glass undarkly
what’s going
on
I get so confused sometimes
what
do I
know or should know
or what is happening around me
and of nearing paranoid
concern
what is going on
behind
thank goodness
by our lore
to
know
the Lord is every direction from
and for
each one
even
the plotters
I
suppose
sigh
forgiveness all around
thank goodness I’m not in charge
of
that department
only to scurry by its glass doors
trying
to conceal
in
soulful
pockets
frustrating undeep enough
for
my own bitterness
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photo by Anastasiia Pyvovarova on Unsplash
(in Ukraine)
so it is today
and beauty from brown ashes
withered leaves provide
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(I saw so many fallen leaves on the ground, despite it being only early August for the summer)
over somewhere
I wake up alone
and sad
maybe not for loneliness
but in what happens
when
it’s applied
I’m thinking of
Judy Garland’s character in The Wizard
of Oz
singing about the rainbow
really how to go beyond
and more on what left’s behind
not so much on what
she’ll find
since
after all
she doesn’t know
except that
troubles there somehow should melt
foreshadowing
what should happen to a magic foe
in water
leaving the word monotoned
to find the color
that
the screen provides
Oz
the paradise
the peril
and it seems tornadoes must decide
the timing and the means
as if
disaster act like prophecy
shortly after singing
all the wishes
which we might forget about as well
on the other side
in
say
living color
there
like my family room back then
watching with
well
you know
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photo by Aleksandar Pavlovic on Unsplash
owning Earth
(despicably)
no Earth B
but
B and C and D
and on
until we have to make the letters
prime
and ours
and never ours
not
this one
A
either
a villain tries to steal the moon
and if it does
would
have it
but would have
stolen it
against the tacit and
irrevocable
laws
planets
in a universe
stories to
show
what we do not own
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photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash
the question posed for funding
1
can
poetry matter
to
which
someone important wrote an essay
posing
responding to the question
and
because it does
verse writing
with the verse-thinking come before
and
in the process
is important
otherwise
we’re left with quadrupeds for horses and
also
without
the Pegasus in modern times
and
yet
there are prosaic aspects as well
the straightforward issues
dealt with
directly
‘cause
verse helps with that
even
a genre to it
and though
we’re not the monarchs of the metaphor
we are the stewards
in
the realm of work
with something of our syntax going
overall with grammar in the poem
to offer clarity
agreed
upon
if by a formlessness in art as well
2
maybe imagine wordless
songs
or nothing to impact a speech
with
such as
the surly bonds of Earth
and
so
poetry
serves
with power like jet planes’ announcements
by Mach bursts
that heard
pressing the sky as music invocations
in
the service as
they sounded with Cold War beats
back then
3
to say things without saying
and
to say again
even so a nation might be following
also changing
like seas
rhyme
meter
provide accompaniment
to all that’s
said
addressing the five senses
in
their import
plus all the added senses at which
poems might be
guessing
4
for all impulses
instincts
and
directions over and inside
our Earth
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“Can Poetry Matter?” is an essay later developed into a book by Dana Gioia
the quadruped for horse is argued in Hard Times by Charles Dickens
the parts "have slipped the surly bonds of Earth . . . to touch the face of God" are from “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Junior--recited by the President during the Challenger memorial
photo is by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash
lush life
everything is green
too green
we’ll be rescinding
the extreme
as
colors change
finally
to black and white of winter
but for now
driving by
walking by with
care
and certainly to guide the harvesting
it’s all wonder
green
and
if
too green
to love full
by what
we shall forget
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photo by henry perks on Unsplash
[by the photographer] Corn growing in the field. I was attracted by the shape of the fresh leaf growth and the silhouette against the sky.
if there were great expectations
what is expected of us old
which
I’m still trying
to tell
(both kinds
of
telling)
because the line in me goes back
to childhood
with what is remembered
keenly felt
too
often
against which
I think I am supposed to be invisible
by
youthful society
of all those whippersnappers
who
don’t know
I think I’m pushed to say
how good
things are for them
yet they might know
while
I have some whipping
(unliteral but
sharp)
and some
(whatever)
snapping still to
snap
new robes of office
like those honestly
wary
by the lords in Macbeth
or
the pretending gift of Medea’s
poisoned cloak
that
once worn bursts in flame
for
all our sins
piled on to curse
to prove energy
though
delight can become danger
when
expended
if like the artist
no longer young yet
working out
significance in what is now
(again
obliged)
the dry time of
the day
so then try
untry
if not unfeared the journey not
untrapped
by who is the child
who
is older
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photo by Lisa Yount on Unsplash
[still wanting to fly]
masks of course that smile
(Monday after goodness from sabbath times is done)
I’m tired
tired of playing the game
goes
the satiric song
but tired
really
don’t you know and
maybe you could share
from
everything exhausting
which sometimes is the blur
and not much more
and
sometimes is the imposition of
the expectation
that busyness must reign
the real
virtue
and by image
don’t you know
we have
so many things to do
which
is why
there is no real time for you
and
don’t worry
we are teaching children
if not how
but by the show to live
frantic
and frenetic
in the way
for generations
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“I’m Tired” sung by Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles
eternal delight
(Blake says this of energy)
we wake up
do things
something propels us
if only energy
it seems
though there is cause
as well
we believe if rather subconsciously
in something
in
sensation or
satiation
with or without
then
ideology
we might be moved
by more
by something seen or heard
by
interpretation of a fact
to make a fact
somehow believe
that
this is true
and reason enough to go on
and if not the reason then
the rest
might be in peril
so maybe we need more
and
something lasting
or at least holding on to chores
and to
the rest
if starting with the smallest thing
the chore
(the
regular work)
or
simply to breathe first
a reason
before purpose
and a plan
let that go deep as well as
ready on the surface
so that
we move by not saying
or
by saying
faith
in
something
to have us in the night
and keep us
in the day
(reversing that
for
third shift)
could be God
could be someone
something else
though
should be easy strong enough
to last
not in perfection
‘cause basically that’s not
us
but fixable
as we are fixable
and
we are
tissue that doesn’t tear
like the Roswell
paper
the bulwark that Luther likes
cannot be overthrown
though
by the way
and by
the book
the gates of hell cannot themselves
prevail
against faith and collective faith
the rock it’s
said
of God
by all means
prompted by energy
and
so to have it
rest
and work
and play
also let grace and faith propel
our part
belief in something
by
the way we’re made
and so could take on
the maker
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Matthew 16:18
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake
photo by Eugene Golovesov on Unsplash
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