on certain banal enthusiams

my begging bowl admits to being made from dung

fragment

Dumb-thinned in long
sea-winds, I am.
My blood-fleet away,
an easy storm now there.
I have your dock here.

mindfulness poem

I am a 'walking-to-work-thing.'
It is dark.
A cat appears.
The universe is cat-mind.

in order to grow your product give them what they want

the poison
the lie
the killing nothing
they can't leave alone

this night will be like no other it will be like any other

I am going out to
get water

after math

Everything is momentarily irrelevant.
"Dad, no one gives a fuck what you think!"
Thanks for
the share.

little ritual

First I feed our cats.
All six of them.
Then I eat hammer.
Fin by fin.

seriously everyone interested in real literature should be reading this year's Nobel Prize winner Herta Muller as she is

indebidble
und wrists sum flocked up shirts

notice

bought
a bkt of bks
from Greying Ghost
whle supplies last
you should too

the bells

No matter where I am or what I am doing
when bells sound I find some way to pay attention
to their beautiful disturbances
of the air I inhabit.

on the 2009 winner of the nobel prize in literature

In 1953 Herta Muller was born.
In 1955 I was born at home.
My older brother came in to look at me.
He said, "Get that thing out of the house."
I was told he ran outside onto a street
Of the English village where we lived.
Furious at the sight of my tiny hands.

an accountancy of my day among many others

saved or nealy saved
a penny
this slew-foot day

proverb from Cold Mountain

the early bird
flogs
the dead horse

from the Japanese

tea
tea
tea

tea
tea
tea

sea
tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea
sea
tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea
sea

tea

tea

tea

thought

The imbecile's
play-pen.

fragment from a deleted tweet

The pun is an anal poverty.

fragment

There is no greater heresy than love.

is 'is' is?

I spent the morning asking what
a question mark is

I looked like a pair
of feet

in sand, maybe

fragment

Hold my phantom hand.

in praise of zen being

Think of a thing in space.

Remove the thing from its space.

Think of the space itself.

Remove the space from itself.

Think of the space that surrounds the space of your thought.

Repeat.

***

Dig with your hands.

***

Carry a large rock on your shoulders.

***

Walk.

Continue walking.

Don't stop.

***

Lift a feather.

Lift a feather that weighs 1,000 pounds.

It is the same feather.

***

Think of an emptiness.

Think of an emptiness bending over.

Think of an emptiness smiling.

Think of the gifts you would bring.

***

Destroy by fire an object you love.

Gather up the ashes.

Throw them into winds.

***

Drive your car.

Get out.

Leave it somewhere.

Start walking.

You know where this is going.

***

Early.

Crows.

Hello.

***

I don't know.

Or.

I know.

Same difference.

***

Thich Nhat Hanh.

Plum Village.

Sweep the back walkway.

***

Your book is almost done.

Now is the time to throw it away.

Wait. Wait.

Is it done yet?

a killer poem from Cotton "Chuckles" Mather

Great wars,
sacked
cities, kings
in flight


or chains.

a consequence my reading is Rilke of

A dog barks and then it rains.

so that one wonders what it might feel like to have one's backup singers

cartwheel
on behalf
of

one's mysterious
song

poem

lines blight free
in compact balance,
a balanced form,

of form, balancing
its formal strengths
made in the mind's

hand, the mind's
manifest, ledgers,
journals, vols. 17-21,
years 1955 to 2009.

the skull or sky is this evening

obdurate

the roman pettiness of poet to poet demonstrated

you know who you are, get over your vastation of ego



Xaniphonius appointed
several malices to me
when I had none

I offered apology
even so he fumes
the effect of which

is to create the malice
I did not bear him
but am now inclined to

the poet of Cold Mountain

admits to himself
almost all his profile visits
were visits he made

it is absurdism that is, in cases voluntarily entered into, a banishment and an

an exile from that place where existence means Being-Inside-The-Other.

