be a veg. Watch TV.
There's no money in it so it's not about greed.
I'm no good at this stuff and it makes my brain bleed.
So that's it. I'm all done. I've begun to be free.
I'm not kidding. I'm through. Just quit reading this screed.
Go about your own business and please leave me be.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Howl



I'm thinking about the poem called Howl
How Ginsberg yelled into the world
a shout out to everyone
he was not pleased he said
the time had come for change he said
How shocking it was they said
how utterly the wrong way to do it they said
and yet it came to be

I am wondering where the howls are today
Is my cat the only one howling
looking out the window seeing sheets of grey everywhere
on the land
on the trees
on the buildings
which truthfully are beige and gray
monstrosities gobbling up the land
covering every blade of grass with cheap siding,
faux 17th century ornament
Grecian columns to pin it all down

Does it make any difference
the one lone howl I make
sitting by my window
seeing only winter and grey things
while others hours away
are frolicking in sun and sand
under perpetual blooms

who cares to hear me howl anyway


poem#4 of 30
Aliens

I had a weird conversation the other day
she told me her husband believes
no, really believes,
that aliens live among us

and in the spirit of live and let live
and everyone is allowed to believe what they want
I said, “He does?”
in a calm monotone

and she asked me what I believed

Nothing, I said

Nothing? Not even God?

And I could feel her wanting to help me
trying to bring me over to her side
pitying me for being so empty

But why would I fill up with the empty calories
of sweet belief systems
that do not stick to me

poem#3 of 30

reconciliation


I'm trying to reconcile
letting each day slip past me
like a wet starchy shirt I can't get a grip on
tumbling onto a floor full of grit and sand
embedding whatever broke its fall
into the weave of its fibres

I am trying to reconcile
allowing the days to run past
morning to night
with nothing in between
not even a sinkful of dishes to break the stream of minutes
from one day to the next

I am trying to reconcile
all the time I waste
thrown away like I have a steady supply
in the corner I need only lift the lid
take a few more years out
and we're good to go
even though I let so many perfectly fine ones
shrivel up like houseplants I forgot to water

poem#2 of 30

Two experimental poetic forms

A Cadae (3.1415):

You ask me:
Who?
I answer back:
Why?
Leaving things unsaid.

A Fibonacci (1/1/2/3/5/8):

You
Smile
And frown
Both at once.
How do you do it?
And why does it trouble me so?

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Poem 3

Running on Empty

Ol' Jackson Browne had sung a song that said
"In '65 I was seventeen…"
We're of an age, JB and I. Not dead
As yet but near enough. I was naïve.

I knew that soon the "olds" would die and we
Would sail upon a Sea of Love and Peace.
The Beatles sang to me: "You won't see me."
I thought for sure my joy would not decrease.

So Camelot was strong and Truth was "cool".
I left the arc of the new age to those
That had the time to spare and cared to rule.
Their life was poetry and mine was prose.

Now nearly fifty years since then have gone.
I think my life's been good. I'm not ashamed
and fairly free of deeds I wish undone,
with fewer sins for which I could be blamed.

My one regret I now declare I see:
I let my brothers set my course for me.
I'll say to readers born in '96:
You cannot leave it all for them to fix.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Mike's Poem 2

My Kitten Zane

A thinking man might see from watching pets
A lesson he will need to learn again:
My young gray cat repays the food he gets
With lessons on the art of play. Young Zane
Will fetch a crumpled wad I toss; it's plain
To me that when he hunts that simple toy
I throw, he thinks it is the real McCoy.

He stalks, he runs, he bats. He wrestles. It's fetched,
Presented at my shoe as prey. And yet,
No living mouse survives the hunt so wretched.
"It's paper, Zane, not food. Besides, it's wet!"
Who teaches whom? And though he's just a pet,
Those yellow eyes are locked on me: Um, dude?
I hunt. You don't. How is it misconstrued?"