Need

Need

“Need.” It is an alibi

For what you want to do,

And excuse for taking

What other people have.

It gets you into places

Where you are not wanted,

Satisfies psychiatrists,

And justifies it all.

8-26-13

Burst

The dam is cracking. The memories

Of 67 years

Are coming into my feelings

And my consciousness.

A movie projector has gone awry

And celluloid unreeling

In countless miles of ribbons of film

Lies tangled on the floor.

Ancient scenes I don't recall

And recent scenes I do!

This I think is hyperbole

That's very much like the truth.

Now the sea is at the shore

With more of the ocean coming.

Is this relief or insanity?
Can I stay afloat?

8-26-13

 

Lamia

I am sick. I'm very sick.

Who to tell and what to say?
Like a cavern that's collapsing

Making dust of iron pyrite,

So my mind. But just today

I learned that someday I shall die.

This is sudden? This is new?
Death's a constant factor.

What to grasp to? What to grip?

Who's immortal I can tell?
Like a section of a rocket

Part of me has dropped away.

Everything that ever lived -

The cats, the enzymes, Jesus Christ

Reached an end, a fell defeat.

I don't know what to do.

8-26-13

 

The Great Poets

Great poets – very rare -

Sappho, Shakespeare -

The only pair.

Because the truths of poetry

Are simple human honesty

And blessed form like a storm

Of phrases, rhyme and simile.

Like Rupert Brooke – in the fray -

How true the poet's heart will sing -

A German blows his head away

And Rupert cries, “God save the king!”

Self-effacement will not save

Lack of talent. Or the brave

That shows its enemies a grave

And writes a sonnet. Or the slave

That cowers meekly in a cave.

Honesty and genius are

Perfect as a dying star.

Imagination makes the night

Brighter for a single light.

8-26-13

 

The Assignation

He said he'd stop by Denny's

In a little while.

I was writing poems.

Sudden, with a smile,

Alive, alert and happy,

He asked for coffee, iced,

In the booth across from me.

Gandhi, Zeus and Christ,

Harvey Milk and Reagan,

New York City whores!

Republicans are coming.

Double-bolt the doors!

8-27-13

“Bouche”

Shatter walls and let my soul

Accept the book of verse I wrote,

Not just under Denny's lights,

The only place that I emote,

But anywhere. I'll put the book

Of poems that I made with care

On a shelf. And the result

Of all that I can do is there.

I wrote those stanzas yesterday.

Now there's only one encore.

Glancing through the book again,

I don't like it anymore.

8-27-13

For Jill

I'm so sorry for what I said.

What can I say?

I'm sorry it's true?

No one else has ever read

My poesy as much as you,

Or thought it good

Or half so fine.

Nothing else on earth is mine.

Moreover you're a poet too -

Images! Each verse a sign

Of what the human heart can do.

8-27-13