Bartleby liked to be stationary

in the end
we all do

on second thought

I kid the funny man,
armed and bewhored

I want to practice the writing of simple sentences using simple language in order to express thoughts reduced to an essential meaning

and thereby
destroy the piercing beak of ego

rock, paper, scissors and one other

broom

how to write real swell dialogue that is winning all the way to the bank

he sd, gets
me smokes and a
bottle
of cheap bourbon

she sd, fuck
you and see you later
sucka, this MFA
is walkin

Oh, he sd, what no
coda?

fragment

I thought it a good idea to trim the sycamore branches back from the porch
then changed my mind and thought it better to sit within all those arms
made from bark and leaves fluttering like green eyelashes. At times laziness
is its own reward. This is what passes for thought these days as I worry
about all manner of strange things, not least of which is a possible internet
scam I may have fallen prey to. Cold Mountain is good for one reason that
is obvious: creditors and scam artists find it hard to reach me and once they
get here they quickly see it's a lost cause. My shack is an awful prize to
waste sweat on. Besides, hawks soaring above a lake's edge and owls outside
your paneless window at dawn is more than enough to make you laugh
like a newborn. Words measure only what is empty, nothing else.

poem

a rivet
riveting

in praise of

rock smash of
sledge-hammer

poem

Let me be held
by love

or by any one
of love's presentable

handmaids.

final exam

a) Love is like a bleeding hand.

b) Love is sometimes like a pair of bleeding hands.

Discuss either a or b. Risk mutual exclusivity.

Show all calculations.

delerium city cab ride

One day you take the weather of
its change. You go, I can't stand
this any more. Your pal, Dionysius
the Aeropagite, won't lend
any money to
your archaic cause.

The meter is running.
There is rain. You don't recognize the
streets or the unfamiliar
fare. You

go, close the door pal.
Drop me off in front of the
radiant hemlock grove.
Like pronto.

sliced my hand at work today

I need a new
job, something
less cutting

I want to write an essay comparing marginalia to tweets

what interets me is marginalia,
writing outside margins, what is scrawled hastily,
written on pages or twittered
on screens

poem against living in front of computer screens and in favor of throwing the door open in order to step out onto

streets!
streets!
streets!

anagram

Jot ran path,
ere,
on cane.

poem

fish
fish
fish

fish
fish
fish

fish
fish
fish

fist

four in an alternate mode

“…gas gas gas …””
John Ashbery


REVENGE OF THE GREAT PLAINS

Yeah, I quit eating meat, man, just like that [finger snap].
Cold Tofurkey!


PUMA IN A CAGE

I utilize utilize utilize utilize utilize.
To the max!


MUNCHAUSEN SYNDROME BY PROXY

We’re megaloading carbs pre-game, but we go heavy on protein-uptake post-game!


CRITICAL THEORY

A cake of some kind. I mean a biscuit. A biscuit with cake-like intentions.
To be eaten alone or with coffee and tea. I said, coffee and tea!

unner a ful moon in vt, hilles an valley chruch spyre

A SEESOMENAL GREE TIN



O



m

VE
R n


†

brunch at the fancy restaurant

I had eggs, scrambled
and
unsalted

poem in the iterative mode

THE SHIPS SHALL SINK WHERE THEY MAY WHERE THEY FALL


Okay what is the nature of this thing. What is the nature of this thing. What is the nature.
Of this thing.
What.
The nature of.
This.
Thing.
Okay. What is the nature. The nature of this thing.
What is the nature of this. Of this. Of this thing.

cold mountain (17)

is confused
by
TweetDeck

sutures

seemed like
a good idea
at the time

blood

pooling
in my mouth

poem for men's room graffiti poets of the nasty school

thanks for sharing

questions asked after [...............]

was this useful
like a hammer is useful?
like dental floss?

unbinded me

WORK. A place like a tongued on floor,
where we went. Said haven to it, then
bought three shoes, one for throwing.
Wire winds, dirt palace, load mints.
How the bought stray, for us, alone.

all this talk

palls

one single

violence
in the name of

what otherwise goes by the name of fear

fear and its 7 children

poetry

shmoetry

cold mountain (16)

what's with all
the gravure idols?

an ash day

that tastes like cinder in the mouth

work

in the way of work

cold mountain (15)

where it is an accusation
to be young

cold mountain (14)

here there can be no
absurdism because misunderstanding rules the day

my brother's transistor radio

placed atop my scabby white knees


like a rolling stone


1966, summer

FROM FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE I KNOW WHAT A DRAG IT IS

to have seizures

cold mountain (13)

figures

cut my hand on the coffee tin

snow this morning

gone tonight

a good thing to have

one bulletproof apology

snow

now

LATE FOR NIGHT SHIFT AT THE MEDITATION FACTORY WHERE WE MAKE MEDITATION

because I like the idea of
no followers, zero, zilch, nada, zip

but 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tweets

read by no one
not even me

like cricketroar in a deaf poet's ear

zen is

not doing zen

at the intersection of hollywood and poetry

James Dean (1931-1955) wearing thick glasses,
reading from a book of poems
by James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916)

yesterday on cold mountain I spent hours on

YouTube


I 'copied and pasted' a few video clips

on my other blog of visual stuff

I like to call it, 'Looking With My Eyes at Sight-Things and Hearing With My Ears Sound-Things'

Alejandro Jodorowsky
Samuel Beckett
Sergei Parajanov

go there, look the

sea

the importance of learning how to count

1,2,3,
4,5,
6,7,8.

9.

Whereas prose is spatial,
poetry is temporal.

10.

What the hell does that mean?

after eating, you could say

we're all
behind
the 'ate ball'

[you groaners get lost]

my life

meh

king lear (2)

enough
with the raging on the heath
already

king lear

enough
already

Louis Ferdinand Celine

hate filled
bastard

genius

thank you

______

Roberto Bolano

from

the poets

design flaw

the ear
ache

A POEM FOR GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS (circa 84 BC - circa 54 BC) WHO WAS KIND OF A 'BIG DEAL' BACK IN THE DAY

_____________

I don't care
what they say
about you
in your home
town

Verona
is a cow
town anyway

Here you're
just another
old skank

a good word, a simple word

FIN

cold mountatin (12)

internet service
is lousy

postal delivery?
forget it

IF I KEPT A DIARY (WHICH I DON'T) IT WOULD BE SLOPPILY MAINTAINED AND THIS ASPECT OF MY DIARY WOULD BE A SOURCE OF SOME BACKWARD PRIDE, PERHAPS

[illegible]

my good friends

n[.....]
b[..]
a[...]

don't even know I'm alive

the beauty of the shell-like human ear

and its tendency
to miracles
of pain

on music

once I cared

cold mountain (11)

even here
a tiredness that hounds

a book

made from 10,000 lbs.
of granite

it would
take eight months
to turn a page

&
eight years to
re-shelve it

caught looking at the american apparel

cotton spandex
jersey tank
thong girls

what Gordon Lish told me in a letter

Get out of Iowa, man. You've been punished enough.

too much coffee?

1

sometimes I heart the
fear racing in my chest

2

sometimes I fear the
heart racing in my chest

heirloom

grandfather's
wooden leg
kicking

zen moment

*

NO CREAM!
NO COFFEE!

lines for a future cage

a

My necks
are sore

b

I call
them Hunger

in praise of

A BOLD
ITALIC
CAPITAL

published

seeing my poems in a
journal

nothing but sick

tangerines

three of them
on this kitchen table

for a certain poet, renowned

Dogged thing-a-majig.
Of the heart. Never
Use the word heart.
The heart is
Snapped shut like an old tire,
Language is, yours.

cold mountain (10)

missed garbage pick-up
this morning

again

regimen (2)

alternate


one push up.

that's it.

regimen

100 push ups.

10,000 abdominal crunches.

meditate 5 times a day.

up at 3:oo a.m.

sweep floors.

clean counters in kitchen.

dig turnips.

wash laundry in river.

dust.

haul.

push.

drag.

eat.

drink.

piss.

shit.

lie on hard floor.

breathe.

weather

*



Clouds


doing their cloud thing.


All right.

fine dining

The pound cake we ate least night.
A goodly amount.
A goodness.

insult mind

I'll read Catullus for insult &
Han Shan for his hermit mind

question for my non-existent reader

does anyone know how to increase the line length (characters per line) on this blog?
I don't like the relentlessly short line look of my blog as it is currently set-up.

send me intstructions,
please

Saint Valentine's Massacre

Poetry today is
I almost typed 'powetry'
across the windshield in bleached sandwiches

sad rest-stop dispensers

huddled you always drop dimes in the snow
dream the cat lady
is eating out of a cat dish
on the floor
her rear raised

you won't post this it's what you feel
walking the mall, holding non-permanent
tattoos in Target bathosphere

you'd go on a crime tour of Chicago's
Saint Valentine's massacre
real cold glamor squared

cold mountan (9)

dream of silos
& barb wire
like waves

cold mountain (8)

tweet free
zone

standing in a ditch a guy asks me for directions

I can't understand him
so I point anyway
up north on Crow Hill Road

basho

pond
frog
whatever

cold mountain (7)

we sit on the porch
watch the city
burn

cold mountain (6)

up here our favorite tv show remains
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

someone from work phoned to ask if i would come in on my day off as it was busy and Sven was sick and so the department was short-staffed and

i didn't go in

cold mountain (5)

drink coffee
wash cup

burn underwear

mother look what i can do

too late
you're gone


(for my mother, 1924-2004)

poem in two parts or sections

1
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::
::::::::::::::
::::::::::::
:::::::::

2
:::::::::::::::::::::
::::::
:::::::::
:::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::

poetics

a parlor game

word I made up for use in a sestina

flarge

cold mountain (4)

not sure
what all
the fuss
is about

cold mountatin (3)

this twig tea
tastes like shit

cold mountain (2)

my whole life
gathering
wigs

parataxis

what. he. them. is. what. here.
there. blunt. lit. not. then. dark.

cold mountain

I've seen colder.

trees without leaves in springtime

PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!

typo, example of

the world is haunted by bad typoing

astrological forecast for geminis

okay

math

17 per cent
on your
2nd semester
math exam

in high school

history of rock and roll in a weird nutshell

I saw you over there
in your ragged armor
and blue suede shoes,
showing all the girls
your rock and roll fangs.

Rock on, you bastard.
Rock on.

second floor mud room

forget it.


meh.

either or

I prefer the broken hunchback



to the hollow-headed



movie star,

poem

don't worry.

no one is reading.

the knife sharpener

1

Summer. The
knife sharpener
would come round.
All the house-
wives would
bring their
knives out
for him to
sharpen. He
was Italian.
A nice man
who walked
slowly ringing
a hand-
held bell.

2

It was good
to have sharp
knives.

I LIKE THE LONG TITLE. THE LONG TITLE IS SOMETHING I LIKE. IT ISN'T CLEAR TO ME WHY THIS IS SO BUT IT

just
is.

bravery

cowardice with fists.

to all whom I offend

I offer this:

aggrieved
spice in
jaw clamps
for the rabid

Leonard Cohen

A bowl of rice.
Green tea.

An army
of beautiful women.

Walls
in ruins
at your
feet.

middle aged poet practices typing with eyes closed going at speed far in excess of what is possible with his pre-arthritic fingers

[Tedium demands
the real
be deleted.]

word

A

word.

elements

for Peter Markus


a

by fire?

by water?


b

by water.

to be with the fish.

ordinary

1

oh

okay

sure

i guess


2

what?

what?

uhhhhh.

I guess.


3

what did you say?

oh.

no.


yes, sure, I mean yeah.


4

oh christ.

I forgot my.

no. no I didn't.

I put it in my coat pocket.


5

let's get going.

i've got to.

what day is this?

too late. missed it.



6

where's the.

oh.

sure.

I guess.



7

see you.

encycling like a dorm head forger

TIRED IS THE KILLER MONKEY


Not so bad as a loose tooth.

The handsome one, who cleans himself like a fucker.

No nightmares, tonight, a simple prayer for those in need.

The slags they aren't calling as much, lucky

hard-headed heartless man you've more friends than you deserve.

Gone to find Jane.

poem

poem
[ppoe,
poem
poem
poem
poem



poem

book recommendations

Recently I read two books, both of which I recommend highly:

EVER by Blake Butler (Calamari, 2009)

BOB, OR MAN IN BOAT by Peter Markus (Dzanc, 2008)

rock, sparrow, gertrude stein

This one is under development. Kind of.
I guess.